Roast Chicken Recipe

Roast Chicken slathered with a garlic-herb-lemon butter then oven roasted to golden crispy perfection.

Juicy on the inside, and served with liquid gold pan juices loaded with flavour, this is THE Roast Chicken recipe you’ll make over and over again!

The best Roast Chicken recipe is….

….. juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside with golden skin that’s buttery and herby and garlicky with just a subtle perfume of lemon to remind you it’s there without overwhelming.

It creates its own pan juices that’s used as the sauce for the chicken. This stuff is liquid gold!

This is the chicken version of the Herb and Garlic Butter Roasted Turkey Breast I shared for Christmas / Thanksgiving last year. I’ve lost count of how many messages there were asking for a chicken version – and I’m finally sharing it!

How to make the BEST roast chicken!

The best roast chicken has garlic herb butter under and on the skin, is stuffed with lemon and herbs, roasted until it’s crispy and deep golden on the outside, and juicy on the inside.

It’s really easy to prepare a whole chicken for roasting. The trick is to use an upside down dessert spoon to loosen the skin – the shape hugs the curves of the chicken and it doesn’t tear the skin.

Then simply spoon the garlic-herb-butter under the skin then spread it from the outside. OR hold it upright and drizzle in (see photos below) – whatever you find easier!

TIP: Use most of the butter under the skin, that’s where you get the most bang for your buck. Plus, garlic burns on the skin so you don’t want too much on the surface.

After the chicken is all buttered up, place it on a bed of garlic and onion. This serves two purposes:

1. Elevates the chicken off the base of the pan for more even cooking (otherwise the underside sits in the pan juices and will cook faster); and

2. Adds extra flavour into the pan juices used as the sauce for this recipe. OR used for gravy!

How to make the BEST roast chicken (cont’d)

I like to stuff the chicken with a wedges of lemon and a couple of sprigs of rosemary. Not so much for the flavour, because in truth, you can just barely taste it. It’s more for the perfume you get when you cut into the chicken so it seems like you can taste it.

And this is the reason why I do not put garlic inside oven roasted chicken. There’s no point – it doesn’t get hot enough to make any difference to flavour and just steams.

Flavour bomb set, now it’s time for the easy part – roasting.

But….. I want gravy!!

OK OK, hold the tantrum! It’s all good! I have the gravy recipe in the notes.