Recipe: oven-roasted butter chicken
This is the ultimate way to make a whole crispy chicken in the oven. The butter filling with fresh green herbs gives the chicken extra flavour and keeps the meat deliciously juicy and tender. Bonus: the roasting juices baste the floury potatoes and make an incredible gravy.
How to make oven-roasted butter chicken
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Finely chop the herbs and mix them into the softened butter.
- Loosen the skin from the meat by sliding a spoon, rounded side up, underneath the skin. Use your fingers to apply the butter under the skin, or use a piping bag. Massage the butter evenly under the skin, including around the legs. Fill the cavity with several generous spoonfuls of herb butter and a few wedges of lemon.
- Scrub the potatoes well under running water. Cut them into wedges, place them in a roasting tin and toss them with the olive oil so all the potatoes are coated. Crush the garlic cloves and distribute them among the potatoes.
- Cover the chicken breast with folded aluminium foil. Place the chicken on top of the potatoes. Put the roasting tin in the centre of the oven and roast the chicken for approximately 60 to 75 minutes. Allow 20 minutes of roasting time per 500 grams, plus an additional 15 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, remove the foil from the breast. Turn the potatoes halfway through cooking. For the final 15 minutes, increase the oven temperature to 220°C for a crisp crust. Check the temperature of the breast and legs with a meat thermometer. The chicken is done at 65 °C (breast) and 70 °C (thickest part of the drumstick).
- Remove the roasting tin with the chicken from the oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes under aluminium foil.
- Divide the chicken into pieces and serve with the potatoes and lemon wedges to squeeze over the chicken. Delicious with butter lettuce.
Good to know
1. For crispy skin, the skin must be dry. So always pat the outside of the chicken thoroughly dry with some kitchen paper before putting it in the oven.
2. Baste the chicken regularly by spooning the liquid and fat from the roasting tin back over the chicken. Do this every fifteen minutes for the best result. This gives you extra-crispy skin.
3. Instead of tarragon butter, you can also make other compound butters: butter with fresh green herbs, anchovy butter or lemon butter.
WINE TIP 1: Ayala Blanc de Blancs
What should we drink with it? In a celebratory mood: Champagne! The butter sauce in this dish forms a lovely bridge to a Blanc de Blancs Champagne; a Champagne made solely from Chardonnay grapes. The richness and saltiness of the potatoes balance the acidity in the Champagne, making it a delicious match! Ayala Blanc de Blancs is intense, creamy, full and expressive, with a hint of oak. Because of its broad range of aromas, from citrus to honey, good glassware is essential. Choose a glass that showcases the wine’s effervescence and captures its aromas well, because they are wonderful to savour! Don’t fill the glass all at once; top it up regularly with chilled bubbles. This helps preserve the fizz.
Available via wijnkring.nl I € 60
WINE TIP 2: Errázuriz Estate Reserva Series Chardonnay 2018
Prefer a still wine? Chardonnay is the answer then, too. It can certainly have seen a little oak. With this Chilean Chardonnay, you’re all set. Tropical and fresh with body!
Available via wijnkring.nl I € 8,49
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