Martha Stewart Garlic Roasted Chicken Breasts Recipe

10 minutes of prep and five ingredients. Martha Stewart’s Garlic-Roasted Chicken Breasts roasts whole chicken breasts on a bed of garlic heads at 400 degrees for about an hour, and the garlic does something clever: the sliced tops go cut-side down as a rack under the chicken while the bottoms sit alongside and soak up the pan juices as everything roasts together.

This Martha Stewart roasted chicken breast recipe is the kind of set-it-and-forget-it chicken dish I make when I do not want to think about dinner. Five ingredients, one roasting pan, and you walk away for an hour. It is one of Martha Stewart’s simplest roast chicken recipes and one of her best chicken dishes for a weeknight when you still want something that smells like Sunday.

Try More Dinner Recipes:

• Chicken Parmesan
• Almond-Crusted Chicken
• Apricot-Dijon Glazed Chicken

Why You Will Love This Garlic-Roasted Chicken:

• The garlic becomes the rack: Instead of a wire rack, the sliced garlic tops go under the chicken and lift it off the pan. The garlic roasts, the chicken roasts, and the flavors melt into each other. I had never seen this trick before Martha’s recipe and now I do it every time.
• Five ingredients, no fuss: Garlic, oregano, chicken, olive oil, salt and pepper. No marinades, no special sauces, nothing to mix ahead. I grab everything in one trip through the kitchen and the prep takes less than 10 minutes.
• An hour of doing nothing: Once the chicken is in the oven, you rotate the pan once at the 30-minute mark and flip the garlic bottoms. That is it. The oven does the rest. I use that hour to clean up, set the table, or just sit down.

How The Garlic Rack Works

This is the part of the recipe that I think is genuinely smart. Martha slices the tops off 4 whole garlic heads and uses them two different ways. The tops go cut-side down in the center of the roasting pan and act as a raised platform under the chicken. This lifts the breast off the pan bottom so hot air circulates underneath and the skin crisps evenly.

The garlic bottoms go cut-side up next to the chicken. As the chicken roasts, the juices drip down and pool around the garlic. At the 30-minute mark, you flip those bottoms cut-side down so the exposed cloves caramelize against the hot pan. By the time everything comes out of the oven, you have deeply roasted, spreadable garlic that tastes like it was made on purpose as a side dish. I squeeze the cloves out and eat them straight, or mash them into the pan juices to make a quick sauce.

Garlic-Roasted Chicken Breasts Ingredients

• 4 heads garlic
• 8 sprigs fresh oregano
• 2 whole roaster chicken breasts (3 1/2 pounds each), rinsed and patted dry
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

How To Make Martha Stewart Garlic-Roasted Chicken Breasts

1. Prep the garlic and chicken: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the tops from the garlic heads, reserving the bottoms. Arrange the tops cut-sides down in the center of an 11-by-17-inch roasting pan. Place 1 sprig of oregano over each garlic top, and arrange the chicken breasts over the garlic.
2. Add the garlic bottoms and season: Place the reserved garlic bottoms cut-sides up next to the chicken in the pan. Drizzle the chicken and garlic bottoms with the olive oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then place the remaining 4 sprigs of oregano on top.
3. Roast and flip the garlic: Roast the chicken for 30 minutes. Turn the garlic bottoms cut-sides down and rotate the pan. Continue roasting until the skin is browned, the juices run clear, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat registers 165 degrees, about 30 minutes more.
4. Rest and serve: Pour the pan juices into a measuring cup and skim the fat from the top. Serve the juices with the chicken and the roasted garlic.

Recipe Tips

• Use whole roaster breasts, not split breasts: Martha calls for whole roaster chicken breasts, which are larger and bone-in with skin on. These are different from the smaller split breasts you usually see. I ask the butcher if I cannot find them in the case. They stay much juicier over the long roast time.
• Do not skip rotating the pan: At the 30-minute mark, rotate the pan and flip the garlic bottoms. This ensures even browning on the chicken and even caramelization on the garlic. I set a timer so I do not forget.
• Save every drop of pan juice: The pan juices from this recipe are liquid gold. I pour them into a measuring cup, let the fat rise to the top, skim it off, and spoon the clear juice over the carved chicken. It has the garlic and oregano flavor already built in.
• Pat the chicken very dry: Wet skin steams instead of crisping. I pat the breasts dry twice with paper towels before oiling and seasoning. The drier you start, the crispier the skin comes out after an hour in the oven.

What Goes Well With This Garlic-Roasted Chicken

The roasted garlic from the pan is already a side dish on its own, so I do not overthink the rest. A tray of scalloped potatoes goes in the oven at the same time as the chicken and everything comes out together. I also love a simple bowl of green beans tossed with a little olive oil and salt.

If I want bread on the table, a batch of yeast rolls warm from the oven is perfect. I tear them open and spread the roasted garlic cloves right on the bread like butter. That might actually be the best part of the whole dinner.

How To Store Leftovers

Pull the meat off the bone while it is still slightly warm and store it in an airtight container with the pan juices poured over the top. The juices keep the chicken from drying out in the fridge, and the garlic and oregano flavor soaks deeper into the meat overnight. Everything keeps for up to 4 days. You can freeze the shredded chicken with the pan juices for up to 3 months.

Martha mentions using the leftover chicken in enchiladas, and I have done that more than once. I also toss it into pasta with olive oil and whatever vegetables I have, or pile it on toast with arugula and a squeeze of lemon. To reheat, I warm it gently in a skillet with a splash of the pan juices and a lid. The garlic smell fills the kitchen all over again.

FAQs

• What are whole roaster chicken breasts? They are full, unsplit chicken breasts with the bone and skin still on, usually weighing around 3 to 3 1/2 pounds each. Martha uses two of them for this recipe, which serves 6. I find them at the butcher counter or I ask the butcher to cut them for me.
• Why does Martha use the garlic tops as a rack? The garlic tops lift the chicken off the bottom of the pan so air circulates underneath. This helps the skin crisp more evenly and prevents the bottom from getting soggy. I tried this recipe without the garlic rack once and the bottom skin was soft and pale. Never again.
• Can I add other herbs or flavors? Martha uses fresh oregano, which is classic with roast chicken and garlic. I have swapped in thyme and rosemary and both work well. The oregano has the most punch, but any woody herb holds up to the long roast time.
• Why do you skim the fat from the pan juices? The fat rises to the top of the measuring cup and forms a clear layer. I skim it off so the juice underneath is clean and concentrated. If you skip this step, the sauce will be greasy. The whole process takes about 2 minutes.

More Dinner Recipes:

• Baked Chicken And Onions
• Chicken Scarpariello
• Baked Chicken Legs With Chickpeas And Greens

Nutrition Facts

(1 serving, serves 6)

• Calories: 520
• Total Fat: 24g
• Saturated Fat: 6g
• Cholesterol: 175mg
• Sodium: 490mg
• Total Carbohydrates: 8g
• Protein: 65g