Roasted Chicken with Meyer Lemon-Rosemary Butter

First and foremost, I wish I took a picture of the chicken when it came out of the oven – it was gorgeous, but we were hungry! I also wish there was a way for me to be able to share the incredible aroma that filled our house.

This is a perfect recipe for a Sunday family supper – homey, comforting, delicious and easy. Putting up our Christmas tree, while this chicken was roasting away in the oven, evoked quite the Norman Rockwell scene last night. 

As always, with a recipe as simple as this, use the best ingredients you can buy. If you can’t make it out to your local farmers’ markets for farm-fresh chicken, please buy organic in the grocery store. Look for a chicken that weighs between 3-1/2 to 4 pounds.

I adapted this recipe from Comfort Food: New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel with Martha Rose Shulman. Where they call for a mixture of herbs – I chose to use rosemary, adding in Meyer lemon, because to me, the combination along with garlic, is perfect with chicken.

Roasted Chicken with Meyer Lemon-Rosemary Butter

1 farm-fresh/organic chicken, about 3-1/2 to 4 pounds

2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half, with green
shoot removed; 1-2 cloves, peeled and left whole

1-2 teaspoons of kosher salt

¼ cup chopped fresh rosemary, plus 4-6 whole sprigs for chicken and roasting
pan

Zest from 1 organic Meyer Lemon (you will use the whole
lemon as well)

3/4 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature

Salt/fresh black pepper

1 medium onion sliced

3 carrots, cleaned and cut into large chunks

3 stalks celery, cleaned and cut into large chunks

1 russet potato, scrubbed and cut into large chunks

Olive oil

White wine

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Give your chicken a quick rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Set on a cutting board reserved for raw meat.

Begin smashing garlic with the side of a chef’s knife on a separate cutting board. Add in kosher salt and use side of chef knife to mash it into the garlic – you are trying to make a paste of sorts. Add in the chopped rosemary and the lemon zest, and mash some more. Alternatively, you could use a mortar and pestle for this. Transfer this mixture to a small bowl, and with a rubber spatula, work the room temperature butter into the garlic-salt-rosemary-lemon zest-mash to combine really well. (Congratulations – you just made a compound butter!) Set this aside for the moment.

Loosen the skin from the chicken by inserting your first two fingers (or a teaspoon, rounded side up) between the skin and the meat, starting from the breast near the neck and moving over the whole chicken as gently as possible to avoid tearing the skin.

Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Cut zested lemon in half and insert into cavity, along with a few sprigs of rosemary and a clove or two of garlic.

Take your compound butter and begin spreading it under the skin, concentrating on the breast and legs. Truss the chicken (tucking wings back and under and tying legs together with kitchen twine.)

Into a lightly oiled roasting pan/baking dish, add the onion, carrots, celery and potato. Drizzle with a bit of oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Nestle in a lightly oiled roasting rack, and place the chicken breast side up, on rack. Add about 1/2 cup of wine, or a combination of wine and water, to the pan and place into oven. After 15 minutes, turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees and continue to bake for about 1 hour, until a thermometer registers 160 degrees when stuck into the thickest part of the thigh. Remove from the heat and let stand, tented with foil, for 10 minutes, before cutting. Transfer vegetables to warm serving platter with slotted spoon, serving alongside the roast chicken.

Enjoy!