Butter & Herb Butterfly Chicken in White Wine Mustard Sauce with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Winter suppers might just be my favorite! I love warm and cozy comfort foods. Do you?
After a long summer of raising chickens and pork to feed our family, we are now beginning to dig into our supply from the freezers. This year we decided to raise the chickens for a bit less than time than in years past. Generally we would end up with 5 to 6 pound chickens, which was a lot of chicken for one serving. They took a long time to roast! This year, we ended up with chickens that ranged from 3 to 4 pounds, which has been much better for roasting times.
I decided to roast one up for us to enjoy this week and butterflied it. It was delicious smothered in salted butter and dried herbs from our garden. This winter I hope to share lots of ideas for cooking with the things that you preserved over the summer and stored in your pantries!
how to butterfly a chicken:
Butterflying a chicken is super easy. Of course, you have to start with a whole chicken!
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. This helps the dry rub to stick to the skin. Flip the chicken over onto the breast side, with the back facing up. With your hands, feel along the spine of the chicken to get a sense of where you will need to cut. Begin to cut along either side of the spine, all the way from the bottom end of the chicken to the neck.
This is most easily done with sharp kitchen scissors, as they will easily be able to cut right through the ribs. If you do not have kitchen scissors, a sharp knife will work as well, it just may be a bit awkward to work with.
Once the spine is removed, wrap it in plastic wrap or place in a tupperware container and save it for use later. The spine makes excellent chicken stock or bone broth! Do not waste it.
Flip the chicken back over with the breast side facing up. With your hands, spread it out so that the chicken is lying flat and fully open, with the legs on either side. You may have to crack a few ribs to accomplish this. Done!
If you do not feel confident butterflying a chicken yourself, you can always request that your butcher do it for you.
the method:
This recipe is rather simple in its method. Smother the chicken with the dry rub and butter, roast it, and eat! Butterflying a chicken results in a faster cooking time, which is nice if you are in a pinch for supper. My best tip for a flavorful and juicy chicken is to make sure that the dry rub and butter makes its way underneath the layer of skin. This is done by running your fingers underneath the skin and gently breaking the thin membrane between the skin and the muscle underneath. Rub all the way under, if you can, being careful not to rip the skin.
The sauce is flavored with fat drippings from the chicken, white wine, shallots, garlic, and the neck and giblets. Once the chicken is roasted, it is removed from the pan and the drippings are turned into a delicious gravy.
I paired these drippings with apple cider and chicken stock along with a bit of dijon mustard. If apple cider sounds too sweet for you, you can simply replace it with more chicken stock. The end result is a bit florally in flavor, and it was very good!
To finish off this recipe, serve it over a bed of roasted garlic mashed potatoes! The garlic that was roasted with the chicken can be mashed up and blended into the bowl of potatoes, giving it an incredible flavor!
There really is nothing better than an easy comfort food supper, is there? I hope that you enjoy this recipe and maybe have found a new method for roasting up a chicken!
xoxo Kayla
Butter & Herb Butterfly Chicken in White Wine & Mustard Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 lb whole chicken with the neck and giblets
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 3 shallots, sliced thinly
- 1 head garlic
- 1/2 cup salted butter, melted
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup apple cider
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400° F. Set aside a large cast iron skillet or dutch oven.
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels all over. Remove the neck and giblets and place them into your skillet. Turn the chicken to be breast side down. With a sharp pair of kitchen scissors, cut along either side of the spine, from the tail to the neck. Fully remove the spine and reserve for soup stock made another day.
- With your hands, fully open the back of the chicken. You may break some ribs in the process. With the breast side facing up, the chicken should fully lay flat on the cooking surface.
- In a small dish, mix together the salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, rosemary, and sage. Rub this all over the chicken including under the skin and on the backside where the cavity is.
- Spread the sliced shallots in the pan with the neck and giblets. Slice off the top of the garlic head to expose the cloves inside. Place this in the pan as well. Lay the chicken over the shallots. Brush all over with about 1/3 of the melted butter. In the bottom of the pan, pour in the white wine.
- Roast the chicken for 15 minutes. Brush the chicken all over with another 1/3 of the melted butter and some of the pan drippings. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes. Brush again with the butter and pan drippings. Continue this method until the chicken is fully roasted or reaches an internal temperature of 165° F inserted in the thigh without touching bone. For a 3 lb chicken, this should take about 45 minutes as butterflying reduces the cooking time.
- Place the roasted chicken on a serving platter and tent with foil. Let it rest for about 20 minutes. Remove the head of garlic, squeeze out the cloves into a small bowl, and mash them with a fork.
- Meanwhile, make the white wine mustard sauce. In a small saucepan, heat about 2-3 tablespoons of the pan drippings over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until it thickens. Pour in the apple cider and chicken broth and continue to whisk. Bring the sauce to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer, whisking until it thickens to the consistency of a thin gravy. Stir in the mustard. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve the chicken cut into pieces over mashed potatoes and drizzled in the white wine mustard sauce.
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 5 lbs baking potatoes, washed, peeled, and cubed
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup salted butter, melted
- 1 head roasted garlic, mashed
- 1 tbsp dried chives or 1 bunch fresh chives, chopped
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- In a large pot, cover the chopped potatoes fully with water. Bring to a boil over the high heat and reduce the heat to medium-low for a gentle boil. Boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes or until they are fork tender.
- Drain the potatoes and place into a large bowl. Pour the heavy cream and melted butter over them. Add in the mashed garlic. Mash with a potato masher or handheld mixer. Stir in the chives, salt, and pepper.
- Serve hot!
