Roast Chicken with crispy skin and herb-lemon

Roasted Chicken with herb-lemon in the oven to golden crispy perfection is a favorite dinner or Sunday lunch. It always support with leftovers which we transform for the lunchbox the next days. It is juicy on the inside, loaded with flavors and crispy on the outside with golden buttery skin. This is the Roast Chicken recipe you’ll make over and over again! The roast process creates its own pan juices that we use as the sauce for the chicken.

Roasting technique:

7. Yes, you can totally drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast until golden. But if you want great roast chicken, invest a few minutes into making a simple garlic-herb-lemon butter mixture to drizzle under the skin. Just loosen skin using a dessert spoon (slide right under, avoid skin piercing), hold the chicken upright then drizzle the butter in.
8. When the butter touches the cool chicken, it thickens up very quickly so you end up with a nice layer under the skin.
9. Add flovours: Stuff the chicken with a wedges of lemon and a couple of sprigs of rosemary. Not so much because you can barely taste it. It’s more for the aromas you smell when you cut the chicken so it seems like you can taste it. And this is the reason we do not put garlic inside the chicken. It doesn’t get hot enough to make any difference to flavor and just steams. Rosemary and sage are classic pairings with chicken, parsley adds more green color and freshness.
10. Put the garlic and onion under the chicken. This elevates the chicken out of the liquid and infuses those pan juices with so much flavor.
11. These serve 2 purposes: elevate chicken out of liquid and they add tons of flavor into the pan juices used as the sauce. Do not peel the onion because you will discard it. It sits under the chicken and gets slimy and very oily.
12. Roasting: Roast 10 minutes at 220C, then 20 minutes for every 500g at 180C until the internal temperature is 75C or until juices run clear. This assumes the chicken was taken out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. If it’s fridge cold, add another 10 minutes to the cook time.
13. Gravy: The liquid and juices in the tray are golden and delicious. It’s garlic butter full of herb flavors and a hint of lemon. Melt butter over medium heat, add flour, stir for 1 minute. Add half the liquid while whisking. Once incorporated and lump free, add remaining liquid. Continue cooking for 2 minutes, stirring regularly, until gravy thickens. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
    • 50 g butter
    • 40 g flour
    • 500 ml liquid from pan topped up with low sodium chicken broth
14. Leftover bits/juices: Scrape it all into a pot, add water so water is about 2.5cm above chicken. Add 2 tsp Vegeta or chicken stock powder or celery, carrot and a few garlic cloves and a few sprigs of fresh herbs like thyme/rosemary/parsley OR 1 tsp dried herbs. Simmer for 1 hour. Pick out/off bits of chicken to use in soup. Use as incredible broth for Chicken Noodle Soup or Chicken Rice Soup.

Bon app!