Herbs de Provence Roast Chicken

My go-to Monday night roast chicken recipe… Herbs de Provence Roast Chicken

As kids, Monday night was always roast night. A cracking dinner with all the roast vegetables to start the week back at work. Makes complete sense doesn’t it? Roast the chicken alongside chunks of potato, pumpkin, sweet potato,  carrots, whole garlic, and serve with steamed greens and lashings of made from scratch, chicken gravy. Or swap things up a bit. It’s a great mid-week dinner with colcannon and a green salad.

These days I tend to cook a roast for Sunday lunch or Monday dinner most weeks. Either way, I always make extra so we have lunchmeat sorted for the week!

What you need to get started

• Herbs de Provence is a combination of five culinary herbs typical of Provence, France. It’s a pantry staple for a slow cook. As well as roast chicken, it is also a cracking combination with garlic and roast lamb, try sprinkling over roast vegetables as well as adding to soups and stews. 

• Sea Salt. I always feel like salt comes down to taste. There are so many salts on the market, with such vast, individual flavours. Murry River Sea Salt is usually my sea salt of choice and is always in my pantry. However, if you have a favourite salt, give it a try!
  
• Butter. I use unsalted, just because it’s what i always have on hand. Aside from spreadable butter for toast, I only buy unsalted butter blocks
  
• A good, family size organic chicken

The details

1. Preheat oven to 200°c.
2. Start with making the salt. Combine the herb de Provence and salt in a small bowl. Give a quick mix to combine.
3. Chop your butter into 12 pieces. Roll the butter in the salt rub. With the chicken legs pointed towards you, gently place your fingers under the chicken breast skin and loosen the skin from the breasts. Take ¾ of your butter and push it under the skin. I tend to put 3 pieces of butter on each breast and 1 each on the top on the leg (still under the skin)
4. Pop remaining butter in the chicken cavity along with the fresh herbs and lemon. Drizzle the entire chicken with olive oil and rub with any remaining salt rub.
5. Pop into a preheated oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Baste your chicken every 20minutes with the pan juices. The chook will be cooked when you can insert a skewer into the meat and the juices run clear as well as a lovely golden, crispy skin.
6. Remove from the oven, and let it rest for 10 minutes. Carve & serve.

Let’s take this up a notch

A roast chicken dinner can be as simple or spectacular as you want it to be.

Simple… Add a Caprese salad or maybe a loaf of bacon, chive, and cheese soda bread which can double up as an amazing toastie for lunch the next day by shredding any leftover chicken, topping with cheddar, a little mayo, and toasting!

Spectacular… Let go all out! I’m thinking duck fat potatoes with truffle salt, lashings of homemade gravy, lots of steamed green vegetables, peas, honey carrots, and wine. Don’t forget the wine!

A quick tip

TIP: Make extra salt rub! I always make in bulk and store mine in a jar in my spice draw. Aside from herb de Provence roast chicken, try rubbing the same salt rub in the recipe below on a leg of lamb studded with garlic cloves and rosemary. AH-MAZ-ING!

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A few more slow-cooked dinners

• Irish Stew
• Butternut Pumpkin & Chipotle Soup
• Beef & Red Wine Ragu

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