This is truly the easiest garlic herb roast chicken, and the easiest fool proof way to roast any whole chicken. The chicken is infused with garlic, herbs, spice and roasted with whole baby onions, garlic cloves, mushrooms and herbs. The chicken is perfectly juicy tender ready in just 35 minutes with a few tips and tricks. Spice it up and serve it in endless ways—this is a go to recipe and a time saver for roast chicken!
I have to say, other than the fact that I really wanted to share this awesome and easiest garlic herb roast chicken recipe, and beside the fact that it’s a favorite at many of my cooking classes because of how easy and versatile it is, there is another reason.
A few months ago, I read a post from a very popular food blogger about her failures each time she roasts a whole chicken. And not only that, she has come out and declared the end of trying to ever roast a whole chicken—and showed many horrific photos to support her case. I thought it was super funny and brave the way she expressed her frustration. But then I remembered I know quite a few people who feel just the same, so I thought this easiest garlic herb roast chicken recipe had to make its way here and give roast chicken a come back!
Most of us hesitate to roast a whole chicken for different reasons, I think the most common reasons are either the time factor, or the fact that it over cooks and dries out—or doesn’t cook all the way through. The very first time I ever attempted to make a whole roast chicken, for some reason I faced another frustration—that chicken was so very bland, I remember shredding it, tossing it with a ton of spice and making quesadillas with it the next day!
Well back to the easiest garlic herb roast chicken recipe, why it’s a go to roast chicken—the first tip, it starts by butterflying the chicken, which simply just means removing the back bone of the chicken and smashing the middle bone of the chicken breast making the chicken flat looking like a butterfly. The photos are best to explain. This tiny little trick which you can ask your butcher to do for you, or take a couple of minutes to do yourself, saves 20 minutes of cooking time in the oven—so it’s well worth it. Another thing is, it allows your to rub all your spice and flavors better into the chicken.
Another big tip and time saver I use here is, I sear the chicken skin side down for 3 minutes before I roast it. This gives the skin a beautiful golden crust before roasting and again saves time waiting for the skin to crisp in the oven while worrying about the chicken drying out. After I sear the skin side, I flip the chicken and then throw in tiny baby onions, whole garlic cloves, fresh herbs, mushrooms and finally the chicken is ready for roasting. You can add small baby potatoes, green beans, or any veggies you like. A really silly tiny tip about the veggies added in—might sound tedious but it does make a difference, just a pinch of salt, spice and olive oil tossed into those veggies before they get roasted will make a huge difference in the final taste—so I strongly recommend not to skip this.
The flavors in this easiest garlic herb roast chicken is obvious—plenty of garlic and herbs, but it has a good load of them since it won’t marinate, and we don’t want another bland chicken! I use a mixture of cilantro, parsley, thyme and mint. Lots of fresh minced garlic, lots of dried oregano, some allspice and some cinnamon—this bit of cinnamon adds so much to the chicken and you won’t ever taste it, I promise! You can try so many different spices and flavors, the sky is your limit.
The chicken roasts for 35 minutes and when it’s out I splash it with a quarter cup of orange juice or even apple juice. I mix this with the leftover juices and oils at the bottom of the pan and it creates such a wonderful juis or sauce to drizzle on top of this super yummy easiest garlic herb roast chicken—try this and you’ll forever enjoy whole roast chicken!:)
- 1 whole chicken (about 4 lbs), butterflied *see notes
- ½ cup of chopped mixed herbs such as parsley, cilantro, thyme, mint
- 6 large cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 Tablespoon of dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon of allspice
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon of black pepper
- 2 teaspoon of olive oil
- 8 baby onions
- 6 whole cloves of garlic
- ½ cup of whole mushrooms
- ½ teaspoon of olive oil mixed with a pinch of salt and ½ teaspoon of oregano
- 1 few grape tomatoes (optional)
- ¼ cup of orange juice or apple juice
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Mix the garlic, herbs and spice in a bowl and then take this mixture and rub it all over the chicken, on both sides and in between the skin and the meat. To do this, gently take your fingers and place them in between the skin and meat of the chicken separating them as much as possible while still keeping the skin attached to the chicken at corner points.
- Place a cast iron (or oven safe skillet) over medium high heat and add in the olive oil.
- When the oil heats up, place the chicken skin side down in the hot skillet and sear it for 3 minutes.
- In the meantime, mix the onions, garlic, mushrooms with the olive oil, salt and oregano mixture.
- Flip the chicken and throw in the onions, mushrooms and garlic scattering them all around the chicken. Let the chicken cook for a minute before taking the skillet off the heat.
- Place the skillet in the oven and roast for 35-40minutes (depending on the size of your chicken).
- When the chicken is out of the oven and the pan is still hot, add the grape tomatoes and then add in the juice and mix it with the juices at the bottom of the skillet. Cover the chicken with this juice. Serve.
- notes **
- To butterfly a chicken, place a whole chicken on a cutting boars, breast side down.
- Take a kitchen scissors and follow along the back bone of the chicken from neck to bottom and from both sides.
- Cut off the back bone entirely from side to side and top to bottom. Then flip the chicken so the breast side is facing up, then take your hand and place it in the middle of the breast and push it down to break that middle bone and flatten the chicken completely.
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