Garlic Butter Roast Chicken with Vegetables, Take 3

This adaptation takes into the consideration the things I learned the first and second time I tried the recipe:

• skip salting and peppering the chicken before smearing with garlic butter
• roast the bird without turning every 15 minutes
• use a meat thermometer to ensure a finished bird 

Garlic Butter Roast Chicken with Vegetables, Take 3
adapted from Cooking Club of America
click to print

1 (4-lb.) (5.25-lb) whole chicken
3/4 tsp salt, divided
1/2 tsp pepper, divided
1/4 c butter, softened
1 tbsp plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic, divided
1 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
8 1.5 lb fingerling or new potatoes, halved lengthwise or quartered if large
8 medium carrots
8 oz. 1 lb. orange cauliflower, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 large onions, cut into 1-inch wedges
1 tbsp butter, melted

Heat oven to 400°F. Spray large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. Pat chicken dry; remove excess fat around cavity.

Combine softened butter, 1 tablespoon of the garlic, parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper in small bowl.

I combined the butter, garlic and parsley before remembering the salt and pepper.

Spread half of parsley butter under the skin of the breasts and in the cavity; spread the remaining over the chicken. Place chicken, breast-side up, in center of baking sheet and truss if you like; cover loosely with foil.


I truss a bird sort of, but not quite as simply due to poor technique, like how Thomas Keller describes it in this video beginning from minutes 1:40 to 3:00. That neck part always kills me and I wind up doing another tactic which is just tying the bird up with a lot of twine to achieve "knees in, ass up" as Bourdain describes in Les Halles Cookbook. Here's another look at trussing, a really straight forward method, found when walking around on Ruhlman.com.

Bake chicken covered with foil 20 minutes; remove foil and return chicken to oven for another 20 minutes.

Hard to see unless you click the images, but the skin did brown a little bit in those uncovered 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, and onions with melted butter and remaining 1 teaspoon garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in large bowl.


I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I like to put the fat, whether butter or oil, and seasonings in the bowl first. Mixing them together so that the fat greases the sides of the bowl makes me think I'm getting a more homogeneous seasoning throughout and prevents the vegetables from sticking to the glass as I'm stirring.

Arrange vegetables around chicken.

This is a LOT of vegetables.

Bake until chicken is golden brown, the internal temperature reaches 165°F and vegetables are tender. Remove from oven. Let stand 10 minutes before carving.

My chicken reached 165°F after 52 minutes.


Chicken standing before carving. I don't pull the temperature probe until it's done resting so I don't lose juices.


Thinking that I had it going on when I was making this, I made a mistake. While the chicken came out perfectly, the vegetables were a little on the bland and not perfectly done side. I chalk that up to the quantities I used without increasing the garlic butter quantity. Lesson learned, if scaling up, even if unintentionally, it should be evaluated and accommodated.

That said, the chicken same out very well and is a great go-to for a simple one-dish meal.

Cost:

• whole chicken: $5.20
• butter: $0.20
• garlic: $0.30
• Italian parsley: $0.99
• fingerling potatoes: $3.99
• carrots: $0.89
• orange cauliflower: $3.22
• onions: $0.62

Total: $15.51 making four giant servings $3.88 each or six servings $2.59.

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