Garlic-Butter Rubbed Chicken with Roasted Oranges and Red Onions | Full Fork Ahead

By McCarleyRHLAC

Ingredients

• special equipment: cooking twine or string
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Coarse salt (we used coarse sea salt)
• fresh-ground pepper
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 navel oranges, 1 zested, both cut into 2-inch wedges
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme, plus a few sprigs
• 1 whole chicken (4 to 4 1/2 pounds)
• 2 red onions, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch wedges

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mash garlic and 1 teaspoon salt into a paste. (We used a mortar and pestle, but you can also use the flat of a large knife to press the garlic and salt into a paste.)

Combine garlic paste, butter, zest, and chopped thyme. Gently separate skin from breast of chicken, and rub half of the butter mixture under the skin on each side. Season with salt and pepper.

Fill chicken cavity with 2 orange wedges, 1 onion wedge, and thyme sprigs. Place chicken, breast side up, on a rimmed baking sheet or in a roasting pan, and tuck wings under. Tie legs together with kitchen twine. Scatter remaining oranges and onions around chicken. Dot oranges and onions with 1 tablespoon butter mixture.

Roast for 30 minutes. Brush chicken with remaining butter mixture. Flip oranges and onions. Rotate sheet, and roast for 15 minutes more. Remove oranges and onions if caramelized. Roast chicken until juices run clear and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh reaches 165 degrees, 10 to 15 minutes more. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes:

You’ll have noticed that we roasted two chickens in the pictures above. The good thing abut the ingredients list above, which is for one chicken, is you don’t need to double all of it to roast two chickens instead. If you DO want to roast two, double everything for the butter rub. Have some extra thyme on hand. That’s it! You won’t need more oranges or red onions if you bought especially large ones, which I did.

If your chicken temp has not reached 165 degrees when the recipe calls for checking it, simply roast the chicken for ten to fifteen minutes more and test it again. If the skin is getting to be too brown, tent a piece of foil over it to prevent further browning