Spice Rack Chicken. A budget friendly way to make a flavour infused, juicy roast chicken using common herbs and spices already in your cupboard. Economical never tasted so good!
Spice Rack Chicken
Originally published Feb 2020.
In a time when it seems every celebrity chef out there is rediscovering the joys of a simple, perfectly roasted chicken, it never left my dinner table.
A whole chicken is usually always the most affordable way to serve fresh chicken. Although I do love using fresh herbs whenever I can, they do become pricy and sometimes unavailable during the winter months.
Fresh Sage and Thyme are two of my most used herbs
This sage butter based recipe demonstrates that dried herbs can be just as tasty. Pulling a few items from a well stocked spice rack makes for a deliciously juicy, tender roast chicken dinner as good as any other.
Using dried herbs and common spices, which can probably already be found in your cupboard or spice rack, certainly makes it more budget friendly too.
Spice Rack Chicken
Inspiration and a tip for Spice Rack Chicken
The inspiration for this recipe came from one of my favourite ways to serve roast turkey at Thanksgiving or the Holidays. My quick cooking spatchcocked Lemon Sage Butter Roasted Turkey can be a quick but delicious alternative to traditional roasting methods.
Indeed, you can easily turn this chicken into a spatchcocked version to save time too. Still trust your meat thermometer as outlined in the recipe instructions though, to ensure it is thoroughly cooked.
Spice Rack Chicken
Roast Chicken is not just for weekends.
I have always been a fan of a simple but delicious roast chicken dinner. It is one of the most common meals we serve in our family, both during the week and for Sunday dinner.
As our very popular One Hour Roast Chicken has proven for years, it really is a fuss-free dinner for any day of the week.
How to Roast a Chicken
When you think about it, you can prep a whole chicken in minutes and then basically leave it alone to roast in the oven. What could be easier?
This recipe, stays true to that basic idea, while infusing amazing complimentary flavours in to the skin and meat. The only splurge here, if indeed it is a splurge, is to use real dairy butter in the recipe.
Use only real dairy butter.
It really does bring great flavour but if your budget does not stretch to that, good quality margarine is okay to use. It is the herbs and spices that bring the most flavour in the end anyway.
Plan for leftovers of this Spice Rack Chicken.
Planning for leftover chicken is both economical and time saving. As I have mentioned many times before, that’s why I often cook roast chickens at once and waste absolutely none of it.
There are a multitude of leftover chicken ideas here on Rock Recipes if you use our search bar to find them. Also, any of the recipes in our Leftover Turkey Ideas Collection, apply equally well to leftover chicken.
As always, save the carcasses and bones from both chickens to make outstanding stock, which you can turn into a tasty soup, like our Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup.
Yes, with a little planning and imagination, cooking a roast chicken dinner once, can easily turn into 3 tasty meals.
Looking for more chicken dinner ideas. Be sure to check out this collection of our Most Popular Chicken Recipes of the last decade.
This recipe was originally published in my first Rock Recipes Cookbook back in 2014 under the title, Spice Rack Sage Butter Roast Chicken. I have shortened the title here to make it more search friendly.
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Spice Rack Chicken
Spice Rack Chicken. A budget friendly way to make a flavour infused, juicy roast chicken using common herbs and spices already in your cupboard. Economical never tasted so good!
Ingredients
- 3 pound fresh whole chicken
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 small onion, or large shallot cut in chunks
- 2 tsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to season
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Beat together the butter, salt, pepper, sage , garlic powder and onion powder until well combined.
- Loosen the skin on the breasts and thighs of the chicken by very gently pushing your fingers between the skin and the meat. Be careful not to tear the skin.
- Using about a tablespoon of the sage butter at a time, gently push it under the skin all over the chicken.
- Pat the outside of the chicken to distribute the butter as evenly as you can all over the bird.
- Season the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper and stuff the onion or shallot chunks inside.
- Tie the chicken legs together with butcher string and tuck the wing tips under the chicken.
- Place the chicken on a roasting rack and roast UNCOVERED until the chicken is completely cooked. It is not necessary to baste this chicken,.
- Chicken generally takes about 20 minutes per pound to be completely cooked but sometimes an unstuffed bird will roast more quickly.
- I ALWAYS use a meat thermometer to ensure that the internal temperature at the center of the thickest part of the breast and thighs has reached at least 170 -180 degrees F.
- Avoid hitting a bone with your thermometer as this can give an inaccurate reading.
Notes
ALWAYS let your chicken rest under a tent of aluminum foil for 10 -15 minutes before carving. This step is essential for a juicy chicken; carving a chicken too early can result in drier meat, especially breast meat.
That's because the juices need a few minutes to redistribute through the meat. Carve it too quickly and the juices will run out on the cutting board or platter and be lost from inside the meat.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 658Total Fat 43gSaturated Fat 15gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 23gCholesterol 226mgSodium 511mgCarbohydrates 3gFiber 1gSugar 1gProtein 62g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.