This roast chicken is slathered with a tarragon butter and roasted. The herb infused butter is spread all over the chicken and under the skin for a moist and tender chicken full of flavour.
Roasting a chicken is so easy too but I have started to play with various seasonings. It’s a golden time for the Chief Taster! He’s yet to declare his favourite but might be holding back to see what I do next. Since the stores had tarragon, it was time for a tarragon roasted chicken. As this chicken roasts the meat is infused with the delicious flavours of the garlic and tarragon.
I’ve recently started roasting a whole chicken for the Chief Taster each week as not only is it cheaper than buying a tray of chicken breasts for him, I can make additional meals with the left-over chicken. If the dogs are lucky, they get the rest. They have their own home cooked food though and are thoroughly spoilt.
Roast Chicken Cooking Tips
- Pat the chicken dry with kitchen towel for crispier skin.
- Remove the chicken from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking to sit at room temperature. This helps the chicken cook evenly and quicker.
- The tarragon needs to be fresh and not dried. If you don’t have tarragon, fresh thyme would be a good replacement.
- You could add lemons to this by either adding lemon juice to the butter mixture and placing sliced lemons on and inside the chicken.
- Roast a chicken at a high heat for a moist chicken. A slow low heat will dry it out.
- Basting the chicken helps keep the meat moist. Use a spoon or turkey baster to scoop up the juices and drizzle over the chicken.
- Resting the chicken is important to let the meat juices redistribute through the meat.
Easy Tarragon Roast Chicken
How Long to Roast Chicken
Cooking times may vary between ovens but the general rule of thumb to roasting a chicken is 45 minutes per kg, plus an additional 20 minutes.
Try These On The Side:
Chicken goes well with most vegetables but green and leafy vegetables are a great side dish to a roast chicken. A serving of keto mashed cauliflower or turnip gratin with the chicken is a plate of pure low carb comfort food.
What To Do With Leftover Roast Chicken
Use any leftover over roast chicken in low carb wraps, salads, as an omelette filling, make a chicken mini pie or a spicy curry chicken salad.
Tarragon Roasted Chicken
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Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (about 1.8kg)
- ¼ cup butter, unsalted softened
- 2 tablespoons tarragon, fresh chopped
- 3 cloves garlic peeled & chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F degrees
- Lightly butter a large roasting tin.
- Mix the butter with the garlic, tarragon, salt and pepper
- Remove the string from the chicken legs and the giblets from the cavity (if there).
- Loosen the skin near the cavity and spread half the butter underneath it, on top of the meat.
- Slather the remaining butter over the chicken breast and legs.
- Place the chicken in the roasting tin and roast for 1 hour 15 minutes
- Baste the chicken with juices every 20 minutes for a moist meat. You could opt to baste just once half way through roasting.
- Check that the chicken is cooked by inserting a knife into the thickest part of the thigh. Clear juices indicate the chicken is cooked. If they are pink, roast for longer.
- Remove from the oven and cover with foil. Rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.
- Spoon the pan juices over the chicken or use it to make a gravy
Notes
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator.
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