Jalapeño Roasted Chicken with Cilantro Butter
This roasted chicken is rubbed with a simple garlic-cilantro compound butter and stuffed with oranges and jalapeños, which help keep the meat moist and adds a bright flavor.
Serves4
Compound butter is my favorite culinary hat trick and the key to delicious roast chicken. It’s a simple mix of unsalted butter traditionally flavored with fresh herbs; some form of onion, garlic, or shallots; and aromatic ingredients. But really, you can add anything from lemon zest to freshly squeezed citrus juice, finely minced chipotles to maple syrup.
In Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner: 50 Winning Ways to Cook It Up!, I share how to make a classic compound butter and five of my favorite combinations, in addition to the version I use for this jalapeño roast chicken, which uses nothing more than butter, garlic, and cilantro. Lots of cilantro!
Flavoring Roast Chicken with Compound Butter
Before I send it to the oven, I start every roast chicken with a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper and a good rub-down with compound butter, making sure it gets under the skin and inside the cavity, too. This one’s no different. I also stuff this bird with oranges and jalapeños, which help keep the meat moist and lend just a hint of bright flavor without making it spicy.
If there are any, leftovers of this chicken are perfect for quick and easy weeknight pleasers like quesadillas, tacos, or tostadas.
Jalapeño Roasted Chicken with Cilantro Butter
This roasted chicken is rubbed with a simple garlic-cilantro compound butter and stuffed with oranges and jalapeños, which help keep the meat moist and adds a bright flavor.
Serves 4
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
- 1
(3 1/2 to 4-pound) whole chicken
- 4 tablespoons
unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/4 cup
finely chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon
minced or grated garlic (from 1 large or 2 small cloves)
- 2 teaspoons
salt
- 1 teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper
- 3
fresh jalapeños, trimmed and split in half lengthwise
- 1/4
large orange, cut into 2 small pieces
Instructions
If you have time, remove the chicken from your refrigerator up to 1 hour before cooking. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 450°F and make the herb butter: In a small bowl, use a fork to mash together the butter, cilantro, and garlic; set aside.
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, including inside the cavity. Sprinkle the chicken with the salt and pepper, dividing them evenly all over the body and putting some inside the cavity as well.
Rub roughly two-thirds of the herb butter all over the chicken, including under the skin and inside the cavity; set the remaining one-third of the herb butter aside. Stuff the jalapeños and orange pieces inside the cavity.
Put the chicken breast side up on a rack set in a roasting pan and place the pan in the oven. If you want to set a master timer for your overall cooking time, do so now for 60 minutes.
After the chicken has cooked for 15 minutes, spread the remaining herb butter all over the exposed chicken skin, getting into as many nooks and crannies between the legs, wings, and body as possible. After another 15 minutes, baste the chicken with drippings and reduce the oven temperature to 400°F (200°C).
Continue roasting for another 30 minutes, basting at least two more times. If at any point the drippings begin to burn, add a big splash of water to the bottom of the pan. After 60 minutes total cook time, check for doneness: an instant-read thermometer should register 160°F (70°C) at the thickest part of the breast and 165°F (75°C) at the thigh. If the chicken is not cooked through, roast for 5 to 10 minutes longer until it is.
Allow the chicken to rest for ideally 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
Excerpted from Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner © by Stacie Billis, used with permission of Storey Publishing.