Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken

Lemon and Herb Chicken Roast Chicken at HouseofHills.org

It’s snowing here at the House of Hills. Yes, I said snowing. In Georgia. An anomaly to be sure. When it snows, I cook hearty meals. Last night was Chocolate Chili, and tonight I made Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken. When I posted a picture, I got immediate requests for the recipe. So, here you go!

To be honest, I jumped off a recipe for Roast Chicken from Tastes Better From Scratch. However, I had to tweak it to make it Low FODMAP for Maggie. That meant eliminating the butter and onion. Onion is a hard one to eliminate because there is so much flavor there. So, I had to think about how to bring the flavor. This is where I landed.

I layered the bottom of the pan with celery and carrots that had been in my freezer. I pulled them out a couple hours before prep time so they could thaw. I throw all my carrots, celery and peppers left over from veggie trays into freezer bags and toss them in the freezer. I read that on the Internet somewhere. The idea is to then use them to make broths and such because you’re not going to eat them so it doesn’t matter if they’re mushy. I knew we weren’t going to eat the celery and carrots, so I figured using the frozen was okay.

Then, I sliced a whole lemon into rings and laid those on top of the veggies. I love lemon rings don’t you? They’re so pretty and remind me of summer.

After that, I filled the cavity with another lemon I’d quartered and full sprigs of herbs. (I used rosemary and thyme.) And, I didn’t do that gently. I like just shoved whole sprigs in there with the lemon. Poor chicken.

Finally, I rubbed the chicken with melted ghee combined with chopped herbs and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. Oh, and I threw a few more sprigs of herbs and some parsley around the chicken in the pot. Ghee is this really expensive stuff that I’ve never bought before. I bought for Mags at Sprouts because I wanted to make sure I had the flavor of butter without any lactose or chemicals. This is the first time I’ve used it, and it appeared to be happiness all around. No tummy aches and a delicious flavor.

Then, I baked for about an hour and twenty minutes at 425. You want to bake until juices run clear and it has a nice brown, crispy skin.

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IT WAS DELICIOUS and a hit with Maggie, which is a huge thing.

This is what the pot looked like after I pulled everything out of the chicken.

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I ended up putting all of that in the trash. But, the chicken that was in that pot. That, we devoured. There wasn’t that much left!

Here are your step by step instructions for Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken.

Ingredients:
1 Whole Chicken (3.5 to 4.5 pounds)
Celery and carrots for flavor (can be frozen)
2 Lemons
Several sprigs of fresh Rosemary
Several sprigs of fresh Thyme
Fresh Parsley
1-2 Tablespoons Ghee/Clarified Butter (Or butter)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Rinse the chicken and remove the innards. Pat dry.
3. Remove the leaves from one sprig of rosemary and one sprig of thyme. Chop them up as fine as possible.
4. Melt ghee/butter and mix in the chopped rosemary and thyme.
5. Slice one lemon into rings and quarter the other.
6. Line the bottom of your baker with celery and carrots. (Spray first if needed in your type of pan.) Layer the rings of lemon on top of that.
7. Place your dry chicken on top of the lemon, celery and carrot. The breast side of the chicken should be up.
8. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the quartered lemon, rosemary and thyme sprigs and a small amount of fresh parsley.
9. Rub the outside of the chicken with the ghee/butter and herb mixture. Get some under the skin if possible.
10. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
11. Place additional sprigs of rosemary and thyme as well as parsley around the chicken.
12. Roast uncovered in oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until skin is golden brown and juices run clear. Allow chicken to rest 10-20 minutes before slicing.

Y’all this was so tasty and was great on a salad.

Enjoy!

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