I really like having pre-cooked chicken in the fridge that I can use to quickly whip up a sandwich or wrap, or add protein to a bowl of pasta, salad, or one of my “leftovers” bowls. While I often use a rotisserie chicken for this purpose, they are sometimes just too salty and we have a hard time going through a whole chicken between the two of us. So, this week I experimented a bit more with the “low and slow” roasting method and made these incredibly tender and juicy Herb Roasted Chicken Breasts.
Roast Low and Slow for Tender Chicken
I first used the “low and slow” technique with my Oven Roasted Chicken Legs and was really pleased with not only the texture of the meat, but the delicious juices that were left in the dish after roasting.
This time I combined the butter with a trio of herbs and slathered it over two bone-in, skin-on split chicken breasts. The breasts were quite large, so I lowered the heat a bit and let them roast even longer before removing the cover to let them brown. The results were even more incredible. I pulled the meat from the breasts after cooking, drizzled the juices over top, and have been snacking on the meat all week.
Can I Make Herb Roasted Chicken Breast in an Instant Pot?
Yes! You can make this dish even faster and easier! Just follow the technique used in my Pressure Cooker Chicken and Rice recipe (pressure cook then broil to brown the skin). 👍
You ready for the most tender and juicy chicken breast EVER?
Herb Roasted Chicken Breast
Servings 4Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp butter, room temperature ($0.33)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1 tsp dried basil ($0.10)
- 1 tsp dried thyme ($0.10)
- 1 tsp dried rosemary ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked black pepper (about 10 cranks of a mill) ($0.03)
- 2 split chicken breasts* (about 3 lbs. total) ($6.85)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 275ºF. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and allow it to warm slightly as you prepare the butter herb mix (5 minutes or so).
- In a small bowl, stir together the butter, minced garlic, basil, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Rosemary pieces can be quite large, so either chop or crumble the dried pieces with your hands before adding them to the mix.
- Place the chicken on a cutting board and pat it dry on both sides with a clean paper towel. Smear the butter herb mixture over both sides of the chicken. Drying the meat will help the butter herb mixture stick. If the meat is too cold, it will form condensation as you rub the butter mixture over the surface and the butter will not stick.
- Place the seasoned chicken pieces in a casserole dish that is deep enough to fully contain the chicken. Cover tightly with foil, or with the dish’s lid if there is one. Bake the chicken in the preheated oven for 90 minutes, basting once half way through.
- Ater 90 minutes, remove the foil, baste again, and adjust the oven’s temperature to 425ºF. Bake the chicken at 425ºF for 20 minutes without the foil, or until the skin is deep golden brown and crispy. Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Slice the breasts or pull the meat from the bone. Reserve the juices from the bottom of the casserole dish for drizzling over top of the meat.
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Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Herb Roasted Chicken Breast – Step by Step Photos
Begin preheating the oven to 275ºF. Take the chicken out of the refrigerator so it has a few minutes to come up to temperature. In a small bowl combine 3 Tbsp room temperature butter, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp dried rosemary, 1/2 tsp salt, and some freshly cracked pepper (about 10 cranks of a pepper mill). Rosemary pieces can be large, so I just crush them up in my hand before adding them. Stir this mixture up until it forms a paste.
Place two split chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on, about 3 lbs. total) on a cutting board and pat them dry with a paper towel. They need to be fairly dry for the butter to stick. Also, if the chicken is too cold they will form condensation and become wet again, which is why you’ll want them to warm a bit as you mix the butter. Spread the butter herb mixture over both sides of the chicken, coating it in a thick layer.
Place the seasoned chicken breasts in a casserole dish that is deep enough to fully contain the chicken. Cover the dish tightly with foil (this is important to hold in the moisture), or if the dish has a lid that’s even better.
Roast the breasts in the 275ºF oven for 90 minutes, basting once half way through (replace the foil as tightly as possible after basting). After the full 90 minutes, remove the foil, baste one more time, and adjust the oven’s heat to 425ºF.
