Roast Chicken with Herbed butter recipe

8 Tablespoons of butter

2 Tablespoons for chopped dill, tarragon, chervil or any other herbs you want in combination

Salt and Pepper

1 Three to four pound chicken

½ Cup of white wine or water (plus more if you need it)

Optional

Chopped parsley, or whatever herb leaf you want, as a garnish

1 Clove of garlic

How to Make

            You should first start by pre-heating the oven to about 450 degrees Fahrenheit. From there you should combine the butter with your selected herbs, plus some salt and pepper. You can use a food processor, a fork, or whatever you feel comfortable using to combine them, but note you only need to use half the butter. This is a lot easier if you soften the butter in a microwave first.  Now you should separate the chicken skin from the meat to get the butter-herb mix in there. Do not try to separate all the skin, just where you can, you do not want to tear any of that wonderful stuff. You may also want to spread some in the chicken cavity as well as on top of the breasts (seasoning with more salt and pepper of course).

            You should now put the rest of the butter in the pan you are going to roast the chicken in, and place that in the oven. Do not put the chicken in yet, we still have at least one or two more things of prep work to do. Once the butter has melted, if you are using the ingredients, you can add the garlic clove (smashed) and the white wine to the pan. I like to put some celery stick and pieces of carrots down on the bottom of the pan to create a natural rack, but you can do what you want here. Either way, place the chicken in the pan, breast side down and roast for about 20 minutes. After that you should turn the chicken over and spoon some of the butter in the pan over it. After about ten minutes, the chicken should be starting to turn brown (roast for longer if this is not the case), from there you should baste it again and turn the heat down to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. After that, take the chicken out and let it rest for about 5 minutes. Then serve.

Reaction

            Chicken is a really nice base protein to work with, simply because it can absorb a lot of different flavors. Combine this with the excellent flavors that fresh herbs can bring to a dish and it is a winning combination. The herbs, I found, mixed well with the flavor of the butter, and since I chose to use garlic in this, made the chicken that much better. There are a few ingredients in cooking I swear by. One of them is garlic, and the flavor it brought here was tremendous, so I highly recommend using it in the butter and the sauce. And as a side note, I would not limit this herb butter to just this dish.

            As anyone would expect, using such ingredients as butter and herbs, the chicken absorbed the flavors wonderfully. If you watch the chicken enough, and cook it right the meat will be moist and juicy, adding its own flavor to the mix. But as with most roast chickens, the start of the show was the skin. Crispy, crunchy and full of wonderful, herbed filled, buttery flavor, there was nothing to dislike other than there only being so much to eat. And considering that it locked in that flavor for the rest of the chicken was an added plus.

            Overall, this was an excellent dish. It is not a full stand alone meal, however, as it does not provide enough to be eaten solely by itself. Some boiled green beans would easily be best with it, as well as some rice. In the end, if you have the time and patience with this dish, it will come out great.