Clay Pot Herbed Roast Chicken
Try this Clay Pot Herbed Roast Chicken recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Clay Pot Herbed Roast Chicken recipe, or contribute your own.
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 2 tbs lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbs dijon mustard
- 1 tbs chopped fresh thyme
- 2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 tsp chopped fresh sage
- 1 medium (4-5 lb) roasting chicken
- 2 heads garlic peeled but cloves left whole
- 10 fingerling potatoes
- 3 carrots, cut in chunks
- 1/2 cup dry white wine (i used white merlot)
- Carbohydrate 93.8660111830748 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 2.34376288535712 g
- Fiber 12.0271215000224 g
- Protein 10.9849261477676 g
- Saturated Fat 0.3911340847516 g
- Serving Size 1 1 -6 (543g)
- Sodium 74.7776666588865 mg
- Sugar 81.8388896830524 g
- Trans Fat 0.158931361441077 g
- Calories 430 calories
Step-by-step
- Soak the baker and lid for 30 minutes in cold water.
- In a small bowl, mix olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, mustard, herbs and salt & pepper. Rub HALF of this mixture over the chicken. Toss the remaining mixture with the vegetables
- Place chicken in prepared roaster, breast side up and surround the chicken with the vegetables. Pour the wine around the chicken and over the vegetables.
- Place the cover on the baker and place in cold oven.
- Set oven to 450? and cook for 90 minutes.
- Remove the lid and cook chicken another 10-15 minutes to crisp and further brown.
- Let chicken rest about 15 minutes before carving.
Crisped skin over tender meat emerges from unglazed ceramic vessels engineered to trap and circulate steam throughout the cooking chamber. Unglazed clay must absorb water before use, requiring a full thirty-minute cold water soak to prevent thermal shock when placed into a cold oven. Dropping dry ceramic into a 450-degree environment will crack the material instantly. Ceramic cooking fundamentally alters moisture management compared to metal roasting pans, relying on steam vapor released from the porous walls rather than direct dry heat. Swapping the specified fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage for dried variants requires a strict mathematical reduction: use one-third of the volume because drying concentrates aromatic essential oils into a much more potent state. Fresh herbs release water as they heat, gently infusing the surrounding fat, whereas dried herbs remain leathery unless rehydrated in oil or wine beforehand. White wine deglazes the roasting environment naturally as the alcohol evaporates, leaving organic acids that break down surface proteins on the chicken skin. Whole garlic cloves caramelize inside the covered pot, converting sharp allicin compounds into mild, spreadable pastes over ninety minutes of enclosed baking. Removing the lid for the final ten to fifteen minutes allows ambient oven heat to render out remaining subcutaneous fat beneath the skin, creating the necessary crunch without drying the interior breast meat. Resting the bird for fifteen minutes prior to carving redistributes meat juices evenly through the muscle fibers, preventing excessive moisture loss on the cutting board.