Return the chicken to the oven and roast for 20 minutes without the foil, or until the skin is deep golden brown and crispy. (I garnished with some chopped parsley to give the photos color, but it’s not necessary.)
Give it one last baste with those delicious juices for good measure and let the meat rest for 5-10 minutes.
Letting the meat rest a few minutes helps keep the juices inside and the meat nice and moist! Serve the chicken whole, or slice it up…
And don’t forget to pull any bits and pieces of meat left on the bones, like you would with a rotisserie chicken. It’s just too good to let any go to waste!
After I removed all the meat from the bones, I gave it another good dose of those delicious juices. SO GOOD.
It makes an impressive main dish, but I’m just adding a few pieces to everything I eat this week! Depending on how you serve it and how big your chicken pieces are, you’ll get 4-6 servings. Make sure to save those juices and pour them over top before stashing it in the fridge!
I have made several times and it’s delicious as written, but if I only need the meat for chicken tacos, could I just cook in a crockpot? I wouldn’t be using the skin anyway.
This particular recipe was developed for a dry cooking method (oven), so it would be an entirely different process to try and do this one for the slow cooker. I would check out our slow cooker salsa chicken that would be great for chicken tacos! :) https://www.budgetbytes.com/crock-pot-salsa-chicken/
How should oven temperature and cooking time be adjusted for turkey breast?
Check out our Cider Roasted Turkey Breast! https://www.budgetbytes.com/cider-roasted-turkey-breast/ You could use the same seasoning method as the chicken recipe, but use the oven temp and cooking time for the turkey breast. Hope that helps!
Where I shop the split breasts are usually under a pound. The recipe calls for 1.5 lb breasts. Should I reduce the Cook time for the size I can buy?
Why would you put the footnote about the chicken needing to be bone in & skin on, AFTER the recipe?? I’ll give an extra star because it’s partly on me for not reading the entire novel before cooking.
A “split chicken breast” is always bone-in, skin-on, like chicken drumsticks. :)
these are the best tasting and the easiest chicken recipe I have ever tried. A real keeper. You will not
prepare skin on bone chicken any other way
I did not bother basting, since I don’t have a baster and I am a lazy dude. But I did flip the chicken each time I was supposed to baste and brush it with the grease. Turned out great!
I don’t often make breast because thigh meat tastes better and is less fussy, but this changes that. Shredding this chicken for tacos!
Excellent dish, easy to prepare. Chicken breasts are tasty and extremely moist. I used very chunky breasts and had my doubts if the slow cooking would be too slow, but no, it was perfect. Crispy on top as well. Served it with a salad and cut roasted sweet potatoes.
I can’t wait to make this but I’ll need to cook about 6 or 8 large breasts! Can you recommend at what temperature and for how long I should cook them?
You can cook them at the same time and temperature, just make sure they’re not crowded in whatever dish you put them in. As long as the air can move freely around them, they should take the same amount of time to cook.
Seriously the best roasted chicken! Wouldn’t change a thing and I love that is uses bone in. Highly recommend everyone making this!
This is the BEST ROASTED CHICKEN I’VE EVER MADE! ‘NUFF SAID
Oh, almost forgot…spread herb butter mixture UNDER chicken breast skin…so juicy
I used this recipe for Turkey Tenderloin for Thanksgiving. It was the best turkey we’ve ever had. I did increase the cooking temp and time. I did 4 tenderloins at 400 for 40 min and then 15 min without the foil. I flipped and basted them with a second batch of the butter herb mix. Turned all the broth into gravy with 3 tbsp of flour. Hubby requested this go into regular rotation and he doesn’t typically even like turkey.
I am a terrible cook, but this recipe turned out phenomenally (despite me forgetting to baste). If you’re looking for a crowd-pleasing sure-thing, you’ve found it!
I found and tried this recipe today because I needed some cooked chicken breast for a chicken tamale pie recipe. WOW! The chicken was so easy to prepare and it turned out absolutely delicious! It’s definitely a keeper and will be a regular part of my rotation here forward. Thank you so much for sharing it!