Roast Chicken with Herb Butter
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This roast chicken recipe features crispy, golden skin, herb butter, and a rich Dijon pan sauce—simple enough for a weeknight, impressive enough for company.
There’s nothing better than a home-cooked meal to bring everyone to the table, and this roast chicken with herb butter is exactly that. Adapted from The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time by Laurie David, it’s the kind of dish that works just as well for a Sunday dinner as it does for an easy-but-impressive weeknight meal.
The chicken is slathered in a bright, flavorful herb butter made with fresh thyme, rosemary, sage, lemon zest, and a touch of honey. As it roasts, the butter melts into the meat, infusing it with rich flavor, while the shallots and garlic caramelize in the pan. And to finish, a quick Dijon pan sauce made straight from the drippings—no extra effort, just incredible flavor.
Pair this roast chicken recipe with Parmesan smashed potatoes and roasted carrots for a meal that’s simple but special.
“Wonderful, easy, and foolproof recipe.”
What You’ll Need To Make Roast Chicken
- Fresh Thyme, Rosemary, And Sage: Infuse the herb butter with earthy, aromatic flavors that enhance the chicken.
- Shallots And Garlic: Used in both the herb butter and roasting pan, these aromatics add depth, sweetness, and a rich, savory base to the dish.
- Lemon Zest: Brightens the herb butter with a fresh citrus note that balances the richness.
- Honey: Adds a touch of sweetness to the herb butter, enhancing the overall flavor.
- Butter: Softened for the herb butter to keep the chicken moist and flavorful, and added to the sauce for a silky finish.
- Olive Oil: Helps caramelize the shallots and garlic in the roasting pan while keeping the chicken skin crisp.
- Chicken: Using bone-in, skin-on chicken is key for the best flavor and juiciness—the bones help retain moisture, and the skin crisps up beautifully in the oven. You can cut a whole cut-up chicken or 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts.
- Kosher Salt And Black Pepper: Work together to enhance flavor and help crisp the skin.
- Low-Sodium Chicken Broth: Forms the base of the sauce, picking up all the delicious browned bits from the roasting pan.
- Dijon Mustard: Gives the sauce a subtle tang and depth of flavor.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Make the herb butter. Finely chop the thyme, rosemary, and sage. In a small bowl, mix the herbs with the shallots, lemon zest, honey, and butter until well combined. Set this mixture aside.
Step 2: Roast the chicken. Toss the shallots and garlic with olive oil in a roasting pan or large oven-safe skillet. Keeping the garlic unpeeled prevents it from burning while still infusing flavor into the pan juices.
Pat the chicken very dry with paper towels. (Removing excess moisture from the skin before roasting is key to getting that crispy, golden-brown exterior.) Place it in the pan over or around the shallots and garlic. Rub the herb butter all over the chicken and under the skin. Getting butter under the skin ensures that the flavors reach the meat, not just the surface. Sprinkle evenly with salt and season with black pepper.
Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the skin is golden brown. Reduce the heat to 375°F and continue roasting for 15 to 20 minutes, until cooked through. Lowering the temperature after initial browning prevents the chicken from drying out while ensuring even cooking. Total cook time should be under an hour—avoid overcooking.
Transfer the chicken and shallots to a serving platter, cover with foil, and discard the garlic. Letting the chicken rest is important; it allows the juices to redistribute, making the meat more tender and juicy.
Step 3: Make the sauce. Pour off the fat from the roasting pan, leaving the browned bits behind. Those browned bits (fond) are packed with concentrated flavor—they’ll make your sauce deeply savory. Place the pan over high heat, add the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Whisk in the Dijon mustard and scrape up the brown bits, cooking until reduced by half, 5 to 8 minutes.
Finally, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter.
Pour the sauce into a gravy boat and serve alongside the chicken. (Straining is optional; I never bother.)
Video Tutorial
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Roast Chicken with Herb Butter
Ingredients
For the Herb Butter
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 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, cleaned, unpeeled, and cut in half horizontally
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 chicken, 4 to 4 ½ pounds (1.8 to 2 kg), cut into 4 or 6 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 (235°C) and set an oven rack in the middle position.
- Make the herb butter: Pull the herbs from the stems and finely chop. Combine the chopped herbs, shallots, lemon zest, honey, and butter in a small bowl and blend well. Set aside.
- Place the shallots and garlic in a roasting pan or large oven-safe skillet 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 it in the roasting pan. 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 salt evenly all over the chicken and season with fresh pepper to your liking.
- Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the skin is golden brown. Turn the heat down to 375°F (190°C); continue to roast for 15 to 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 a serving platter to rest and cover with foil. Discard the garlic.
- Pour off all the fat from the roasting pan, leaving the brown baked-on bits in the bottom. Add the chicken broth and place on the stove over high heat; bring to a boil and whisk in the mustard. Using a whisk or wooden spoon, scrape up and combine the brown bits with the broth and continue to cook until the liquid is reduced by half, 5 to 8 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter. Pour the sauce into a gravy boat and serve alongside the chicken. (You can strain the gravy if you'd like, but I never bother.)
Notes
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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.
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!