The BEST Roast Chicken… ever!

I had a hankering for some down-home comfort food last week, so I decided to roast a chicken. It had been a while, but I scoured my books and some favorite foodie websites to come up with the perfect recipe. I found a few, so I took a little from this recipe and a little from that recipe and came up with my own rendition. The chicken came out AMAZING and the roasted fruit and veggies it sat on top of where delicious. Sorry… no pics though. This was BEFORE I got my new camera!

Enjoy!

BFW’s Herb-Roasted Chicken
1 roasting chicken (I used a 6 to 7 pounder)
6 tbsp soft butter (I used light)
1 generous handful (about a cup, loosely packed) chopped fresh herbs — I pulled these from my garden and used parsley, tarragon, Texas tarragon, thyme, a little lavender and chives
1 garlic clove, crushed (I used the jar kind)
1/2 glass white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper (I used both regular sea salt and also rosemary-flavored sea salt flakes)
3 large apples (I used Macoun) — peeled an chopped into 1-in chunks
2 or 3 small onions — peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks
Sweet potatoes and/or yams (I used a package of Trader Joe’s Baby Sweet Potatoes and Yams — which contained about 8 or 9 little potatoes)
Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove any string or trussing from the bird. Remove the giblets from the cavity of the bird. Wash bird, both inside and out with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels.

Line a baking dish with the copped onion (left in chunks), apples and potatoes. You can really add anything you want here, including chopped carrots, parsnips, etc. — but this combo tasted really nice with the chicken. Sprinkle mixture with a little salt and pepper.

Put the butter in a bowl and mix the chopped herbs in. I used my hands for this, as there is more herb mixture than butter. This will be more of a paste, than a liquid. Lay the chicken on top of the potato mixture, bottom side down, and spread the butter mixture all over the skin. There will be a lot, so spread it out as evenly as possible and also place a fair amount into the body cavity of the bird. Drizzle a little olive oil over the exposed potato mixture.

Place the bird in the center of the oven and leave in for 2o to 30 minutes, or until the skin starts to brown a bit. Baste the chicken with any drippings that have formed thus far. Pour the white wine into the pan (but not over the bird). Turn the oven down to 375 degrees F, cover the bird loosely with foil and then roast for another 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the bird. Baste as the juices form.

For the final phase, remove the foil, baste the bird again and let bird cook another 2o to 30 minutes or until the skin is nicely browned and the internal temperature of the bird reads 180-190 degrees F. Baste the bird as needed and also baste the potato mixture to prevent it from getting too dry. Once the chicken has reached the proper temperature, turn the oven off and leave the door open a crack. Let the chicken sit another 10 or 15 minutes. Be sure not to pierce the chicken’s skin during this entire process.

Remove the bird from the oven, place it on a warm plate, cover with foil and remove the potato mixture. Try to keep everything warm by letting it sit onto of the hot oven. Take the roasting pan, remove any fat and then make a gravy from the drippings. I just use an organic instant-chicken gravy pouch that you add water to.

This is a VERY good dish. Watch the times based on the size of your chicken, because you don’t want to dry it out. I had a pretty big bird… it was probably 6 or 7 pounds, so you may want to adjust. Also, make sure you have an oven thermometer and a meat thermometer to truly follow the temperatures accordingly.

Enjoy!