I've made this before and found the results were much better when the softened butter was combined with the herbs and then rubbed under the skin. This way the herb/butter flavour permeated the meat and it was fabulous!!!
I don't know how someone rated this recipe as expensive. That's just...silly. If you don't like cooking whole chickens don't do it. I used a large chicken that was marked down. I couldn't fit both oranges inside my chicken with the garlic cloves and butter so I just used the one. I made the spice mixture and kind of mushed the rosemary and thyme in my hands to not only break up the spices but to bring out the flavor. I took the suggestions of other cooks and roasted it breast down in the beginning and just flipped it near the end with the foil off to make it pretty and brown. This made for extremely moist and tender breast pieces. I asked my husband to pick out a roast chicken and I admit that I was skeptical at first. It turned out great. I plan on keeping the carcass and juice and making chicken broth. For your money oranges are always cheap as is garlic and spices. Using the carcass to make chicken broth you really stretch your money. You could even half the butter and use homemade broth like I did and still come out ahead. This recipe is great! I'd make this again no question. Great job Nellie.
Even better if you cook the chicken upside down until 20 mins before then end of cooking time (approx).
I love to make a roast chicken. That being said I made some adjustments that made this even better. I zested about a teaspoon of the orange peel then combined it with the herbs and softened butter and smooshed it under the skin. I added the orange halves to the clean cavity. I skipped the broth altogether and dry roasted on a rack while covered with foil at 400 degrees. You will have to calculate time based on the size of your bird. I uncovered the bird the last 30 minutes to brown. Even without the broth there were alot of juices in the pan so I put them in a small pan and reduced them to create a nice glaze for serving. Yummy! I have done a similar recipe using lemons for years and truthfully they are both great.
I made this recipe using a Capon which is a Rooster. It tasted faboulous I used Coarse sea salt and I used dry spices that I had on hand used 1/2 of the butter and I poked holes into the Chicken skin with a fork then I rubbed the salt and spices into the skin then I drizzled with orange juice and drizzled with butter put in a turkey oven bag and cooked it. If you put your meat in a oven bag then you don't have to baste. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Well I made some changes such as: 1.I just used parsley 2.olive oil in spite of butter 3.add potato with skin in the pan It was marvelous and my friends loved it!
I just used this recipe and substituted lemons with the oranges because I didn't have any oranges... My children devoured it. It was great!!! I also added chopped potatoes around the sides after boiling them from about 10 minutes. mmm-mmm-good!!!:-)
Very nice roast chicken! I reduced the butter to 1/2 cup melted and skipped the 'under-skin' step (I know a lot of people swear by this but I've done it both ways and don't buy it ) and used rubbed sage since I didn't have any fresh. Great orange and herb flavor - cooking time was right on. Thanks for the recipe Nellie!!!
This did not have the orange flavor that I was looking for but it was very tender and eveyone seemed to enjoy the chicken.
This chicken turned out to be a mess for me! It almost seemed to be boiling in the broth; never did turn brown & crispy on the outside like I like it. Furtermore the skin tore when I was putting the butter pieces in it so all ended up in the broth. I overcooked it at close to 2 hrs just trying to get it brown and done. The flavor was OK but I'm so glad I didn't have any guests the night this was served!
