Buttermilk Roast Chicken

- Total Time
- 1½ hours, plus overnight marinating
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 14-pound chicken
- 2cups buttermilk
- ¼cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2cloves garlic, lightly crushed
- 1tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
- 1tablespoon Maldon or other sea salt
- 2tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
- 1tablespoon honey
Preparation
- Step 1
Butterfly chicken by placing breast side down and using heavy-duty kitchen shears to cut along both sides of backbone. Discard backbone, turn chicken over and open it like a book. Press gently to flatten it.
- Step 2
Place chicken in a large freezer bag. Add buttermilk, ¼ cup oil, garlic, peppercorns, salt, rosemary and honey. Seal bag securely and refrigerate overnight or up to two days.
- Step 3
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Remove chicken from marinade and place on a rack so excess can drip off. Line a roasting pan with foil and place chicken in pan. Drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Roast for 45 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees. Continue roasting until well browned and until juices run clear when chicken is pierced where leg joins thigh, about another 20 minutes.
- Step 4
Place chicken on a carving board and allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting into serving pieces. Place a portion on each of four plates, and drizzle each serving with pan juices.
Private Notes
Comments
Great recipe. But instead of draining the excess liquids, suggest cooking spatchcocked chicken in a over potatoes to absorb the sauces. Using a cast-iron frying pan eliminates the need for wasteful foil, and if the pan is well-cared for and seasoned it's essentially non-stick.
Drizzle oil on the seasoned pan, add as many nugget or cut-up potatoes as are wanted, and just place the chicken on top, backbone up to help keep the white meat moist.
I've made versions of roasted chicken but this one was awesome. I used my xlarge cast iron skillet and 20 minutes into the bake surrounded it with carrots and halved brussel sprouts and they were carmelized beautifully. No left overs!
Should I place the chicken on the rack in the roasting pan or place the chicken directly on the foil in the roasting pan?
I'm getting ready to roast a half chicken. I didn't spatchcock it. Hope it's ok.
What are some nondairy substitutions for the buttermilk in this recipe? When baking, I normally replace buttermilk with soymilk + apple cider vinegar but I've never tried this for chicken. Would a lactose-free tangy yogurt work?
Delicious! Per some of the comments, I cooked the chicken in a cast iron skillet, which I'd preheated in the oven. I added carrots at 20 mins into the cook. I inserted the oven meat thermometer in the breast and cooked to about 160, but then realized that the other breast was below temperature, so I needed to rotate the chicken and watch the temp on the other half. The chicken had a nice crispy and beautiful color exterior and it was flavorful and juicy. Carrots were yummy too!
