Roasted Chicken with Tarragon & Lemon Butter
Making a good roasted chicken is one of the number one dishes to add to your “repertoire” they say. Although it sounds fancy and rather complicated, I promise you it’s not! The best part is that roasted chicken is super fancy enough to serve your family on Sundays. Although it doesn’t stop there, it is yummy enough as leftovers for the office on Mondays. Making one roasted chicken can translate into lunch the next day as well as chicken soup for the following days.
Once you see how easy it is despite the number of steps you will start roasting two at time!
Roasted Chicken with Tarragon & Lemon Butter
ingredients
VEGETABLES
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
1 fennel bulb (remove the top (stalks) and cut the bulb into large wedges)
5 carrots, cut into 2 inch thick pieces
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp Pepper
10 fresh tarragon sprigs
TARRAGON LEMON BUTTER
8 Tbsp unsalted butter softened to room temperature
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 c fresh tarragon chopped
1/4 tsp dried thyme
CHICKEN
1 5-6 lb roasting chicken
1 lemon, halved
1 head of garlic, cut crosswise
1 bunch parsley
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp pepper
2 Tbsp butter, melted
instructions
PREPARE THE VEGETABLES
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
Place the onion, fennel, and carrots in the bottom of the roasting pan. Season with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Mix to coat the vegetables. Then place the tarragon sprigs on top of the vegetables.
PREPARE THE BUTTER
Place the butter in a small mixing bowl. If it is not soft enough to work with then place it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to soften (not melt!).
Combine the chopped tarragon, lemon zest, 1/4 teaspoon of salt , pepper, and thyme to the butter. Mix together thoroughly until the seasonings are all throughout the butter. Set aside.
PREPARE THE CHICKEN
Remove the chicken giblets. They are usually in a bag inside the chicken. Pull the bag out and discard or reserve for use in the gravy if you are adventurous!
Quickly rinse the chicken inside and out. Then pat dry with paper towel.
Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the cavity. Then stuff it with both halves of the lemon, garlic, and bunch of parsley. Make sure you also salt and pepper the outside of the chicken as well!
Next take your butter mixture and massage it all over the chicken. Making sure to get the skin in between the wings and legs. Even give a good rub to the underside of the chicken. I also took some of the butter and rubbed it underneath the skin.
Place the chicken on top of the vegetables. Or if you have the type pan with a roasting rack in it, sit the chicken on top of the rack with vegetables sitting underneath
Roast the chicken in the middle rack of the oven for 1 and half hours. ***After 45 minutes baste the chicken with the 2 Tbsp of melted butter. Then let it continue cooking.
When the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh that means it is ready! Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes to let it rest.
Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.
RECIPE NOTES
If you have some juice in the bottom of the roasting pan try to get those drippings into small pot. Use some chicken stock and tablespoon of corn starch to make a gravy!
