Roast chicken is one of my favourite foods and I love having several recipes on hand to enjoy it in different ways. This Garlic Butter Roast Chicken is one I might pull out when I wanted dinner or Sunday roast to be a little bit special, maybe for a birthday or on a holiday. It’s so flavourful and delicious and while it does require a little more prep time & effort than some of my other roast chicken recipes, it’s definitely worth it!
There’s nothing particularly tricky or out of the ordinary about this recipe. The most important advice I could give here would be to say that if you can avoid it, don’t rip the skin of the chicken, but if you do it’s not at all the end of the world. Other than that it’s all pretty straightforward and the delicious flavours are coming from the fresh ingredients. Let’s get started!
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 80g butter, softened
- Leaves stripped from about 6 or 8 Thyme sprigs, (stalks reserved for later)
- Grated zest & juice of 1 lemon (juiced lemon halves reserved for later)
- 1 whole chicken approximately 2kg in weight
- Sea salt flakes & freshly ground black pepper
- 4 cloves of garlic, removed from the bulb and left unpeeled in their skins
For the Gravy
- Good glug of white wine
- 500ml chicken stock
- 50g butter
- 2 tablespoons plain white flour
- Additional thyme leaves stripped from 2 or 3 stalks
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° Fan / 400°F.
- Use a mortar & pestle to pound the peeled garlic with a pinch of salt into a paste. Tip the paste into a mixing bowl and add the lemon zest & juice, the butter and the thyme.
- Place the chicken, untied or untrussed in a roasting tin and season it with salt & pepper.
- Use your hands to gently lift the skin off the breast and separate it from the breast meat. You might have to do some very gentle wiggling here, but patience and a soft touch will see you through. Take some of the garlic butter and stuff it under the skin, massaging it into the breast meat. Use some of the butter to rub onto the skin all over.
- Take the thyme stalks, the unpeeled garlic cloves and the lemon halves and stuff them as best as you can into the cavity of the chicken.
- Roast the chicken for about 1 hour, 30 minutes basting every half an hour or until cooked through and the juices run clear when pierced with a knife. Alternatively you can use a meat thermometer to measure the temperature.
- When the chicken has been cooked remove the bird to a separate tray or plate and cover with a double layer of foil to rest for at least 15 minutes but up to 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile you can make the gravy. Slosh some white wine into the roasting tin to deglaze it, using a wooden spoon to scrape any bits off the bottom of the pan. Pour the juices when hot and deglazed into a jug. Once settled you can skim the fat off the top if you like with a spoon. Sometimes I do, but if I’m in a hurry I don’t bother – it’s up to you.
- Meanwhile melt 50g of butter in a frying pan on medium heat until it starts to bubble up. Add the flour and stir with a wire whisk to make a roux. Don’t be afraid to let the roux get a little bit darker as that will give you the best flavour, but keep stirring so as to not let it burn.
- Pour in the pan juices while whisking constantly to combine. Once you’ve whisked in the pan juices check the thickness… It’s should be quite thick still, so start whisking in the stock and only whisk it in until you acheive the desired consistency for your gravy. If it gets too thick while it’s cooking you can always add more stock and if it gets too thin, you can always cook it a bit longer to reduce it.
- Reduce the heat to low, stir in the additional thyme leaves and allow the gravy to simmer until you’re ready to serve while stirring occasionally. Before serving, taste the gravy and adjust seasoning to taste. Serve piping hot with the chicken.
Click here to see more of my favourite chicken recipes!
