Sauvignon Blanc Garlic Butter Roast Chicken

The Savvy B Roast

My entire pregnancy I had three very specific cravings:

An ice cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Truffle fries. And a Boston cream donut.

The truffle fries? Done. Treated myself many times.

The Boston cream donuts? Also… Done. Occasionally. For the baby, obviously.

But the Savvy B had to wait.

And I DREAMT about it. Not getting drunk. Not going out. Literally just sitting down with dinner and having one aggressively cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

So now that I’m no longer pregnant, I can finally have my wine.

And what did I do with it?

Poured most of my glass underneath a chicken.

…and I’d do it again.

Because the Sauvignon Blanc gets down there with the garlic butter, chicken drippings, bouillon, mushrooms, onions and vegetables and turns into this buttery, garlicky, slightly tangy pan sauce that I genuinely think might be better than the wine itself.

And I realize that’s a bold statement coming from someone who spent approximately nine months fantasizing about this wine.

But here we are.

Whatever you do, do not throw away the liquid at the bottom of this pan.

Spoon it over the chicken. Spoon it over the vegetables. Put it over mashed potatoes. Dip bread in it. Drink it directly from the roasting dish when nobody is looking.

Okay, maybe don’t do that.

But I would understand.

And then there are the herbs.

Would this be gorgeous with fresh thyme and oregano?

Absolutely.

Do I ever have fresh thyme and oregano in my house at the exact moment I decide I need them?

Absolutely not.

I don’t know where all these recipe people are living where there are perpetually six varieties of fresh herbs casually waiting in the refrigerator, but it is not my house.

So I use dried herbs.

And it is phenomenal.

If you have fresh herbs, use them. Toss some thyme around the vegetables. Put a few sprigs in the chicken. Live your best Ina Garten life bestie.

BUT if all you have is the collection of dried herbs you’ve been accumulating in a cabinet for the last seven years?

Hi. Welcome. You’re among friends.

Use them!

This is exactly how I like to cook: use what you have, don’t make dinner harder than it needs to be, and save enough Savvy B for your glass.

Actually, that’s important.

Pour your glass first. Then measure the wine for the chicken. Priorities.

Don’t Let the Leftovers Go to Waste

You Made the Roast. Now What?

One of my favorite things about roasting a whole chicken is that dinner is really only the beginning.

I usually roast two chickens a week because I’m not particularly interested in traditional meal prep. I don’t want seven containers of the exact same lunch staring at me from the refrigerator.

What I do want is good food already cooked that I can turn into something completely different with very little effort.

So when you make this roast, save the leftover chicken and absolutely save that carcass. Here are a few of my favorite ways to use both:

Tarragon & Almond Chicken Salad

This is probably one of my favorite lunches to make with leftover Weekly Roast chicken.

Shred the leftover chicken and mix it with Greek yogurt, mayo, tarragon, celery, dried onion and sliced almonds. It’s creamy, crunchy, a little herby, and takes about five minutes when the chicken is already sitting in your refrigerator waiting for you.

Make a sandwich, throw it in a wrap, pile it onto greens, eat it with crackers—or stand in front of the refrigerator and eat it directly out of the container.

→ Get the Tarragon & Almond Chicken Salad recipe

Turn the Carcass Into Bone Broth

Please don’t throw that carcass away.

I use my leftover Weekly Roast chicken bones to make homemade bone broth, freeze it, and then use it everywhere—soups, chili, sauces, rice, and even underneath the next chicken I roast.

It’s basically the ingredient that keeps this whole little system going.

→ Get my Weekly Roast Bone Broth recipe

Bone Broth Garlic Butter Rice

Once you have the broth, make the rice.

I cook rice in my homemade chicken bone broth instead of water with butter, garlic and a few pantry seasonings. It’s an incredibly easy side, but the broth makes it taste so much better than plain rice.

I usually make a large batch and freeze portions so future me can have a side dish ready with approximately zero effort.

→ Get the Bone Broth Garlic Butter Rice recipe

Or Just Use the Chicken

You don’t actually need another recipe.

Shred it for wraps. Put it on salads. Make quesadillas. Add it to pasta. Throw it into soup. Make a quick sandwich. Put it over that bone broth rice with whatever sauce is currently living in your refrigerator.

That’s the whole reason I love the Weekly Roast.

I’m not meal prepping meals. I’m prepping possibilities.

One roast gives me dinner tonight, cooked chicken for whatever sounds good tomorrow, and a carcass that becomes broth for something else entirely.

Less planning. Less waste. And significantly fewer nights staring into the refrigerator at 5:30 wondering what exactly I thought was going to happen for dinner.