Roast Chicken with Apples & Fennel Butter

Roast Chicken with Apples & Fennel Butter

October 27, 2018

Servings: 4-6

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 1 hr 15 min

Total: 1 hr 25 min

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A stuffed whole chicken recipe that will wow you with both it's flavor and simplicity. Just RSSRB - Rinse, season, stuff and roast ...then baste baste baste!

By: A Wholesome New World

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (2-1/2 to 3 pounds)
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• 4 ripe apples, cored and sliced into eighths
• 1 fennel bulb, quartered and divided
• 4 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
• Other roasting vegetables, such as fingerling potatoes, Brussels sprouts, root vegetables etc.

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat oven to 375°F. Rinse and pat dry chicken.
• Step 2 Prepare fennel butter. Finely chop one of the fennel quarters and whip fennel pieces into butter.
• Step 3 Season chicken all over with salt and pepper, inside the cavity as well. Stuff the chicken with apple slices and truss chicken if desired.
• Step 4 Place chicken on a roasting rack, positioned in the center of a baking sheet. Nestle remaining fennel bulbs and roasting vegetables underneath. 
• Step 5 Roast for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes (or 20 minutes per pound), removing the chicken at 3 intervals to baste with the fennel butter. Continue roasting until an internal thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165 degrees F or when the chicken juices run clear.
• Step 6 Remove from oven and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes. Carve and serve with the roasted vegetables. (See our link to carving instructions below!)

Believe it or not, stuffing a bird is NOT just for Thanksgiving. Stuffing a whole roasted chicken with apples is a no-brainer and it’s something I don’t do often enough. But a whole roasted chicken yields beautiful pictures, delicious flavors and there’s something about it that’s just perfect for cozy, cold-weather nights. We can thank our trip to the apple orchard for the inspiration behind this recipe. I am up to my ears in apples, I’m literally eating one as I type up this post.

There’s endless variations of this recipe you can try, just follow our lead with the essential steps: rinse, season, stuff and roast. And then, the big B – baste, baste, baste! If you want to get extra fancy, you can always roast it over a bed of fresh vegetables and voila, you have a complete meal. In our cases we roasted our chicken over Brussels sprouts, fennel and yes, more apples (see our sheet pan below), but you can get as creative as you want here. Try roasting some potatoes or root vegetables. Or you can opt for a traditional Thanksgiving-style stuffing. Try different seasonings in your butter like rosemary or garlic. The possibilities are endless, which means you can reinvent this recipe as often as you like.

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If you get an early enough start, this recipe is totally achievable for a weeknight dinner – the prep is minimal and the roasting requires little effort on your part. But this is an equally perfect recipe for a cozy Sunday supper and something the whole family will enjoy. Probably the trickiest part of the whole recipe is carving the chicken, but you can find some great tips here. I usually leave this step up to Marc, who’s an expert carver, but once you do it often enough it becomes a lot less intimidating. Happy roasting!