Roast chicken is pretty much a staple in my house. We often will roast a chicken, have dinner and use the leftovers to make salads or sandwiches for lunches during the workweek. I have been playing around with the many spices and herbs I have from Silk Road and came up with this interesting blend that made an irresistible herb rubbed roast chicken! And the smell… oh my the smell of this herb dry rubbed roast chicken while it was doing it’s thing in the oven was almost unbearable. If you are going to make this, you may want to have some snacks on hand to stop you from going crazy with hunger!

Herb Rubbed Roast Chicken

When making a rub for meat, I kind of know the staples are usually a salt, a pepper, something sweet and then a variety of herbs and spices. I basically threw this together and by accident it was awesome. That’s the best kind of recipe, I think!

Brown sugar, kosher salt, Aleppo chiles, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lavender and caraway seeds went into my rub. 

After mixing the spices and herbs together in a bowl I had to get the chicken ready. To dry rub a chicken properly you want the chicken to be fairly dry and the best way to do this is to put it into a dish and into the fridge for about an hour, with no lid. The chicken will dry out in the fridge and be ready for your dry rub. 

Take the chicken out of the fridge and pat down with a paper towel to remove any remaining moisture. Using about half of your rub blend, rub the chicken with the blend all over and inside. Drizzle olive oil over chicken and set the herb rubbed chicken back into the fridge and let marinate in it’s rub for two hours. 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Put remaining herb rub blend into a sauce pan, add 1/4 cup butter and melt until bubbly and combined. Drizzle herb butter mixture over chicken and put into preheated oven. After 10 minutes reduce temperature to 350 degrees and roast for 20 minutes per pound, until juices run clear and internal temperature at the inner thigh is 165 degrees F. 

Carve chicken and serve with your favourite sides – try brussels sprouts and carrots, parsnip mash or roasted tarragon potatoes! 

Try this recipe on the barbecue for more of a charred, smoked flavour!