1 hour Roast Chicken with Orange Mint Gremolata

Maria Hewett of Almost Properly shares her go-to, versatile 1 hour roast chicken recipe with an orange infused honey gremolata. Supple, crispy skinned chicken with bright herbal aromatics. Now that’s what I call dinner

Friends, I have something special here for you. I am partnering with one of my food blogger friends to bring you this amazing, 1 hour roast chicken recipe. Everyone, meet Maria . Maria is a Seattle based blogger who creates Almost Properly, a food blog focused on modern entertaining. I love Maria’s recipes because they are classic, vibrant, and healthy food with her Italian roots as a major influencer. I am seriously in love with her Salt Roasted Sicilian Branzino recipe . Like you’ll see in my recipes over here at POP KITCHEN, Maria uses lots of aromatics, fresh herbs, and seasonal ingredients. My kind of girl.

Maria tries to flatter of me, but just ignore her. She creates gorgeous recipes and I’m excited for her to share this 1 hour roast chicken recipe with you! Maria, you can have me over for this dinner any time!

Maria’s 1 Hour Roast Chicken Recipe

When Stacy asked me to write a guest post, I was a little intimidated. Stacy’s recipes are amazing! I am far less refined, chef-y, and cool. So when I thought about what to share, I quickly gave up on trying to match Stacy’s level of creative genius. Instead, I thought about what I would make if Stacy was joining us for dinner. The answer is roast chicken. Yup, definitely. Roast chicken. While I may not be cool enough for the cool kids’ table, I can rock a 1 hour roast chicken. If it seems like a weird choice, you are probably right. Roast chickens are a bit out of vogue. And, the number of people who think a grocery store rotisserie chicken is the same as a true slow-roasted chicken boggles my mind. But, I digress.

A properly roasted chicken is delicious! It’s one of my go-to meals when hosting. How come? They are deceptively simple, extremely versatile, require very little hands-on prep, and present beautifully . This 1 hour roast chicken is great for weeknights!

This chicken is stuffed with citrus, fresh herbs, and other aromatics then topped with a simple to make orange infused honey and mint gremolata. Moist, savory roast chicken served with bright, fresh gremolata doesn’t feel or taste like the roast chicken, or a bit more elevated than the roast chicken, your mom served in the 80’s.

So, I’m sticking with what I know! I’ll leave the incredible, creative recipe development to pros like Stacy. But, a banging roasted chicken with crispy golden skin? I’ve got that covered!

SHARE THE #POPKITCHEN LOVE!

Thanks Maria! When you make this 1 hour roast chicken, let me know! I absolutely love seeing your photos of POP KITCHEN recipes up on Instagram . Like POP KITCHEN on Facebook and follow along with all of my recipe inspiration on Pinterest ! Oh, and can you tell your friends about me? K, thanks, luh ew, bye!

Recipe

Roast Chicken with Orange infused Honey Mint Gremolata

Ingredients

• Orange peel from ¼ cara cara navel orange or other navel orange, 1-2” strips (orange parts only, not grated!)
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 1 tbsp. fresh squeezed orange juice (juice from about ¼ of orange)
• ¼ c. flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. mint leaves, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Juice from ½ lemon, plus additional to taste
• 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• ½ tsp. kosher salt, plus additional
• fresh cracked pepper to taste.
• 3-4 lb. whole chicken
• ¾ navel orange, cut into 2” chunks
• ¼ small lemon
• 2 large or 3 small red onions, halved, and cut into 2” chunks, divided
• 1 sprig mint leaves
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 2-3 whole peeled garlic cloves
• kosher salt, generous amount
• 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 tbsp. whole anise seed
• 1 tsp. coarsely ground black peppercorns
• kitchen twine

Instructions

1. hours ahead: Rinse cavity of chicken, pat chicken dry and take generous handfuls of salt and season inside of chicken and generously season exterior of skin as well. Place in a large dry dutch-oven or skillet and refrigerate uncovered. This is a crucial step to yielding crispy, golden skin and locking in flavor! Completing this quick 3-minute task, 24 hours ahead eliminates extra moisture in the skin to yield that perfectly golden result when roasted!
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
3. While the oven preheats, combine the honey, orange juice, and orange peel strips in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and transfer mixture to a small heatproof bowl to cool.
4. When oven is preheated, place clean dry 9 to 11” cast iron skillet (preferably a skillet without a ceramic coating) in the preheated oven for 30 minutes prior to adding chicken. This step is important! Rather than the chicken spending additional time in the oven for the skillet to heat, a piping hot skillet seals in the moisture and immediately begins cooking the chicken to roasted, golden perfection. A cold pan can make the under-side of the chicken a little soggy and the added oven-time required for cooking can make the breast meat dry.
5. Use the time while the pan heats up to prep your other ingredients. Start by seasoning the inside of chicken cavity with another generous pinch of salt. Then, stuff the chicken with a 2” chunk of orange, ¼ of a small lemon, one 2” chunk of onion, a mint sprig, rosemary sprig, and garlic cloves. Tie the legs of the chicken with twine to secure and help close chicken cavity.
6. Using a mortar and pestle or spice mill, combine anise, coarsely ground black peppercorns. Blend until a coarse spice mixture forms and the anise are broken up and fragrant. Drizzle chicken with about 1 tbsp. olive oil and use your hands to ensure the oil thoroughly coats the skin. Don’t forget the underside of the chicken! Now rub the exterior of the chicken with the spice mixture and season generously with kosher salt.
7. If you haven’t already done so, chop remaining red onion and orange into 2” sections. Drizzle about 1 tbsp olive oil into the bottom of the oven-heated skillet. First, place chicken in the center of the skillet. Arrange onions and oranges around chicken in skillet. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the onions and oranges. Season with a couple pinches of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes. Every 15 minutes or so, use a spoon to ladle some of the juices and drippings over the top of the chicken skin. Alternately, you can use a basting brush to complete this step.
8. While the chicken roasts, make the orange infused honey mint gremolata. Remove orange peel strips from the orange infused honey mixture. Chop orange peel strips until minced. In a bowl, combine parsley, mint, lemon zest, minced orange peel, minced garlic, lemon juice, and orange infused honey. Whisk with a fork to combine. Drizzle in olive oil and whisk with fork to incorporate. Season with additional lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Cover and set aside. (Can be made up 2 two hours ahead if desired. If made ahead, cover and chill, but remove from refrigerator 20 minutes prior to serving.)
9. Remove chicken from the oven after 45 minutes. Another test is until the juices run clear when a knife is inserted between leg and main body of chicken. This is usually about the 45-minute mark for a 3-3.5 lb. chicken. For a larger bird, 5-10 minutes additional time may be required. (Recently, I roasted a 4.5 lb. chicken for 55 minutes, which was the perfect amount of time!) When done, remove chicken from the oven, and allow chicken to rest for 5 minutes prior to slicing/serving. Slice and serve with the onions at the bottom of the pan. Top with a few dollops of gremolata. Garnish with additional mint leaves and freshly cracked black pepper. Serve immediately. I also suggest serving a high quality crusty bread to sop up the juices from the bottom of the pan! Enjoy!