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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Hi Susan,
The roast chicken is definitely best served right out of the oven. Your instincts are right that the chicken would likely dry out. Also, the herbs and lemon zest get wonderfully crispy in the oven and that texture will get lost if it sits. If it helps, the sauce is actually really easy to make. Now that said, I will tell you that I’ve reheated leftovers in the oven with excellent results, so if you had to do it ahead of time I think it’s better to cook it then reheat it, rather than keep it warm for a long period of time but I’m not sure I’d risk that with company 🙂
Hope that helps! Jenn
I’m planning to try your recent Sunday Night Chicken for a dinner party tomorrow and am considering how to handle preparation somewhat in advance utilizing my Miele warming oven. Do you think this is possible without compromising the look, taste and texture? Can the entire dish be done in advance (like 5 PM – 6 PM for 8 PM consumption?) and not have the chicken dry out? That is chicken kept covered (or maybe not??) and the reduced sauce both waiting in the warming oven?? Do you think it could be juicy after 90 minutes? I’d like to have the sauce reduced and the pan cleaned in advance – if possible. But – the chicken must be cooked to achieve this and I don’t want it to dry out or the herbs to look “olive” instead of green!
My husband is a huge fan of roast chicken. I have tried many other recipes but I have to say this was by far the best roast chicken ever. Thank you for sharing it.
So delicious!!! We love all your recipes!!! This was so good and I used some of the chicken to make soup. It was the best.
Made the chicken last night–yum! Thanks for sharing!
I made the roasted chicken last weekend. It was delicious. (I actually made 4 times the recipe for the herb butter and froze it. Fresh herbs are really expensive where I live, so I figured I should try to get a few uses out of it.) I’ve been looking forward to an occasion to make the Rosemary nuts as well — we’re planning on hosting some people for the football game this Sunday – a perfect excuse. Thanks again for these posts. I really enjoy the way you tell the stories – especially with step by step pictures.
What a great idea! Herbs are very expensive here as well, so I think I’ll try your tip of making extra and freezing it.
Ordered the book and made the chicken. Delicious!
I enjoyed your post about Laurie David’s cookbook and family dinners. It is true – you spend so much time planning, shopping, cooking, and then cleaning up all in the name of the family dinner. When they woof down or complain about your food, it is a bummer. I get through it because I know that what goes on at the family table is more than filling hungry bellies. I cannot wait to read this book. Thanks for the tip!
SOunds like a wonderful cookbook! And I totally agree..kids learning to swim…YES!!!
It sounds like a lovely book – I’ve been seeing it around a lot lately. Mealtimes are our favorite parts of the day (and not just because we’re eating!). The chicken looks amazing. 🙂