Maple Bourbon Garlic Roast Chicken

Maple, bourbon and garlic, three simple ingredients that play together so very nicely!

This recipe is easy to make, it just takes a little patience during the brine and marinade process but I promise that the results are nothing short of divine.

The Hub, who never remembers the name of any recipe, will ask for it by name.  It think it's the bourbon that he remembers most.

But it has become a special Sunday dinner, although I've made it during the week too.

This recipe recommends that you brine your chicken, you can skip this part, but frankly if I have a chance to brine I do. Why? Because it makes for a very moist chicken throughout, including the breast. For time efficieny, brine the night before and marinate the next day until it's time to roast.
If you want to brine check out my post on how to brine here.

With this recipe you get crispy skin and juicy, flavorful chicken and to me that's the perfect roast chicken right there.

• 1 - 4-5 pound whole chicken (remove the neck and giblets from the chicken's cavity)
• Brine 10-12 hours or overnight.  Here's a link to my post on all things brine.
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup bourbon
• 1 - 2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Clean up your chicken by removing any excess skin and fat.

1. Brine chicken overnight or at least 10 hours.
2. While the chicken is in the brine solution, mix all the ingredients in a bowl, except for the salt and pepper, cover and place in fridge. This will give the marinade time to develop it's full flavor potential.
3. After brining, remove chicken from solution, rinse well and pat very dry.
4. Place chicken in a large zip bag and pour all the ingredients from the bowl into the zip bag. Zip it closed, roll chicken around in the bag so the marinade is well distributed and place in fridge (place in a deep bowl, just in case).  Allow to marinate 2 - 8 hours, the longer the better.
5. Take chicken out of fridge and allow to come to room temperature  - about 30-60 minutes
6. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
7. Remove chicken from zip bag, do not discard marinade.
8. Pat chicken dry and lightly rub olive oil all over.
9. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken, then all over the outside
10. Place chicken in a deep fry pan or cast iron skillet
11. Put in the oven and roast for 12-15 minutes
12. In the meantime, bring the marinade to a boil and allow to boil for 3 minutes
13. After the initial roast at 425, lower oven temperature to 375 degrees F and brush the chicken all over with the marinade
14. Roast for 50-70 minutes. Be sure to brush chicken with marinade a half hour into the roast time and then again 15 minutes before it is done.  The chicken is done when the internal temperature, taken from the thigh, reads 165 degrees F.
15. Now this is really important, remove chicken from pan onto a carving board and allow it to rest 15-20 minutes before carving.

Serving suggestions:  The questions here is what can't you serve  with this delicious chicken?


Recipe Notes:
Allowing the chicken to rest lets the internal juices that have have been driven to the center of the meat to relax and "redistribute" throughout the meat. That's the simple explanation of why you should let pretty much any roasted/grilled/pan fried meats rest. However if you want to know more there is a wealth of  whys and hows on the web if you want to learn more about the science behind the resting period.