Skillet Roast Chicken

I roasted the chicken without searing it first, and exactly 40 minutes later, the chicken came out looking gorgeous. The skin was golden and crispy, and the meat was so juicy—perfectly done. (My chicken weighed 3 1/2 pounds, and it was close to room temperature when it went into the oven.) The roasting pan didn’t have enough jus to make a sauce, but the moist chicken wasn’t screaming for it, either. Another thing this roast chicken can do without is parsley—it was overpowered by the rosemary and thyme, and, quite frankly, I didn’t miss it. TIP: Save the carcass—with all of the herbs and garlic, it’ll make a lovely stock for later use.

Things got a little messy when rubbing the herb butter under the chicken’s skin, but I did it, and trussed the chicken without too much trouble. A good portion of butter oozed out of the chicken and into the pan—I’m not sure it’s supposed to do that, but it certainly made for a richer pan sauce. I left the chicken in the oven for an extra 15 minutes because the inner thigh meat was still pink, and even with the extra time, the breast meat was still moist and infused with herb flavor, with a hint of garlic. The skin all over the bird (except for underneath) was exceptionally crisp and delicious. (I don’t think I missed anything by not searing the chicken beforehand.) I’ve cooked chickens at all sorts of temperatures, but I’d go with this high temperature because it guarantees crispy skin without suffering the breast meat. I later mixed the leftovers into a gravy for chicken pot pie.

This dish is almost as good as the Peruvian Roasted Chicken. I was worried the rosemary and thyme would overwhelm the chicken, but they added such wonderful flavors! I did try the jus, but wasn’t crazy about it. The leftovers are also good in stir fried rice the next day.

I made this a one-pot meal as suggested by adding potatoes, carrots, celery, pearl onions, and mushrooms. First, I diced the potatoes and microwaved them for 5 minutes to give them a head start, then I sautéed the vegetables in a little olive oil until they were slightly softened. I placed the chicken in a pot and arranged the vegetables around it, sprinkling on more herbs. It cooked for 40 minutes, tented, with occasional basting. The chicken’s aroma filled my house, making everyone hungry! When it was done cooking, I removed the chicken from the pot and added a 1/2 stick of butter, allowing it to melt over the vegetables. My guests commented on how good this chicken was, that the herbs perfectly complemented the chicken. Everyone went back for seconds. I’ll definitely make this again, next time adding 1/2 cup of white wine to the pot, which would further enhance this already outstanding chicken dish.

This is now my favorite roast chicken recipe. It’s simple, yet it results in a dish that appears to have involved more fuss than was actually required. I sautéed some diced potatoes, onions, carrots, and mushrooms in the pot before I placed the chicken in the oven. This resulted in a one-pot meal with lots of great flavor. The only issue was that there wasn’t enough liquid in the pot to baste the chicken while it was roasting, so I added 1/2 cup of water. This was also enough liquid for a nice pan sauce: I simply removed the chicken and vegetables and added about 1 tablespoon of butter to the pot. This resulted in a tasty, smooth sauce to pour over the chicken and vegetables. The 40-minute roasting time was perfect for my chicken, which was just under 4 pounds. It wasn’t necessary to sear the chicken beforehand—with the high heat, the chicken browned very nicely. I had plenty of food leftover for another meal for two.

What a delicious chicken. Preparation for this dish was straightforward and easy, yielding moist and flavorful results. The coating of chopped herbs made for a very pretty presentation, and I’m sold on making a flavorful butter mixture to go under the chicken’s skin. Searing the bird in a hot cast-iron skillet also gave it a lovely mahogany color. Partway into cooking, however, our kitchen filled with a cover of haze—we needed to open the windows, downstairs and up (450 degrees makes for a hot oven, especially mixed with chicken fat).

I’d like to see more information provided in the recipe for trussing, and for when the bird is done. Though the directions for trussing were good, the recipe should specify which side of the bird you place on the twine before trussing—we put the wrong side down on our first attempt, and didn’t realize it until we were going through the other steps. As for when the bird was done, the juices ran clear from the joint between the leg and thigh, so we thought it was done. (The thigh temperature was also 187 degrees.) While carving, we saw some red juices, and one of the chicken’s breast meat was raw. It was very bizarre—I’ve never seen anything like it. However, despite that oddity, the chicken that we could eat tasted amazing.

Let’s face it, some roast chicken recipes produce dry, bland birds. That’s not the case, however, with this Roast Chicken for Two. The herbed butter was very flavorful, and the bird was moist—even the white meat, and even though it was necessary to bake my 3 1/2-pound chicken for an additional 15 minutes. I didn’t brown the bird prior to roasting, as maneuvering a whole chicken to get even browning is almost impossible. Preheating the pan produced a chicken with brown, crispy skin. After skimming the grease, I had just the right amount of juice to make a great pan sauce.

My entire family agreed that these were some of the best roast chickens I’ve ever made. The flavor combination of the fresh rosemary, thyme, parsley, garlic, and butter was perfect. I roasted two birds that were close to 4 pounds each. I don’t know if this increased the cooking time, but it took 75 minutes to reach the desired 165 degrees in the meaty portion of the chicken thigh. We’ll definitely make this again.

I knew right away that this was a nice chicken dinner that can be thrown together in a few minutes—a careful easing of the herbed butter under the skin was all it took. The aroma from the oven made it hard to wait for the hen to come out of it, but the wait was worth it. While we surely enjoyed the flavor, I did have a problem with the butter splattering on the sides of the oven, so next time I’ll use a deeper roasting pan. For my taste, the bird needed more salt than the recipe called for, and the garlic needed additional roasting, as it was still very firm. But the chicken was tender, juicy and full-flavored.

Wow, I loved this chicken! It was so simple to prepare. The chicken was prepared easily, smelled amazing, and was done in no time. The combination of herbs, garlic, and butter was very traditional, yet superb. TIP: Make sure that the pan that the chicken will roast in is large enough, as there’s quite a lot of juice that cooks out of it, and mine was close to spilling over. I’ll make this again and again.