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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

Powered by Edamam

  • 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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  • Jenn Segal, I like your recipes. This Sunday Night Roast Chicken with Herb Butter is perfect. The Beef Stew with Carrots and Potatoes tasted exactly like my Mom cooked on cold winter weekends. I appreciate you sharing your expertise as a classically trained chef; you write recipes clearly with helpful tips. I like the reference to other chefs and their books. Thank you.

    • My pleasure — so glad you like the recipes!

  • Hi Jenn,

    We made this last year for Christmas and plan to make it for Thanksgiving this year. The sauce is absolutely excellent, but I’ve got a request to make it a little thicker this year, almost like a gravy. Would you suggest adding a little cornstarch to the chicken broth to achieve this, or start with a roux?

    • Hi Valerie, to thicken the sauce, I’d combine 2 tablespoons of softened butter with 2 tablespoons of flour and instead of just adding butter when making the sauce, I’d add half of the butter/flour mixture and stir it until the sauce starts to thicken. Add the remaining half of the mixture if you still want it thicker.

  • My husband said the was the best roast chicken he ever had. It was a little too salty though, probably because I got Morton’s Kosher salt, which was the only one at my store at the time. I used to have David’s and that always worked well. I think Diamond Crystal is the salt of choice and will look to buy. But a great dish and recipe! I made with the excellent smashed parmesan potatoes and steamed carrots. Thank you!

  • Hi Jennifer,
    I made this chicken tonight and it was delicious. I did find that 450 for 35 minutes was a bit too long in my oven and most of the shallots were burned to a crisp! But the chicken was still wonderful and is a new favourite, next to your Peruvian chicken. Thank you so much!

    • Hi Caroline,
      Wish I read your review before I cooked the chicken. I left it for 35 mins at 450 and the skin was almost black. So for the second part I covered with foil to keep it from cooking the skin any more. Still the chicken still came out great (except for the skin) and the gravy was to die for!

  • Hi Jennifer

    I made the herb butter chicken tonight exactly as per recipe but roast as a whole chicken. The chicken turned out perfectly and was the best roasted chicken dinner. The family loved it! Thank you for this awesome recipe!

  • Hi there,
    1.Seemed the herb butter does not coat exterior on skin evenly? Any pointers or tricks ?
    2. What would be the equivalent in ‘dry herbs’ to substitute for the fresh amounts in this recipe?—

    • Hi JooJoo, I find a large spoon works well for me but if you have a pastry brush, that would work nicely too. And regarding the herbs, I would estimate that you’d need about 1-1/4 tsp. of dried thyme, a generous 1/4 tsp. of both dried rosemary and sage. Hope that helps!

      • How about if I want to use McCormick Gourmet “Italian seasoning” which is a mix of the dry herbs in this recipe plus basil, Oregano and Marjoram? How much should I use ?–thank u.

        • I’ve never used that so hard to say for sure, but I’d guess you’d need about 1-3/4 teaspoons. I’d love to hear how it turns out!

  • Tender, juicy, full of flavor! Another new family favorite!

  • Hello,
    I’d very much like to make this chicken for our Sunday diner this Sunday. Can you answer a Q for me? The recipe says to pat the chicken pieces very dry and place in the roasting pan with the garlic. It then says to rub the herb butter on/under the skin. Do I brown the chicken pieces and THEN take them out of the pan and rub on the butter or do I first rub on the butter and THEN place the pieces into the roasting pan? Thanks in advance for any guidance.
    Greg

    • Hi Greg, Once you put the chicken in the roasting pan, you rub the herb butter onto the chicken (and under the skin) before you put it in the oven. Hope that clarifies and that you enjoy!

  • Are the carbs here somewhere and I am missing that? This was amazing with the carrots too.

    • — Ines Malardino
    • Reply

    • Hi Ines, I just added the nutritional info. Each serving has 27 grams of carbs. Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂

      • I’m trying to figure out why the carbs are so high. This looks like it should be Keto friendly. Chicken, butter, herbs are all very low in carbs. I’m confused but I was hoping to make this recipe for YK next week (just quadruple the recipe for my crew).

        P.s. I made your kugel recipe today and it was a huge hit! ❤️

        • Glad you enjoyed the kugel! Regarding the carbs in this recipe, because I’m not a nutritionist, I use an online tool to calculate the nutritional information for the blog. When I plugged in the ingredients for this recipe, those were the results. I agree that the carbs sound a bit high, but I just double-checked it and am getting the same numbers. Hope you enjoy if you make it!

  • Jenn, thank you for all the delicious recipes. I have yet to make anything from your site or cookbook that wasn’t good. I have a question about roasting chicken. About two weeks ago I made your Peruvian chicken with great results. We enjoyed a tender and juicy bird with beautifully crisp skin. That recipe directs us to first roast the chicken at 425°F for 20 minutes, then turn the heat down to 375°F and continue roasting for 1 hour and 10 minutes more. This is 90 minutes of cooking time total for a 4-pound bird. In contrast, this recipe directs us to roast for 35-40 minutes at 450°F, turn the heat down to 375°F, and continue roasting for 15-20 minutes more. This is 60 minutes total, also for a 4-pound bird (the same size as the Peruvian chicken recipe). From the reviews for this recipe, it looks like this 60-minute time is working well for everyone, but I’m curious about the time difference between the two recipes. It’s a 50% difference, which surprised me. My guess is that this is because it roasts for twice as long at a high temperature in comparison with the Peruvian chicken, and therefore takes less time to finish. But does it have anything to do with the type of fat used? This one is butter-based while the Peruvian chicken’s is olive oil-based. Since the Peruvian chicken went so well for me I’ve been thinking about just using those same roasting directions for this recipe. I’m curious to hear what you think, given the significant time difference between the two recipes. Thanks!

    • Hi Anne, I’m so glad you like the recipes! The reason for the difference in baking time and temperature here is because the Peruvian chicken is baked as a whole chicken whereas this recipe has chicken pieces. If you do want to use a whole chicken here, just use the time and temperature guidance from the Peruvian chicken. Hope that helps!

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