Anchovy-Butter Chicken with Chicken Fat Croutons
Santa Anna
•
June 10, 2025
When people ask me what my favorite thing to cook is, often I’ll give them the most boring but honest answer possible: roasted chicken. In a personal quest for “the one,” I’ve tried a bird every way possible—simple salt-and-pepper birds, spatchcocked and slow roasted, brined, and trussed—but I always come back to this version: smeared inside and out with a salty, garlicky anchovy butter; roasted at a high temperature for brown skin, then low for juicy breasts; stuffed only with more garlic and maybe some herbs; legs akimbo (truss if you want, but more often than not my policy is “no truss, no fuss”).
I’m going to be honest with you: this recipe is almost too much. The sticky juices from the roasted chicken, the caramelized bits from anchovy butter, and the croutons that cook in the skillet and crisp in the fat, well… I mean, it’s really all just too much. Almost. For what other dish would you be tempted to lick a hot skillet?
Ingredients (11)
Ingredients (11)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425 °F.
Season chicken (3 ½–4 ½ lb) with salt and lots of pepper and place on a rimmed baking sheet or in a cast iron skillet or whatever you want to roast it in; let it hang out while you make the anchovy butter.
Using a fork, smash the butter (4 Tbsp), anchovies (1 tin), and grated garlic (2 cloves) together in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Smear the chicken all over and inside every nook and cranny with this butter (like, really get in there).
If you're comfortable doing so, I encourage you to smear the butter under the skin, too.
Stuff the chicken cavity with the halved garlic (1–2 heads), lemon (1) and herbs (½ bunch). Scatter the onions (2 small) around the chicken, season with salt and pepper, and roast until the bird starts to brown, 40 to 45 minutes.
Toss the onions around to coat them in whatever amazing fat has dripped off the chicken, then reduce temperature to 325 °F and continue to roast until the chicken is cooked through and the onions are gloriously golden, another 30 to 35 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to a cutting board or large serving platter, leaving the juices and onions behind (if you prefer your onions on the softer, jammier side, pull the onions out at this step too). Increase the oven temperature back to 425 °F (ugh, I know, annoying—just do it, though) and toss the bread (½ loaf) in all the glorious fat and cooking juices on the baking sheet, making sure the pieces are soaking up all the business left behind.
Return the baking sheet to the oven to crisp up the bread, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve this alongside the chicken, with the roasted onions and parsley scattered around and on top.
Notes
Notes
Do Ahead
This dish is actually best eaten right after it’s made. The longer it sits, the more you risk soggy zucchini (and it starts to turn a less-beautiful army green because of the vinegar). The scallion-dill topping can be made a few hours ahead, spooned over the zucchini when you’re ready to eat.
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