My wife liked it but I thought it was a little to sweet. But I like my chicken herby.
Thank you for letting me know how you liked it. My husband nixed the idea of me cooking it for the family because he did not like the idea of chicken and red wine together in the same dish, so it looks like I will have to wait and try this recipe on a night he isn’t going to be home for dinner, which is usually only about twice a year at most.
Since you like chicken with herb flavor, you might try the following recipe:
Herbed Roasted Chicken with Vegetables
1 whole chicken
1 stick of softened butter
a combination of your favorite dried or fresh herbs
(I like to use herbs like parsley, rosemary, sage with chicken, but pick the ones you like.)
1-2 Lemons, quartered
3 onions quartered
salt and pepper to taste
1 box of chicken stock or broth or use your own home made stock
A combination of your favorite vegetables cut in larger size chunks (I always use potatoes and carrots, and throw in whatever else I have around the house that we like roasted with chicken). I sometimes add additional vegetables during the cooking process, since not all vegetables can withstand an hour of cooking time such as asparagus or a handful of frozen green beans or peas.
Directions:
Pour a box of chicken stock or broth into a saucepan. Throw in the chicken parts if any that came with the chicken, one onion, and a bundle of herbs. If using dry herbs you can tie them up in cheesecloth to hold the dry herbs, so the broth stays clear, or just throw them in the pot. Bring this to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Leave this simmering on the stove to use to baste the chicken as it cooks.
Slip your fingers between the skin and the meat over the chicken breast and make as large a pocket as possible on either side of the chicken breast. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper.
Combine the herbs and the softened butter to make a wonderful herb butter. Put some of the herb butter inside the pocket you made between the breast and the skin, and slather the rest on the outside of the chicken. Stuff the chicken with a bundle of fresh herbs (or sprinkle a few inside if using dried herbs, one onion and the lemon(If I can’t fit all the lemon inside the chicken I throw the rest in with the broth on the stove tip, so it doesn’t get wasted).
Twist the chicken wings underneath the chicken so they don’t cook faster than the rest of the chicken and tie the two drumsticks together to keep the stuffing inside the bird while it cooks.
At this point you have three options. You can either place a bed of vegetables including the last of the onion in the bottom of your roasting pan and set the chicken on top of the vegetables, use a rack to hold the chicken in the roasting pan and surround it with the vegetables, or place the vegetables in a separate baking dish to cook along side the chicken and just drizzle them with a little olive oil along with the herbs. I prefer the second method, so I can easily pull out the vegetables if they cook faster than the chicken, but they still get the added flavor of the chicken drippings as they cook. My husband prefers the last method because he doesn’t like his vegetables absorbing the flavor of the chicken, and if you don’t have a rack to hold your chicken the first method is a good option to help keep your chicken centered in the pan so both sides of the breast cook evenly.
If I am cooking the vegetables with the chicken I pour 1-2 ladlefuls of broth in the roasting pan over the vegetables and sprinkle them with some of the herbs (just enough broth to cover the bottom of the pan so the vegetables can get the benefit of a little steam to help keep them from drying out during the cooking process. Don’t smother the vegetables in broth.)
I cook the chicken and the vegetables in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour, basting the chicken about every 10 minutes or so during about the last thirty minutes of roasting. (I take care not to smother the vegetables in broth and maintain just enough broth in the bottom of the roasting pan to cover the bottom of the pan, so I baste the chicken either with the broth already in the roasting pan or from the saucepan on the stove top in order to maintain that level throughout the cooking process. Sometimes I don’t have to use the broth on the stovetop at all because the chicken produces so much of its own drippings.) If the vegetables cook faster than the chicken I pull them and set them aside in a covered casserole dish to keep warm until the chicken finishes cooking.
This will be the moistest, most flavorful herbed chicken you have ever tasted. If you are having a dinner party or want to make a particularly nice display of your cooked masterpiece, you can place the cooked chicken in the center of a serving platter and surround it with the roasted vegetables and carve the chicken at the table just like you would a turkey at Thanksgiving (Don’t forget to remove the string tying the drumsticks together! Also make sure to let the chicken rest before carving so most of the remaining juices stay with the chicken).
The pan drippings can be reduced to make a wonderful thin gravy, or they can be thickened with a butter roux or cornstarch for a thicker gravy. (Make sure to scrape up all the flavorful bits on the bottom of the roasting pan too.) The leftover broth in the saucepan can also be used if there are not enough pan drippings.
Any leftover stock I save for use in other dishes. I simply strain out the chicken pieces, vegetables and herbs, since they have served their purpose. I do put any leftover broth in the refrigerator over night and skim off any of the excess fat that rises to the top of the container the next day, and then either freeze the leftover broth or use it in other meals during the rest of the week. My grandmother would also save the chicken pieces and onion that had been simmering in the broth and chop them up finely and add them to her own version of dirty rice for another meal that same week, so they didn’t get wasted either. My family would clearly disown me if I did this, so dispose of them after they have finished flavoring the broth.
I failed to mention that the chicken fat I skim off the top of the reserved chicken stock can also be used in other cooking instead of using cooking oil, butter, etc. It adds extra flavor to a dish when using it to saute onions or other vegetables you are going to serve, especially when you are serving them with chicken or in a chicken dish. It is also great to use if you are browning up some boneless skinless chicken breasts, instead of using cooking oil.
During tough economic times it can also help with the grocery budget. You can use all the rendered fats from cooking your meats such as bacon, sausage, turkey and chicken as a substitute for cooking oil or butter in many recipes. I like to use them mainly for sauteeing onions and other vegetables, but my grandmother often used rendered fats for other things as well. She sometimes used some rendered chicken fat to make her crusts for her chicken pot pies, so the flavor of the chicken would also be in the crust of the pie and not just the filling. Her pot pies were the best you have ever tasted!
I strain any rendered fat and pour it into small jars that I label with the date and they type of rendered fat (chicken, bacon, sausage, etc.) I keep them in my refrigerator and use the oldest jars first, so it never has a chance to go bad. If the fat has solidified before you had the time to strain it and pour it into jars, you can warm it gently on the stove so you can strain it and then pour it into the jars to use at a later date.
I especially like to use the small jars I have saved from store bought pimentos for my fat renderings, since they are small and don’t take up much room in the refrigerator.
I also save the carcas from the roasted chicken to use the next time I make chicken stock, and save any leftover chicken to use for another dish as well. I usually throw the carcas in a zip lick freezer bag and throw it in my freezer until the next time I make stock. Any leftover chicken or even the chicken that falls off the carcas when I am making stock, I add to my chicken soups, stews, Chicken and Dumplings, or Chicken pot pies, so very little gets wasted.
You can also puree any leftover roasted vegetables thinned with a little chicken stock if needed for a roasted vegetable soup the next day. Just heat it up and serve with some nice croutons, crusty french bread, or even a grilled cheese sandwich and you have a wonderful lunch.