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, I love all your recipes. How would you make this one kosher? Can’t combine meat and milk products. TIA
Hi Lauren, I suspect a non-dairy butter or margarine would work here. Hope you enjoy!
This is THE BEST chicken recipe EVER. Love it with roasted sweet potatoes and asparagus or risotto. Seriously yum. Make it!
This was delicious. I used 4 chicken breasts with skin on and bone in. I didn’t have fresh herbs so used Italian mix of dried herbs in the butter.
Can I use 2 whole shallots and red onion? also can I use (minced) garlic in jar instead full garlic head
Hi Michelle, I think you can get away with the shallots and red onion, but minced garlic won’t work here. Sorry!
Do you think the butter would be good for a turkey?
I’ve had the chicken before and the flavors were amazing! I’m trying to cook what I know this thanksgiving since this is my first time I’ll be making a whole turkey … please help!
I do think it’d be delicious!
Hi Jenn,
I’m looking forward to making this chicken recipe. I bought chicken breasts w/bone in and thighs with bone in. The breasts are really big as they are these days. How do I make sure the thighs don’t dry out waiting for the breasts to cook….or will they still cook evenly together?
Thanks so much!
I think they’ll cook in about the same amount of time, Rose — but, if you’re concerned, you can always take the thighs out of the oven a little early if they look done. Hope you enjoy it!
Could you please tell me the dried herb equivalents as its hard to get fresh herbs where I live. Thanks.
Hi Lesley, I’d use 1 teaspoon each of the herbs. I would also finely chop the dried rosemary, as it tends to be very hard.
Hi Jenn- I made this chicken and the flavor was amazing, however, the chicken was a bit dry. I think I overcooked it. I’d like to make it again. I usually boil chicken before I bake it so that it’s tender. Can I boil the chicken first and then bake it with the herb butter? If so, what do you recommend as the baking time and temperature?
Thanks!
Hi Hannah, Sorry you found this a bit dry. I wouldn’t recommend boiling the chicken before putting it in the oven – I’m sorry! My guess is that it was slightly overcooked when you made it this time around; if it would be helpful, you could use a digital leave-in meat thermometer and remove the chicken from the oven when it reaches 165-degrees F.
Hi! I was just wondering if we have to cover the roasting pan and/or if it makes a difference to cover it with the roasting pan’s lid?
No, it’s not necessary to cover the roasting pan — keeping it uncovered lets the skin on the chicken become a beautiful golden color and crisps it up nicely too. Hope you enjoy!
Jen,
I made this chicken for Rosh Hashanah and loved it. A perfect meal with the roasted carrots (can we talk about how good those were) and the Parmesan mashed potatoes (yum!) as you suggested.
It was just two of us for dinner so I made this with two bone in chicken breast’s. I cut the butter in half, but for the most part used the same amount of herbs. I have fresh rosemary and thyme in my garden, so was happy to use those. The chicken was moist (yay!) and flavorful. I am trying to cut calories so put most of the butter under the skin as per your directions, and did not eat the skin at dinner. Even without, the chicken was still delicious and moist. I’ve baked a whole chicken before and it always seems to be dry. This recipe was not dry and is definitely a keeper. Thanks for a great recipe and meal suggestion with the roasted carrots and mashed potatoes.
Vivian
Hi Jenn
Can I use this recipe for Cornish hens. Thanks
Sure, Liz. 🙂