Sunday Night Roast Chicken with Herb Butter
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From Laurie David’s book, The Family Dinner, this roast chicken is a great dish for creating cozy family moments around the table.
This roast chicken comes from Laurie David’s cookbook, The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time. The book is so much more than just a collection of interesting recipes — though there are many by co-author Kirstin Uhrenholdt — it’s an inspirational guide to making dinnertime a special ritual in your home.
David, best known as the producer of An Inconvenient Truth and ex-wife of Seinfeld creator Larry David, understands that dinnertime is not always easy: life is busy, kids are antsy or texting, husbands are distracted, and a meal that takes two hours to prepare is inhaled in less than ten minutes.
To help, she offers lots of recipes and fun ideas like theme nights, table games and conversation starters to make dinner fun and encourage families to linger at the table. She also shares traditions and candid stories from her own parenting journey—from babies to teenagers to divorce—and shows how the simple ritual of dinner kept everyone connected and together through it all. I’m a big fan of hers (and her ex) and loved how the book felt like chatting over coffee at her kitchen table.
If you take only a few ideas from the book, I think you’ll find it worthwhile. For me, the “aha moment” was the chapter on gratitude. I realized that dinner is not just about the food—you need rituals to set the tone. Taking a moment to appreciate the meal and people around us helps us disconnect from our busy lives and ease into quality family time. And it doesn’t have to be religious. David offers pages of suggestions, from prayers to quotations to funny childhood poems (my kids liked the old camp blessing, “Rub a Dub Dub, Thanks for the Grub, Yea God!”)—mix it up, come up with your own, whatever works for you.
To be honest, I loved the message of this book so much that I didn’t even care about the recipes, but I tried and few and, to my delight, they were delicious. I felt this one for Sunday Night Roast Chicken really captured the essence of the book, which is about creating cozy moments for your family around the dinner table. Try serving it with my Parmesan Smashed Potatoes and Roasted Carrots with Thyme. Enjoy!
You can purchase The Family Dinner Book here.
Note: I’ve taken some liberties in adapting this recipe. The original version calls for a whole chicken, but I prefer a cut-up chicken instead because it’s much easier to serve. I’ve also made some minor changes to the ingredients and method, but the finished product is pretty much the same. If your grocery store carries a “Poultry Blend” herb mixture, buy that–it contains all the herbs you’ll need.
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Sunday Night Roast Chicken with Herb Butter
From Laurie David’s book, The Family Dinner, this roast chicken is a great dish for creating cozy family moments around the table.
Ingredients
For the Herb Butter
- 5 3-inch sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 3-inch sprig fresh rosemary
- 5 fresh sage leaves
- 1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
For the Chicken
- 6 shallots, peeled and halved
- 1 whole head garlic, clean, unpeeled and cut in half horizontally
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 chicken, 4 – 4 ½ pounds, cut into pieces (or 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts)
- Herb butter (above)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
For the Sauce
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Make the herb butter: Pull herbs from the stems and chop finely. Combine the chopped herbs, shallots, lemon zest, honey and butter in small bowl and blend well. Set aside.
- Place the shallots and garlic in a roasting pan and toss with the olive oil (it's okay if the garlic breaks apart a bit). Pat the chicken VERY dry with paper towels (this will help the skin to crisp) and place in the roasting pan; do not crowd. Use a soup spoon to rub the herb butter all over the chicken and under the skin too (if you don't eat the skin, rub a lot of it underneath!). Sprinkle the kosher salt evenly all over the chicken and season with fresh pepper to your liking. Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 35-40 minutes, or until the skin is golden brown. Turn the heat down to 375 degrees; continue to roast for 15-20 minutes more, or until done. Chicken should be done in less than an hour; do not overcook.
- Transfer the chicken and the shallots to serving platter to rest and cover with foil. Discard the garlic. Pour off all the fat, leaving the brown baked-on bits in the bottom of the roasting pan. Add the chicken broth and place on the stove over high heat; bring to a boil and whisk in Dijon mustard. Using whisk or wooden spoon, stir up and combine the brown bits with the broth and continue to cook until the liquid is reduced by half, 5-8 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter. Pour the sauce into a gravy boat and serve alongside chicken. (If you want to get fancy, you can strain the gravy but I never bother.)
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Calories: 1,237
- Fat: 85 g
- Saturated fat: 28 g
- Carbohydrates: 27 g
- Sugar: 10 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 91 g1
- Sodium: 1,376 mg
- Cholesterol: 371 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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I have an issue with quantities. Especially the shallot. Shallots come in a variety of sizes. From small to huge. You should use weights instead !
And temps are questionable due to chicken size. I used skinless breasts so I didn’t have an issue with 400 degree issues. I usually do 375… I am planning to do this tonite and I’m really excited ! Your herb butter idea sounds absolutely scrumptious!
Hi Stephen, Any size shallot should work but I’d go with medium-sized. And the great majority of my recipes include conversions to metric/weight measurements (I just added them to this one). To view them, scroll down to the recipe, and immediately under the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a little toggle. If you move it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. Hope that helps!
Made this last evening for dinner and it was delicious! Happy to have noted to cut the chicken into pieces before cooking as I had missed that on initial read and only picked it up when reviewing others comments.
I added cubed potatoes to the pan to roast in the chicken fat and they were equally delicious and didn’t impact cooking time despite the pan being a bit more crowded. Will try adding carrots too next time!
This will be our go to roast chicken recipe. Thank you, Jenn, for another stellar recipe.
Made this recipe with 2 split chicken breast, the potatoes au gratin recipe, and shallots and green beans recipe. It was outstanding!
Because I cooked the chicken and potatoes at the same time I started at 450 degrees for 35 mins and 375 for the remaining 20 mins (and rested the chicken)
So good!! Definitely will be making this again!
Jenn, I am making this for the second time.
Absolutely delicious!!
Made this last night and what a fantastic, comforting Sunday supper it was! I made it with 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts in my Detroit Pizza pan; who knew I’d be able to further justify the cost of that pan with this super-delicious dish. The roasted shallots were so good, especially mixed into the low sodium chicken rice mix I made as a side. And steamed frozen green beans became gourmet green beans with just a bit of the luscious pan sauce. Thank you, Jenn, for this and your many wonderful recipes; absolutely LOVE your cookbooks!
I have made so many of your recipes and they are all family favorites. The timing on this one is wrong. A 4 lb chicken wont be done in the times listed, and 450 will burn the butter as it has such a low burning point. So im still searching for that perfect roasted chicken recipe!
Jenn I love your recipes. You are my “go to” when I’m looking for something to cook. I love how I can count on your ingredient amounts and processes to work out great. Unfortunately this recipe isn’t up to your standards. The times and and temperatures seem “off”. My whole house became smoky (and smelled for two days) and the chicken took only about half the time to cook. Flavors were nothing special.
I had trouble with the temperatures also I did 40 at 475
20 at 375 20 more and 20 more at 400.
The chicken was ok. I am just as happy with 350 for 2.5 hours and salt and pepper. Sorry, usually your recipes are incredible awesome and delish. I do only have an electric oven so it might be that.
Can you make this with a spatchcocked chicken? If yes how would this effect the cooking time?Thank you
Hi Janet, if you spatchcock the chicken, you’ll probably only need to cook it for 35 to 40 minutes (but use an instant-read thermometer to make sure the temperature of the meat has reached 165°F before removing it from the oven). Hope you enjoy!