Country Living's Maple Butter Roasted Chicken

I first subscribed to Country Living Magazine when I was around 13 years old. I know this because I still have pages I tore out of it that say 1996 on the bottom of them. I have been saving and storing pages of well-decorated homes, down-home recipes, and travel articles from this magazine ever since. I now have a binder of Interior Decorating ideas and 3 binders of recipes from various magazines over the years, which all started with my love of Country Living way back when.

©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

This recipe was in the most recent issue of the magazine and sounded so tempting. I didn’t have a whole chicken so I just used chicken thighs and scattered the lemon and thyme around them in the pan and drizzled the butter maple syrup sauce over top. I wasn’t sure exactly how long to cook them so I tried 45 minutes because previous chicken thigh recipes I’ve made estimated that timing. I made this dish along with an Easy, Cheesy Zucchini Bake. This was a perfect evening of comfort food. The two dishes complemented each other perfectly-sweet and salty and I loved how the chicken wasn’t breaded like a normal oven-bake chicken would call for.

I will 110% make this again. I HIGHLY recommend it. I like my version because you can make it for just two people or the more the merrier and it could be done with breast or thigh or leg. The thighs came out really tender and moist. Right after I took them out of the oven, I poured the juices into a small saucepan and brought it to a boil, let it reduce at a rolling boil for about 3 minutes and then served this in a small pouring dish alongside the meal. The sauce really made the chicken taste glazed and heavenly. Yum! Here’s my maple butter chicken: #countryliving

Maple Butter Roasted Chicken ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

Country Living’s Maple Butter Roasted Chicken

From: Country Living Magazine, February 2013

Serves: 6

Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 1 hr 45 min

Ingredients

1/2 stick Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoon(s) Maple Syrup
1 tablespoon(s) Chopped Fresh Thyme
1 bunch(es) Thyme Sprigs
1 (3 1/2- to 4-pound) Chicken
1 Lemon, quartered
1 tablespoon(s) Salt
1 tablespoon(s) Freshly Ground Pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400º F. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together butter, maple syrup, and chopped thyme. Set aside.
2. Place chicken in a roasting pan and stuff cavity with lemon and all but 4 thyme sprigs. Slide hands under the chicken’s skin to loosen. Spread half of reserved butter mixture between loosened skin and meat. Rub remaining butter mixture on top of skin and season with salt and pepper.
3. Roast chicken until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh reaches 165 degrees F, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove chicken from oven and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Garnish with remaining thyme sprigs.