Kiss your dry chicken good bye and send it away flying. There’s a new bird in town, this crisp, succulent and juicy Roasted Lemon Butter Garlic Chicken. Intrigued? The chicken is flavored with compound butter under the skin, stuffed with lemon and onion and left to hang out in the fridge for several hours or overnight to crisp up the skin.
Then the bird is off to a hot oven, lazily resting on long, unpeeled carrots, that provide the space for the heat to circulate and at the same time soak in the chicken juices and turn into delectable orange flavor vehicles. Baste the chicken every so often and salt the skin only at the last moment – that way it really truly stays crisp.
Ready to roast?
Roasted Lemon Butter Garlic Chicken
Ingredients
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lemon, zested and juiced
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 chicken
1 onion, peeled and quartered
4-6 carrots
Directions
1. Mash together butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, salt, paprika and pepper until smooth.
2. Loosen the skin of the chicken and gently stuff and massage the compound butter under the skin.
3. Stuff the chicken cavity with lemon and onion. Let the chicken hang out and dry in the refrigerator uncovered for a few hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and take out the chicken to bring it to room temperature. Rest the chicken on top of carrots in a shallow baking dish.
5. Roast the chicken in the oven, breast side up for 60-90 minutes, depending on the size of the bird. Baste the chicken every 20 minutes with the juices and butter that will collect on the bottom of the baking dish. If the chicken gets a bit too dark, cover it loosely with foil. Season the chicken outside with extra salt and pepper in the last 20 minutes of roasting.
The chicken is done when its juices run clear, the flesh is no longer pink inside, and most importantly, the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
Allow the chicken to sit for about 15 minutes before carving. Save the carcass and a little bit of meat to make chicken stock or chicken soup.
And you thought roasting a chicken would be complicated. Enjoy!