There’s just something about a roast chicken. It’s one of those simple, quintessential dishes. A whole chicken is also a blank canvas. Chicken takes to flavoring so well, and so many different flavors work so well with it. A whole roasted chicken is just an open invite for creativity!
This recipe in particular is an exercise in such creativity. It begins with a spatchcock chicken. A spatchcock chicken is a chicken that has had the spine removed so it can be flattened out. I love working with spatchcock chickens, because they roast quickly and fairly evenly.
The chicken is rubbed in a compound butter flavored with lemon, garlic, and herbs. The chicken is also nestled in a pan over aromatics, namely, onion, lemon, and more herbs. Lastly, some broth and vermouth or wine are added into the pan and the chicken is roasted.
The resulting chicken is just full of flavor. The lemon, onion, garlic, butter, and herbs all enhance the bird so deliciously. And the pan juices! This bird yields a lot of juice. All those aromatics along with the vermouth, pan drippings, and butter come together to make the perfect sauce for dipping your chicken pieces into or spooning over it. It’s rather delicious roast chicken. It takes a little bit of prep work, but it roasts in under an hour. It makes for a great Sunday supper, and it’s technically easy enough to throw together on a weeknight.
Ingredients
1 4 lb whole chicken
1 onion, sliced
8-10 sprigs thyme
4 sprigs rosemary
6 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic
¼ cup parsley, chopped
1 lemon sliced
2 tbsp lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
¼ cup vermouth or white wine
¼ cup chicken stock
2 tbsp Herbes de Provence
Salt and black pepper
Preheat your oven to 425 °F.
Let’s create the compound butter next. Add the softened butter, olive oil, garlic, parsley, and lemon zest to a food processor. Allow it to process until it all becomes smooth.
Next we need to spatchcock the chicken. Place the chicken breast side down on a cutting board, and find the spine along the back. Use a pair of kitchen shears and cut along both sides of the spine to remove the spine from the chicken. Spread the two sides of the chicken open. Using a knife, cut a deep notch in the breast plate. Now flip the chicken over and press down on the breast to flatten the chicken out. You have a spatchcocked chicken!
In a large, deep frying pan that is large enough to hold the chicken, arrange the onion slices, thyme sprigs, Rosemary sprigs, and lemon slices.
Season the chicken generously with the salt, black pepper, and Herbes de Provence. Reserve about 2-3 tbsp of the compound butter and rub the rest of it across the chicken. Rub the butter into both sides of the chicken, being sure the coat the wings, legs, and thighs as well. Once coated in the butter, nestle the chicken on top of the aromatics in the frying pan, breast side up.
Pour the chicken broth and vermouth into the pan, and then place the chicken into the oven.
Allow the chicken to roast for 50-55 minutes or until the dark meat of the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 °F. Check the temperature at the joints and at various spots across the chicken to ensure the whole bird is fully roasted. If the chicken is getting too brown as it roasts, you can tent the bird with aluminum foil to prevent it from browning too much and possibly burning.
When the chicken is fully roasted, remove it from the oven and carefully dot the top of the chicken with the reserved compound butter.
Allow the butter to melt and the chicken to cool for at least 10 minutes before carving. You can discard the onion slices, lemon slices, and herbs is you like, but be sure to keep all the pan juices. This will be served with the chicken.
Carve the chicken into pieces and place them back into the pan to serve. Spoon the pan juices over the chicken pieces like a gravy (or just dip the chicken into the pan juices). Enjoy!