I have some great childhood food memories of Sunday dinners with my family around a large dining room table. The conversation was always lively and animated given our French Canadian heritage. The aromas drifting from the kitchen always made my stomach rumble in anticipation of the wholesome home cooking. Some of my favourite family dinners were Mom’s pot roast, roast leg of lamb or roast chicken, surrounded by potatoes and carrots from the garden which were always cooked in the same pot. All of these meals had one thing in common – they were prepared and placed into the oven with minimal fuss and roasted slowly. Fast-forward to today; a roast dinner is still my favourite meal on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I love planning the entire meal from the main dish to the dessert using the heat of the oven to cook several items at once. Our oven meal is often accompanied by local oven-roasted butternut squash, potatoes or Brussel sprouts. If you are the same as me, the big attraction is always the main course.  There is no doubt you will enjoy this recipe for Herb and Butter Sunday Roast Chicken, which has been adapted from a popular recipe.

This recipe demands no attention once it is placed in the oven – it is a self-basting roasting technique. The bonus sauce from the pan juices is wonderful.  Once you try it, I can guarantee that you will add this recipe to your Sunday Roast dinner repertoire. It is that good!

Herb and Butter Sunday Roast Chicken

CHEF TALK:  

The compound butter in this recipe is an important component.  You will not likely use all of it in this recipe, so divide it in half and use it for other purposes like melting on top of a grilled steak or steamed asparagus. (it also freezes well!).  

The Bonus Sauce: If your Dutch oven is narrow like mine, I ended up with sufficient pan juices in the pot to make a sauce when I removed the chicken. I left the soaked bread in the pan since it was immersed in the pan juices. I added the sherry vinegar and whizzed all of the juices including the soaked bread with my immersion blender. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary (I found that it was a delicious sauce as is and did not need any additional seasoning).  Serve a small bowl of this delicious sauce with each serving for dipping the chunks of chicken.  Substitute gluten-free bread if necessary to make this meal completely gluten-free.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 lemon
• ½ cup salted butter (1 stick), very soft
• 1 cup loosely packed mixed fresh herbs, minced (For example parsley, thyme, sage, savoury, rosemary, etc.)
• 2 green onions, sliced thinly
• Salt and pepper
• 1 or two slices stale sourdough bread
• 1 whole chicken (4 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small cooking onion, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2/3 cup white wine
• 1 – 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar, for the pan sauce

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 450^oF/230^oC (425^oF/220^oC ) if using convection roast setting). Position an oven rack to lower one-third of the oven.
2. Zest the lemon into a small bowl (reserving the lemon half). Add the butter, minced herbs and green onions, salt and pepper and mash together until well combined.
3. Pour the 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a deep, heavy pot or Dutch oven and brush the sides of the pan with the oil to coat.
4. Spread some of the butter on the two slices of bread and place them buttered side up in the bottom of the pot.
5. Spread more of the herbed butter on top of the chicken, as well as slipping it under the skin as best as you can. Patting the chicken dry with a paper towel makes this job easier.
6. Squeeze the half lemon over the top of the chicken. Tuck the squeezed lemon half inside the cavity of the chicken. Season the chicken well both inside and out with salt and pepper. Place the chicken on top of the bread in the pot.
7. Add the sliced onion around the chicken. Pour the wine around the chicken.
8. Place the pot into the preheated oven. Roast the chicken, uncovered, for one hour, or until a thermometer placed in the fleshiest part of the chicken thigh registers 165^oF/74^o
9. Remove the bay leaf. Transfer the chicken to a platter and keep warm. Let the chicken rest, loosely covered with foil for at least 15 minutes.
   CHEF TIP: Resting the chicken is important because the juices are actively circulating from the heat of the oven. It takes at least 15 minutes for the juices to become reabsorbed into the flesh of the chicken. If you cut into the chicken too soon, all of the juices will be released onto your cutting board and the chicken flesh will be dry.
10. If the bread is crispy, remove it from the pot and set aside to serve with the chicken. Add the sherry vinegar to the pot and use a spatula to scrape up any browned bits in the bottom of the pot – this is pure flavour! Add a bit more wine or broth you need more pan juices.  See CHEF TALK above to read about the Bonus Sauce alternative.
11. Carve the chicken and serve with the pan juices and crispy bread bits, or the alternative bonus sauce, depending on what transpired during your particular oven roasting process.  Either way, it is going to be delicious! Enjoy!

LEARNING TIPS:  

Please CLICK the link above to access my Urb’n’Spice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

• Favourite Kitchen Tools: Spatula
• Oven Temperature Accuracy
• Internal Thermometers
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You Might Also Enjoy these Urb’n’Spice Cheesecake recipes:

Roasted Leg of Lamb with Gremolata

Pan Roasted Chicken with Creamy Asiago Sauce

Pan Roasted Duck Breasts with Orange-Vanilla Glaze

Roasted Turkey Thighs with Honey Dijon Glaze

If you try this recipe for Herb and Butter Sunday Roast Chicken, please leave me a comment below with your feedback. Don’t forget to pin this recipe for later!

Denise Paré-Watson

The Urb’n’Spice Chef

 

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Sources:

Dorie Greenspan

Sunday Roast