Best Lemon Butter Roasted Chicken Recipes

ROASTED CHICKEN WITH LEMON BUTTER

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place a large skillet or roasting pan in the oven to preheat while you prepare the chicken.
• Begin by preparing a lemon butter. Place 4 tablespoons of the butter in a mixing bowl and add about 1 teaspoon of zest from the lemons. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
• Flatten the chicken by cutting out the backbone and flattening the breast by firmly pressing with the heel of your hand. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Using your fingers, loosely separate the skin from the breast and thighs. Smear the lemon butter evenly in the cavity between the skin and meat, ensuring it is worked evenly over the bird. With the skin side facing up, drizzle olive oil over the chicken.
• Remove the preheated pan from the oven and place the chicken in the pan, skin-side down.
• Place the lemon slices over the bird along with fennel, onions, garlic, thyme and oregano. As it cooks, this will flavor the bird.
• Place in the oven and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, flip the chicken to skin-side up and add half the wine to the pan. Return to the oven and roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the joint between the leg and thigh registers 165 degrees F, approximately 30 minutes longer. When the chicken is done, remove from the pan to a serving platter and allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving and plating.
• Meanwhile, make a pan sauce. Place the chicken pan over medium-high heat and add the remaining butter and wine. Stir until the butter is melted and the sauce thickens slightly. Pour the pan sauce over the platter of chicken. Serve immediately.

ROASTED CHICKEN WITH GARLIC, ROSEMARY AND LEMON BUTTER

Steps:

• 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 450 degrees. Line bottom of broiler pan with foil, place broiler pan rack on top; set aside. In small bowl, mix 1/2 teaspoon salt with garlic, rosemary, lemon zest, and butter until combined. Sprinkle underside of chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Following illustrations 1 through 3 below, gently loosen bottom portion of skin covering each breast. Using small spoon, place a quarter of softened butter under skin, directly on meat in center of each breast half. Using spoon, spread butter evenly over breast meat. Rub skin of each whole breast with 1 1/2 teaspoons oil and sprinkle liberally with pepper. Set chicken on roasting rack and then on rimmed baking sheet. 2. Roast until thickest part of breast registers 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer chicken to cutting board and let rest 5 minutes. To carve, follow illustrations 1 through 3 below. Serve immediately.

LEMON BUTTER ROASTED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Zest the lemons, separate. 1 will be for the cavity of the chicken, the other will be mixed with the room temperature butter.
• Combine the chives or scallions, the zest of one lemon, garlic cloves, parsley and the juice from the two lemons.
• Stuff the chicken with the mixture.
• Sprinkle the entire chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika.
• Drizzle the top with olive oil.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 1.5 hours (or until brown and done at internal temperature of 155.)
• Combine the room temperature butter with the other half of lemon zest. Serve each piece with a teaspoon of the mixture. So tender and flavorful.