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This succulent Garlic Butter Roast Chicken was inspired by a simple question: What if you rubbed the buttery spread for garlic bread on a chicken and roasted it?
The results are in: this Garlic Butter Roast Chicken tastes even better than it sounds, and it’s the perfect execution of my vision of “let’s rub garlic bread spread on a chicken and roast it”. We added lots of potatoes and carrots to the roasting pan to make this a complete meal.
As a nod to spring, we used fingerling potatoes (those long yet stubby small potatoes) and spring carrots (the small, tender carrots with their green tops still attached). But, it’s completely fine to sub regular potatoes and carrots (in spring or all year round). We also added lots of garlic to the vegetables for even more flavor (and those roasted garlic cloves taste so good after soaking up all the chicken fat!).
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Butter: Refrigerated butter generally softens up in about 30 minutes when left out at room temperature. To soften butter in the microwave, unwrap, and place on a microwave-safe plate. Then cook the butter at 10% power for 1 minute. Gently press on the butter with your finger. Still too firm? Cook for another 40 seconds at 10% power.
- Fingerling potatoes: Fingerling potatoes are small yet long potatoes with a round and stubby appearance. 1 pound of russet potatoes, quartered lengthwise, may be substituted for the fingerlings.
- Sprint carrots: Spring carrots are small (around 4 inches), tender carrots with their green tops still attached. 1 pound regular carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 3 or 4 inches pieces, may be substituted for the spring carrots.
Step-by-step instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a roasting pan and rack with nonstick spray. In a small bowl, mix together softened butter, garlic powder, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 ½ teaspoons pepper. Set aside. Starting at the back opening of the chicken, use your fingers to carefully separate the skin from the meat on the chicken breast and thighs. Be careful not to tear skin. Spread about ¼ cup of the butter mixture between the skin and meat of the chicken.
- In a medium bowl, add potatoes, carrots, garlic cloves, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to combine. Spread vegetables evenly in bottom of roasting pan.
- Fold wings of chicken across back with tips touching. Tie drumsticks together with kitchen twine. Place chicken, breast side up, in the center rack and set in roasting pan. Brush chicken with remaining garlic-butter mixture.
- Roast uncovered for 1 ½ to 2 hours, until a thermometer inserted near the thigh reaches 180 degrees. Rotate baking dish after 30 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer chicken to a rimmed baking sheet. Tent with foil for 15 minutes before carving.
- Meanwhile, return roasting pan to oven and continue to cook the vegetables until they are golden brown and fork tender, about 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove vegetables with a slotted spoon and serve with roasted chicken.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This dish serves 4 to 6 adults, 1 to 2 pieces of chicken and about more than a cup of vegetables each.
- Make ahead: After rubbing on the garlic-butter blend, the chicken can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking.
- Storage: Cool leftovers quickly and store covered in the refrigerator. Use within 3 to 4 days.
- Graniteware: I roasted my chicken in a 15-inch Granitware roasting pan. It’s the 10-pound capacity pan (I tried the smaller size, the 7-pound/13-inch pan and it was too small). This is the type of pan my mom always used when I was growing up, and I like to recreate that memory when roasting chickens myself.
- Leftover chicken: If you happen to have any leftover chicken (lucky you!), make a batch of Chicken Salad, Chicken Wild Rice Soup, Thai Peanut Chicken, Chicken Tetrazzini, Wisconsin-Style Jambalaya, or Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas.
- What to serve with Garlic Butter Roast Chicken: Obviously this chicken has carrots and potatoes right in the recipe, but if you’re looking for more, serve it with Garlic Bread! Or try a simple Garden Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can rub the garlic butter mixture on the chicken up to 24 hours in advance. Store loosely covered in the refrigerator.
Trussing a chicken is always optional but recommended. In this case, we keep it simple by just tying the drumsticks together, knowing the vegetables will be cradling the bird anyway. Trussing allows for even cooking and the juiciest possible roast chicken.
While chicken is safe to eat at 165 degrees (for breasts) or 170 degrees (for thighs), I prefer to roast chicken to 180 degrees. This is the temperature when the meat is so tender, it just falls off the bone. And isn’t that what we will want for our roast chicken?
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Garlic Butter Roast Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter softened (1 stick, see note 1)
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 (4-5 pound) whole chicken neck and giblets removed, and dried with paper towels
- 1 pound fingerling potatoes (see note 2)
- 1 pound spring carrots tops removed and cut in half lengthwise (see note 3)
- 10 cloves garlic peeled (about 1 bulb)
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a roasting pan and rack with nonstick spray.
- In a small bowl, mix together softened butter, garlic powder, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 ½ teaspoons pepper. Set aside.
- Starting at the back opening of the chicken, use your fingers to carefully separate the skin from the meat on the chicken breast and thighs. Be careful not to tear skin. Spread about ¼ cup of the butter mixture between the skin and meat of the chicken.
- In a medium bowl, add potatoes, carrots, garlic cloves, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to combine. Spread vegetables evenly in bottom of roasting pan.
- Fold wings of chicken across back with tips touching. Tie drumsticks together with kitchen twine. Place chicken, breast side up, in the center rack and set in roasting pan. Brush chicken with remaining garlic-butter mixture.
- Roast uncovered for 1 ½ to 2 hours, until a thermometer inserted near the thigh reaches 180 degrees. Rotate baking dish after 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and transfer chicken to a rimmed baking sheet. Tent with foil for 15 minutes before carving.
- Meanwhile, return roasting pan to oven and continue to cook the vegetables until they are golden brown and fork tender, about 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove vegetables with a slotted spoon and serve with roasted chicken.
Notes
- Butter: Refrigerated butter generally softens up in about 30 minutes when left out at room temperature. To soften butter in the microwave, unwrap, and place on a microwave-safe plate. Then cook the butter at 10% power for 1 minute. Gently press on the butter with your finger. Still too firm? Cook for another 40 seconds at 10% power.
- Fingerling potatoes: Fingerling potatoes are small yet long potatoes with a round and stubby appearance. 1 pound of russet potatoes, quartered lengthwise, may be substituted for the fingerlings.
- Sprint carrots: Spring carrots are small (around 4 inches), tender carrots with their green tops still attached. 1 pound regular carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 3 or 4 inches pieces, may be substituted for the spring carrots.
- Yield: This dish serves 4 to 6 adults, 1 to 2 pieces of chicken and about more than a cup of vegetables each.
- Make ahead: After rubbing on the garlic-butter blend, the chicken can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking.
- Storage: Cool leftovers quickly and store covered in the refrigerator. Use within 3 to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
This recipe has me drooling – like most all your recipes. I may adapt this to spatchcocking the bird.