Roasted Chicken with Yoghurt Sauce
Beautifully crispy Half-Roasted Chicken served with seasonal vegetables and a garlicky Yoghurt Sauce. This is the perfect addition to your Sunday dinners and any leftovers can be turned into sandwiches!
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 4 people 1x
Ingredients
Scale
For the Roasted Chicken:
- 1 kg whole chicken, at room temperature (giblets and neck removed from cavity)
- 40 g unsalted butter, melted
- 3 fresh whole rosemary sprigs
- 5–6 oregano sprigs
For the Roasted Vegetables:
- 50 g baby potatoes
- 80 g pumpkin
For the Yogurt Sauce:
- 100 g yogurt
- 1 head of garlic, cut in half horizontally through the middle crosswise
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 5 g coriander, finely chopped
Instructions
- In order to start roasting, we need to keep in mind some fundamentals mentioned in the Science of Roasting short read.
- Pat the inside of the chicken dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle some salt over the entire chicken and leave it uncovered in your fridge for about 2 hours or overnight if possible (this will yield the best results).
- The salt will extract all of the excess moisture from the chicken skin and will aide in air-drying. An absence of moisture is a crucial factor in successful Maillard reaction, so make sure that you follow this step.
- Pat the air-drying chicken with a paper towel every 40 minutes or so.
- Once the chicken has been air-dried well, preheat your oven to 430°F or 220°C. Lightly grease a baking tray or roasting pan with oil.
- The next step is to salt the chicken again, but this time it is for seasoning the chicken. Use a generous amount of salt (about 2-3g) in the cavity of the chicken as well as on the skin. Crack some black pepper in the cavity and over the skin.
- Place the oregano and rosemary in the cavity of the chicken as these will provide a beautiful aroma and flavor throughout the chicken.
- Tie the legs with kitchen string to help keep the skin intact.
- Place the chicken breast-side up on a wire rack on the prepared baking tray and into the oven it goes! The total roasting time for the chicken will be 1 ½ to 2 hours depending on the size of the bird. A good indicator that the chicken is done cooking is that the juices will start running clear.
- After about 20 minutes of roasting, using a pastry brush, we will start basting the chicken with butter. Baste the chicken every 20-30 minutes until all of the butter has been used up.
- After 1 hour of roasting, place the baby potatoes, pumpkin, and the garlic cut in half under the wire rack and directly onto the baking tray. The melted butter and chicken juices will flavor the vegetables and they will cook completely at the same time as the chicken.
- Once the chicken is cooked and the juices run clear, brush the skin with a little more butter and cover it with a piece of foil. Rest the chicken for 10-15 minutes as this will make sure that all the juices stay inside the roasted chicken.
- Meanwhile, take the garlic and squeeze out the roasted cloves from the pod. Mince the roasted garlic quickly and transfer to a bowl.
- In this bowl, add the yogurt, chopped coriander and lemon juice. Mix well and season the sauce with salt and pepper.
- Once the chicken is well rested, carve it carefully and serve with the roasted vegetables and yogurt sauce.
Notes
Don’t forget to read the Short Read on the Science of Roasting before you dive into the recipe!
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 1.5 hours
- Category: Entree
- Method: Roasting