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Sunday Night Roast Chicken with Herb Butter

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By Jenn Segal
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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.

Roast chicken with herb butter and lemon slices.

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.

 

Cover of the book \"The Family Dinner\" by Laurie David.
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

Metric Cup Measures
By Jenn Segal
Adapted from The Family Dinner by Laurie David and Kirstin Uhrenholdt

From Laurie David’s book, The Family Dinner, this roast chicken is a great dish for creating cozy family moments around the table.

Servings: 4

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

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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
Nutritional Data Disclaimer

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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Comments

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  • Hi Jenn,

    I came across your website by accident and I am so glad I did. Everything I have made from your site has come out wonderfully! Thanks for sharing your expertise!
    I’m curious on the Sunday Night Roast Chicken…The picture shows what I believe to be lemons and apples mixed in with the chicken. Is that correct and did you roast them in the pan with the chicken? Thanks again for posting your wonderful recipes! Jennifer

    • Hi Jennifer, glad you’re enjoying the recipes! I actually just added those already roasted lemons and apples into the picture because I thought they looked nice; they’re not actually part of the recipe!

  • IN beginning for the sauce it calls for broth. At the end it calls for stock, which is better?

    • Hi Judy, Thanks for catching that. Either is fine but I use broth.

  • Is there anyway I can use only thighs? My family is not big on white meat…

    • Sure Shannon, just make sure to get the bone-in variety. Hope you enjoy!

  • Amazing!

    • — Christine Laney
    • Reply

  • Do I place the chicken right on top of the shallots and garlic?

    • Yep– hope you enjoy!

  • If I spatchcock the chicken is it the same temp and roasting time?

    • Hi Tori, if you spatchcock the chicken, you probably will only need to cook it for 35-40 minutes (but use an instant-read thermometer make sure the temperature of the meat has reached 165°F before removing from the oven). Enjoy!

  • Hi – LOVE all your recipes. Quick question on the herb butter – when putting on chicken. You said to use soup spoon to rub all over chicken……. is the butter melted or keep it “paste like” consistency?

    • Hi Randi, It should be paste-like. Enjoy!

  • My husband loved the chicken. It was moist and flavorful!

  • I made this chicken dish last night and it was delicious. Tender and very flavorful.
    Will definitely be made again!

    Thanks for all the beautiful and delicious recipes !

  • I can’t have dairy. Can I sub olive oil for the butter?

    • Steph, could you use non-dairy butter or margarine?

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