Herby Orange Roast Chicken
Whole roast chicken with herb-citrus compound butter, roasted garlic, and maple soy glaze.
One 3.5/4 lb chicken
4 carrots
1 large onion
3 stalks of celery
½ cup dry white wine (can be substituted with broth)
Compound butter:
1 stick of softened butter
3 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
2 ½ tbsp Sage, minced
1 ½ tbsp thyme
1 ½ tbsp Rosemary
*You can also use dried versions of these herbs
1 ½ tsp Red pepper flakes
1 head of garlic
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp celery salt
1 lemon
1 orange
Glaze:
½ cup orange juice
¼ cup Soy sauce
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp whole black/pink peppercorns
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Take a whole head of garlic and cut a small bit of the top off and pour olive oil over it. Cover it in tin foil and roast it for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
While that happens, remove the chicken from the fridge and discard the giblets from inside the cavity and pat dry, let the chicken come to room temp.
While the garlic is roasting, very finely chop all of the herbs and mix them with the butter. Add in the spices, salt, pepper, zest of half a lemon and one orange.
Once the garlic is done roasting and cooled off squeeze about ¾ of it onto a cutting board and mash it up with a fork or the side of a knife. Add the garlic to the butter mixture.
Use your hands to loosen the skin from the meat. Scoop some of the butter mixture and put it under the skin all around the chicken making sure to leave some extra to put on the outside of the skin. You want a majority of the butter to be underneath the skin, around ¾ of it. Spread the remaining butter around the skin of the chicken and move it onto the baking tray.
Cut the lemon, orange, 4 carrots, and 3 celery stalks in half and one onion into quarters. Put as much of this as you can inside the cavity and the rest outside around/under the chicken. Then pour some of the white wine into the tray over the vegetables. Use twine to tie the drumsticks together. Loosely cover in tin foil so as to not disturb the butter on the outside and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.
While roasting, start the glaze by mixing orange juice, soy sauce, peppercorns, and maple syrup together and letting it simmer.
After 30 minutes, remove the foil and baste the chicken with the pan juices and use a pastry brush to put the glaze on the chicken (if you don't have a pastry brush you can just kinda lightly spoon the glaze on).
Bake for another 20 minutes. Then turn the heat up to 420 and bake for 30 minutes or until the thickest part of the breast and thighs measures 165 degrees, and the juices run clear, making sure to glaze the chicken every 10 minutes and baste it as well during this cooking period.
Let the chicken rest for about ten minutes uncovered but cutting into it. Remove the lemon from inside the cavity and squeeze the juice over the chicken.
Enjoy!
** you can use the pan juices, a bit of broth, 2-3 tbsp flour, and a knob of butter to make gravy by mixing the flour in a small cup with a splash of broth and pouring that into the rest of the pan juices and broth in a small skillet and heating on low until thickened, finish by adding in the butter to form a smooth, glossy gravy. If it is too thick, simply add more broth.
** If you would like, before letting the butter mixture touch the chicken, you can taste it to see if you would like to adjust the seasonings, note that the flavor of the herbs will become more prominent as they cook.