Passover recipes like this honey horseradish roasted chicken are actually some of my favorite to develop- the limit in ingredients forces me to get creative and put together recipes that I never would otherwise. Growing up, Passover meant sweet and sour brisket. Slowly braised in the oven for hours until Bubbe declared it was tender enough to eat. Sounds simple enough, but that poor brisket was in and out of the oven and examined and re-examined until it was dry. So we tried chicken one year. Surely that would fare better. But the story was the same- Bubbe, my Mom and Aunts gathered around the oven trying to determine if the chicken was done. Opening and closing the door, all whilst poking and prodding the poor bird. “Is it done?” “It looks done.” “No I see pink!” They were petrified of giving the whole family salmonella. Sigh.
I decided to make a roasted chicken as homage to that Pesach- it would work for a seder, or you could nosh on it for meals during the chametz free week. Honey and mustard is one of my favorite combos, but of course mustard is out. How about horseradish instead as a nod to the seder meal?
Honey Horseradish Roasted Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 3-4 pound whole chicken dried well and with innards removed
- ½ lemon
- 5 cloves garlic
- ½ white onion
- 5 fresh rosemary springs
- 1/4 cup kosher for Passover prepared horseradish
- ¼ cup kosher for Passover honey
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 1 Teaspoon ground black pepper
- Parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with a rack in the middle.
- Then put the chicken breast side up on a roasting rack in a roasting pan.
- Stuff chicken with the lemon garlic, onion and rosemary sprigs.
- In a small bowl, whisk together horseradish, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Spread all over the chicken, making sure to get under the skin as well.
- Truss the chicken, or tuck the wings under the body and tie together the legs.
- Roast chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes, and then turn the oven up to 450 degrees F to brown the skin. Continue cooking about 20 more minutes until the internal temperature near the thighbone is 160 degrees F and the juices run clear (it should continue to cook once removed from the oven until the temperature is 165 degrees F).
- Let chicken rest for 20 minutes covered with aluminum foil before carving. Garnish with parsley if desired.
Sad but true, we made “chopped liver” out of everything we touched. Thank G-D for the next generation!
Bubs
Amy, we are not whole chicken eaters here – nobody likes the darker meat, so I generally stick to breasts. How would you adapt this for plain old boneless, skinless breasts? Hub is definitely interested in the flavor combo.
You could totally do this on breasts! Skinless or not would work. The only thing is some of the honey may burn when it sinks to the bottom, so you may want to cook the breasts on a rack.
We loved the flavor of this, but thought we didn’t get as much flavor infused throughout the chicken breasts as we might have using the whole chicken. So. We will definitely try this one again, but maybe marinating the breasts in the whole shebang ahead of cooking and browning a bit in a skillet before finishing in the oven. Really different – never would have thought of this combo. Definitely a keeper (and way good in my lunch salad today).
Thanks! Good idea with marinating. I think the skin helps seal in the flavor too.
Question: Is that right? 5 BULBS, not 5 CLOVES of garlic? That sounds like a lot of garlic. I just want to be sure. Thanks! The recipe sounds delicious. Have a wonderful Pesach.
5 cloves!