Roast Chicken with Herb Bunch
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2 or whole chicken
- 3/4 cup herb bunch
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
- Melted butter
- 4–5 medium-sized potatoes
Instructions
- Wash the chicken in hot water, pat it dry, and lay it down, breast side up. Remove the innards and reserve them for making stock. Loosen the skin from the breasts and slide herb bunch between the skin and meat. Reserve some herbs for later. Heavily season the entire bird with salt and black pepper, then refrigerate it uncovered for 1-3 days. It will dry out a bit. That’s good. Keep it on a rack, so it has good circulation around it.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut potatoes into 1-inch cubes, coat them with a few tablespoons of olive oil and butter, and layer them around the edge of a large pre-heated cast iron sklllet (or roasting pan). Set the chicken in the middle of the potatoes, breast side up. Roast for 15 minutes, then flip the bird, stir the potatoes and toss in the remaining herb bunch.
- Continue roasting for 45 minutes or until the chicken’s leg wiggles easily and feels like you could pull it off without much trouble. When you insert a knife in the leg, the juices should run clear. (On a meat thermometer, this is about 160 degrees.)
- Let the chicken sit for 10 minutes.
- em boil for 6 minutes, and then remove from the water, ready to serve with butter and salt.
- Carve the chicken and serve with the potatoes and a salad made with whatever’s in season (green stuff in cool weather; tomatoes in warm weather),