This juicy, garlicky, savory bird is a great Sunday dinner that will leave you with delicious leftovers all week long.
And with Thanksgiving coming up, it’s a great dish to make if you don’t have all day to commit to roasting a turkey.
It’s important to keep in mind that there are hundreds of techniques and different ways to do things when it comes to roasting birds. But the instructions here are as basic as can be. If you’ve got your own preferred method, with all the fancy kitchen equipment, go right ahead. The key part of this recipe is getting the herbed pesto butter right. After rubbing the bird down, the rest is simple.
As for the pesto butter, it’s an Italian’s dream. It’s made with lots of garlic, pesto, balsamic vinegar, and of course, olive oil. And it’ll leave you chicken that just falls right off the bone.
Time You’ll Need:
- Prep: ~15 minutes
- Cooking: ~50 – 1.5 hrs
What You’ll Need:
- 1 (3-4 pound) whole chicken (giblets removed)
- 5-6 cloves garlic, minced (you can leave one or two whole to place in the main cavity)
- 3 tbsp butter, room temp
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 ½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
- Salt (to taste)
- Freshly ground black pepper (to taste, but be generous)
- ¼ cup freshly chopped basil
- 1 tbsp your favorite premade pesto
What You’ll Do:
- Pat whole chicken with a paper towel to dry it.
- Preheat to oven to 395 degrees and adjust oven rack to lowest position.
- In a food processor, add the basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a dash of salt, ground pepper, pesto, and butter. This will create the ‘compound butter’ we’ll use to season the inside and outside of the chicken. Pulse for a few seconds until evenly mixed.
- Like I said before, a lot of people have different ways of roasting a whole chicken in the oven. If you have a tried and true method, feel free to use it. Otherwise, you’ll find some basic instructions below. Otherwise, the New York Times has a rich and thorough write-up on everything you need to know about roasting a chicken.
- Since I don’t have a roasting pan with a rack, just a roasting pan, I opted to put a bed of veggies underneath the chicken itself to prop it up and absorb its juices. This is completely optional. Alternatively, you can use strips of tin foil to prop the bird up. The veggies we used were simply onion and green peppers. Here’re more tips for roasting a chicken without a wire rack.
- Start at the main cavity and, working toward the neck , slide fingers under skin of breast and upper part of legs, loosening the skin from the meat. Spread the butter/oil/balsamic mix under the skin on the breast and upper leg meat. Generously rub the chicken until everywhere under the skin is completely coated. (Here’s a great video for getting under the skin of a bird if you need help).
- Sprinkle every part of the chicken generously with salt and pepper, including cavities, under the legs, wings, etc. Stuff the cavity with whole garlic cloves, and some chopped basil.
- Tie the legs together to hold shape and lock in seasonings. Alternatively, if you don’t have kitchen twine on hand, use toothpicks or skewers to hold them in place. Or you can skip trussing altogether.
- Finally, take the remaining butter/oil/balsamic mix and coat the entire outside of the chicken. Season generously once more with freshly ground pepper and salt.
- Place the chicken in the oven until you get an internal temperature of 165. ~1.5 hours.
Some other notes:
- Depending on time, you can roast the chicken at a lower temperature (~350), for juicy, tender meat. But this increased cooking time. And the opposite is true. If you’re short on time, you can up the temp (~450) and cook it for about 45 minutes. You’ll end up with crisper, albeit chewier chicken.
- Feel free to baste the chicken with drippings or more oil/seasonings occasionally to keep it juicy.
- If it looks like its browning too fast, place a sheet of tin foil over the chicken to slow down some of the cooking.
Enjoy! With Mashed Potatoes!