Original inspiration
Here’s are intro to the recipe from when we first published it back in 2012:
We are definitely getting into roast chicken weather in New England! With whole chickens on sale at Whole Foods and Sandy bearing down on the region last weekend, it seemed like the perfect time to roast some chicken. I always get a least two meals out of it by making chicken stew on the second night–which in this case was finished right before we lost our power. Made for a nice candle light meal! But I’m getting ahead of myself. I often use this roast chicken recipe from Food & Wine, but noticed we had a few herbs and shiitake mushrooms that I hadn’t gotten a chance to use yet. So I applied some basic concepts from the recipe I’d used before to create this new and very tasty dish!
Making Herb Butter Roasted Chicken
To start making the Herb Butter Roasted Chicken, take your butter out of the refrigerator to bring to room temperature. It tends to be a bit hard to stir at first, but work at it vigorously with a sturdy spoon and it will soon be blended into a nice consistency with the ingredients well distributed. You can microwave the butter for 5 or 10 seconds if it hasn’t softened enough to work with. I actually use Earth Balance dairy free butter spread due to my son’s allergies, and that works nicely.
Once you’ve mixed the butter with the herbs outlined in the recipe below, some of that butter gets slipped under the chicken skin onto the breast meat. That helps to make sure you get nice moist chicken. The rest of the butter gets rubbed over the outside of the chicken.
The Herb Butter Roasted Chicken calls for the chicken to roast at 375 degrees for approximately 90 minutes. Ovens vary, so you’ll want to get a sense of whether you typically need a bit more or less time than recipes call for. You can determine doneness with a meat thermometer–when inserted into the thigh meat, but not touching the bone, the temperature should be 165 degrees when done. I like to check on the chicken doneness by piercing the thick thigh meat or cutting into it a bit. The juices should run clear and the breast meat should be white, but still good and juicy. When done, place the chicken on a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes. Save that pan juice for the sauce.
Start prepping the sauce ingredients after the chicken has roasted for about 45 minutes. This shiitake mushroom sauce for Herb Butter Roasted Chicken follows my basic method for mushroom sauce. I typically slice shiitake mushrooms for this sauce, but for the recent remake I used baby shiitake mushrooms. These smaller shiitakes can be cooked whole, stem and all, without slicing.
To make the sauce sauté shallots for a few minutes until softened, the sweat the mushrooms. You then cook the mushrooms in a bit of red wine, and the sauce gets finished with some additional butter and drippings from the roast chicken. This is a delicious and elegant mushroom sauce for roasted chicken!
Heat the olive oil on medium, and add the shallots. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, stir occasionally. Cook for about 5 minutes until they start to get soft and begin to “sweat”. Add the red wine and butter, stir to combine. Simmer for another 5 minutes or so to reduce the liquid by roughly half. After that, keep warm on low heat until the chicken is done roasting. After you remove the cooked chicken from the roasting pan, pour the juices into the sauce. (I poured it all in; you might want to measure out a cup to use). Add the parsley, thyme and pepper after pouring in the pan juices. Simmer for about 10 minutes to reduce the liquid, stirring frequently.
Wine Pairing for Herb Butter Roasted Chicken
When I first made this Herb Butter Roasted Chicken, I went off the beaten path and served it with the Grillo Azienda Agricola. This is a red wine from Italy’s Fruili region made with the Schioppettino grape. It’s a nice bottle of wine and change of pace, and worked well with the dish.
During the our recent remake of the Herb Butter Roasted Chicken, we went with Pinot Noir, a classic pairing for roast chicken and mushrooms. The 2012 Kenneth Volk Pinot Noir ($26, 13.8% ABV) has raspberry fruit with a bit of currant. This Pinot also has a touch of chocolate on the finish. The wine is from the Santa Maria Valley in Santa Barbara County; definitely a good bottle!
PrintRecipe card
Herb Butter Roasted Chicken with Shiitake Mushroom Sauce
Chicken roasted with garlic herb butter and topped with a shiitake mushroom sauce for a delicious version of this classic dish.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 90 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 mins
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- FOR THE BUTTER
- 5 tbsp butter, brought to room temperature
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 sprigs of thyme, chopped (about 1 tsp thyme leaves)
- salt & pepper to taste
- CHICKEN
- 1 whole chicken between 4 to 5 lbs, giblet removed
- 4 smashed garlic cloves
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- ½ of a lemon, cut into half again
- FOR THE SAUCE
- 2 cups shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp olive oil 2 butter
- 2 shallots, minced
- ⅓ cup red wine
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
- ½ chopped thyme leaves
- ¼ cup cream
- fresh ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- MAKE THE BUTTER: When the butter has softened, combine it with the other ingredients–2 cloves minced garlic, teaspoon of thyme leaves, salt and pepper to taste. It tends to be a bit hard to stir at first, but work at it vigorously with a sturdy spoon and it will soon be blended into a nice consistency with the ingredients well distributed.
- PREP THE CHICKEN: have a large roasting pan ready. Rinse the chicken and pat dry, and place on a cutting board to do the prep.
- Use your fingers to lift up the skin on the breast a bit. Take about 2 tablespoon of butter and insert under the skin, rubbing into the breast meat.
- Rub the remaining butter all over the skin, making sure the chicken is thoroughly coated. Insert the smashed garlic, lemon, 2 sprigs thyme and any remaining butter into the chicken cavity.
- Place the chicken breast side up into a roasting pan, and roast for approximately 90 minutes. Ovens vary, so you’ll want to get a sense of whether you typically need a bit more or less time than recipes call for.
- When the chicken is done roasting, place the chicken on a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes. Save that pan juice for the sauce.
- MAKE THE SAUCE AS THE CHICKEN ROASTS: Start prepping the sauce ingredients after the chicken has roasted for about 45 minutes. Heat the olive oil on medium, and add the shallots. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms, stir occasionally. Cook for about 5 minutes until they start to get soft and begin to “sweat”.
- Add the red wine and butter, stir to combine. Simmer for another 5 minutes or so to reduce the liquid by roughly half. After that, keep warm on low heat until the chicken is done roasting.
- After you remove the cooked chicken from the roasting pan, pour up to 1 cup of the chicken roasting juices into the sauce.
- Add the parsley, thyme and pepper after pouring in the pan juices. Simmer for about 10 minutes to reduce the liquid, stirring frequently.
- SERVE: Slice a portion of the chicken and top with some of the sauce. Repeat for the remaining servings, and offer extra shiitake mushroom sauce at the table. Enjoy!
Leave a Reply