I simply adore garlic, onions and roast chicken and this French-inspired recipe is a most delicious way to combine all three ingredients. This roast chicken goes particularly well with quinoa with fried onions or Persian rice and it is my favourite way to cook a whole chicken. It takes very little effort to prepare and comes out perfect every time.
There is something very satisfying about using fresh herbs, especially if you’ve grown them yourself. I have a very small herb garden and it’s so lovely to wander out, gather the herbs from the earth, and immediately cook with them. In the winter when fresh herbs are scarce, dried herbs will suffice.
I always make chicken stock from the carcass and the stock and remaining meat are frozen for use later in soup and chicken pie, another family favourite. It’s a very frugal way to make one large chicken feed a family of five for at least three dinners!
I entered this recipe, adapted from one found on Epicurious, into The New May Herbs on Saturday Blog Challenge hosted by the lovely Karen at Lavender and Lovage in May 2012, and I am delighted to say that I won the prize that month, a fantastic copy of The Cook’s Herb Garden (2010) by Jeff Cox and Marie-Pierre Moine.
I’ve republished this post (again!) in May 2013 to include nicer photographs and a printable recipe for your convenience. Since this roast chicken dinner is made entirely from scratch I am entering it into Javelin Warrior’s Made with Love Mondays recipe round-up.
- 7 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- handful fresh parsley
- handful fresh thyme
- handful fresh rosemary
- handful fresh chives
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 large roasting chicken
- 1 lemon
- 3 medium onions, quartered with roots still attached
- 1 bulb garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves
- 250 ml water
- 2 tsp cornflour, to thicken
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: Serves 4-6
Mum of three, daydream adventurer, OU Life Sciences graduate, occasional crafter, ex-pat Canadian & quite possibly Britain's most northerly food blogger.
Natally says
May 15, 2015 at 5:39 pmI love roast chicken and this one looks amazing. Very talented lady
Ursula Hunt says
May 10, 2015 at 10:39 amRoast chicken! my favourite roast of them all
Sam Williams says
October 22, 2014 at 2:06 pmThis looks, and sounds, delicious
Heather Haigh says
August 21, 2014 at 8:43 amLooks gorgeous and sounds like a really lovely tasty roast.
Heather Haigh recently posted…Recipe – Vegetable and Quorn Curry
glenn hutton says
June 27, 2014 at 10:00 amMy mouth was watering as soon as the pictres appeared… nothing more I can say really to give it higher praise… and being a chicken in a pot style recipe something I could managed without messing up!
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Anneli (Delicieux_fr) says
May 30, 2013 at 11:37 amFantastic photos. Your chicken looks so juicy and moist with those lovely onions underneath. Yup, thats just how it should be. Lovely recipe x
Elizabeth S says
July 14, 2013 at 4:32 pmThank you 🙂
Baking Addict says
May 27, 2013 at 4:09 pmIt looked good in the old photo but the new one has me drooling! I can just imagine the taste now. Thanks for sharing.
Elizabeth S says
July 14, 2013 at 4:31 pmThanks 🙂 It’s such a lovely recipe – I make it quite frequently (including today!)
Louise at Cake and Calico says
May 25, 2013 at 5:16 pmOh my goodness – I am so hungry now, I’ll have to go foraging. Definitely chicken for Sunday lunch tomorrow methinks!
Elizabeth says
May 26, 2013 at 9:10 amOooh I do hope you make it, let me know if you do and what you think of it! 🙂 Happy foraging!
Javelin Warrior says
May 24, 2013 at 6:27 pmI love that you took the time to re-photograph the recipe – awesome job and I’m drooling just looking at the photos! And I’m a huge fan of roasting my own birds. It’s been a long time since I bought just plain old boneless, skinless chicken breasts 😉
Elizabeth says
May 24, 2013 at 6:37 pmThanks Mark 🙂 There are quite a few (read: most!) of my earlier blog posts needing re-photographed and updated with printable recipes and proper text. I’ve learned a lot over the last 18 months of blogging! I’m glad you like the recipe and I hope you try it!
Karen S Booth says
May 6, 2012 at 12:41 pmTHANKS so much for republishing this lush looking recipe……this is chicken JUST the way I like it and it makes a wonderful Herbs on Saturday entry! Now, just pass me a slice of that over please…would make a GREAT sarnie! Karen
Elizabeth says
May 24, 2013 at 4:20 pmIt really is a fantastic recipe. We make it quite regularly in our household. 🙂
Inthesky says
May 6, 2012 at 12:04 pmNo no, honestly it is fine. The photograph looks delicious enough to me. I will definitely give this a go. 🙂
Elizabeth says
May 24, 2013 at 4:20 pmI was never particularly happy with it. I’ve learned a few things over the last year so I’ve updated it with a slightly more appealing version, I think. 🙂 I hope you did get around to trying this recipe!