Everyday Dorie: Herb-Butter Chicken

November 10, 2023 at 11:31 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 10 Comments
Tags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory

Herb-Butter Chicken is just what is sounds like– chicken with an herby compound butter that’s smeared underneath the skin to flavor and baste the meat as it roasts in a Dutch oven. I used chopped parsley and tarragon in my butter blend, chives instead of scallions and added some mined garlic along with the lemon zest and s&p. I swapped the bread that Dorie uses as a base under the chicken with some halved baby potatoes, but I kept the sliced onions.

We are a household of just two, so my “big” Dutch oven is only 3.5 quarts. I brought home a small chicken (under 4 lbs) that fit nicely in it, and checked it a bit early. The herbs sort of stayed in pockets under the chicken skin (because I didn’t do a great job of really getting it spread around), but having all that butter melt into the meat made it really moist. And the drippings at the bottom of the pan were delish and flavored the creamy potatoes and silky onions so nicely. This is an easy way to roast a chicken– getting that butter under the skin is kind of an icky task, but after that you really don’t have to do much else to it– and you can customize the butter, flavoring it however you like.

For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.

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Well you did it perfectly…that is the exact color I was hoping to get and it looks gorgeous. We really liked this…adding a little garlic sounds nice, too, I made a note of that in the book for myself. Love that pot…it has the marks of a real kitchen doing real cooking. 🙂

Comment by Kayte Gerth— November 11, 2023 #

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- I started to bake sourdough in that pot and it has never looked pristine since. 🙂
  
  Comment by steph (whisk/spoon)— November 11, 2023 #
  
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  - You know your blog first caught my attention because your cookie sheets had all been USED and loved and I thought to myself…”this is the one I want to follow…” and I have been following ever since. 🙂
    
    Comment by Kayte Gerth— November 13, 2023 #
  - haha–those cookies sheets are my most prized kitchen possessions!
    
    Comment by steph (whisk/spoon)— November 13, 2023 #
This sounds wonderful. Sorry I have not been baking many of DORIEs recipes.

Comment by attemptingeternallygratitude— November 13, 2023 #

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- no worries– we are happy to see you anytime you can join in! xoxo
  
  Comment by steph (whisk/spoon)— November 13, 2023 #
  
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Just perfect!! Wow…to have gotten that browning haha. Next time! It is icky to me to get the butter all in place and I know I rushed it…didn’t seem to matter for the taste but next time I will also go for the look haha. Great job as usual!! 😍

Comment by isthisakeeper— November 15, 2023 #

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- it was icky to me, too! i don’t do that well handling meats. haha. i think i got pretty good color bc i baked it on what i’d call the upper middle rack of the oven, so the tall pot was relatively close to the oven “ceiling.” i think baking a bit closer to the top reflects the heat onto the food for more browning, and can adjust or tent foil if need be.
  
  Comment by steph (whisk/spoon)— November 16, 2023 #
  
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  - Thanks Steph for the tip! I will do that next time so I can try for some color like yours 🙂 I also don’t like handling meats…this time I tried wearing gloves and it just was too sticky…couldn’t smear the butter that well. Next time….no gloves and closer rack!
    
    Comment by isthisakeeper— November 16, 2023 #
I used a similar-sized Dutch Oven and there was barely any room for a 4-pound chicken. My didn’t brown as well as yours. I guess putting the chicken in the upper-third of the oven is the trick!

Comment by Shirley @ EverOpenSauce— November 17, 2023 #

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