Ok before you say it – YES you can make a whole roasted chicken on a weeknight! And YES you will be eating before 8pm. The simple prep of this chicken makes it easy to get it in the oven and still get dinner on the plate at a decent hour. And the amazing flavor that is developed is going to be so worth it! Citrus Roasted Chicken brings the fancy holiday meal to the table any night of the week!
There is so much flavor in the zest of citrus, I love to cook and bake with it. It works great in sauces, dressings, breads, marinades, salsas….the list goes on and on and on. In this recipe, I add it to the butter to help it melt all over the chicken and really infuse into it. And then double down on the citrus flavor by filling the chicken cavity with oranges and lemons.
When I made this I actually decided to do two birds at the same time (it increases the cooking time by about 15 minutes) so that I could have the chicken for another dish later in the week. If you have a pan the right size (I used by turkey roasting pan), you can just put them side by side. It’s okay for them to touch a little, but not too much.
I served this up in full-on comfort food fashion and made some good ol’ mashed potatoes (yukon golds cooked to fork-tender, salt, white, pepper, butter and heavy cream), and garlic green beans (trimmed green bean, butter and minced garlic all in a covered pot on medium-low).
Now Let’s Get Cookin’!
Citrus Roasted Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 6lb Whole Chicken gizzards removed, if present
- 1 Navel Orange zested and halved
- 1 Lemon zested and halved
- 1 stick Butter room temperature (NOT MELTED)
- 1 tsp Rosemary
- 1 tsp Tarragon
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper
- 5 cloves Garlic
Instructions
- Prepare all of the ingredient. Preheat oven to 375deg.
- In a small bowl, combine butter, orange zest, lemon zest, rosemary, sage and half of garlic.
- Place chicken on rack in baking dish. Stuff orange halves, lemon halves and remaining garlic into cavity.
- Gently separate the skin from the flesh, without removing it. Then push a layer of butter under the skin, evenly over the bird. Place any excess butter mixture into the cavity.
- Sprinkle salt and pepper evenly over bird. Then loosely cover with aluminum foil. Place in oven for 75 minutes.
- Halfway through cook time, remove foil and baste the bird with drippings as needed for the remainder of cook time. Chicken should be cooked to 165 deg internal temperature. Be sure to let chicken sit for at least 5 minutes before carving.
Estelle Forrest self-published this cookbook after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:
AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR KINDLE eBOOK VERSIONS
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A very beautiful and delicious Roasted Chicken, we just love Roasted Chicken. Hope you are having a great week and thanks for sharing!
Miz Helen
I love adding citrus to meat dishes! This looks so good. I pinned it! Thanks for linking.
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com