Goat Cheese Roasted Chicken.
I gotta tell you about this crazy thing I did this weekend.
I mean, I do this every weekend, just not THIS crazy.
So.
I stuffed some goat cheese under my chicken skin. cah. razy.
It wasn’t my own idea, but a friend mentioned it to me earlier in the week and I knew I had to try it. Because see… I roast a chicken every.single.week. Every week. Even if it’s just me, myself and I. It saves so much time. So much planning. So much effort! And one of the reasons I roast this chicken every weekend, besides just to have for lunches and dinners (okay and even breakfasts) for the week to come… is to beat the Sunday blues.
People.
I am a huge victim of the Sunday blues. Have been ever since I was a kid. Actually, all the way back as far as I can remember? I had the Sunday blues. Pretty sure my mom told me once it’s like genetic or something because my dad gets the same way. But really, there is no other way to describe it, other than, well… blue. It’s not a sadness and it’s not a depression and it’s not an actual upset feeling, but it’s just a BLUE feeling. Though I prefer to think of it as a turquoisey aqua since that is such a pretty color.
Even if my weekend stunk, even if it was boring, even if I’m throwing a party on Monday, I still get a little blue on Sunday night. If my weekend was awesome, my blueness is about ten thousand shades deeper. And the craziest thing is that I love what I do and I love what I get to do every single day, including on Monday. And I really like sleep, so obviously I really like sleeping on Sunday nights. But I still get the wah-wah-wah-Sundays-stink face on. Whyyyy must the weekend end? Why must I do something other than lay on the couch? Why does it feel like cheating if I’m shopping any other day than Saturday or Sunday? Why don’t tacos taste as good as they do on the weekends?
If it wasn’t for constant HBO programming, I think I’d lose my head. Quite frankly.
So the chicken… I usually roast it on Sunday (occasionally Monday if I had some sort of a life the day before) and immediately pick at some of the skin. So so so good. This always happens; it’s practically a ritual. And while I don’t think I’ll ever tire of a plain roasted chicken, my go-to is simply salt, pepper and olive oil and a slight increase in flavor never hurt anybody. Enter goat cheese. I stuffed that stuff right up under the skin and still roasted the heck out of it. OMG. Life changing. Fantabulous. My pictures do no justice, trust me.
I just know that I should probably buy stock in goat cheese now.
Goat Cheese Roasted Chicken
Ingredients
- 5 pound fresh chicken, giblets removed
- 8 ounces goat cheese, slightly softened to room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/2 lemon
- 1 bulb garlic, top cut off
- 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Pat chicken completely dry with pap towels.
- In a bowl, combine goat cheese with herbs and garlic salt, mixing well until combined. Rub the non-breast side of the chicken with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put that side down in a baking dish or roasting pan. Lift the skin of the chicken above the breast and stuff with goat cheese, pressing it into the thighs and as far back as possible. Rub the outside of the chicken with some goat cheese as well, using up the mixture. Rub with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stuff the garlic bulb, cloves-facing inward, in the top opening and the lemon, slice-side up, in the bottom opening. It’s no biggie if they fall out while roasting!
- Roast for 75 minutes, then remove and let rest for 30 minutes before cutting.
- To see a full step-by-step tutorial of roasting a chicken, click here.
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So juicy.
106 Comments on “Goat Cheese Roasted Chicken.”
I like the idea of roasting a chicken on Sundays. I too get major Sunday blues. I HATE Sundays, which pretty much makes zero sense since you aren’t at work, can sleep in, etc… but it’s tainted. Funny how I love Thursdays more than Sundays and Fridays? Gah, every day should be a Friday. :-)
Thursdays are my favorite day too! Anticipation for the win.
I said the same words yesterday! “I hate Sundays” So glad to know I’m not the only one with this strange problem :-)
oh man…the college sunday blues were the worst. driving back to school or having to truly study. i hated that feeling.
goat cheese would have helped.
Ditto! As much as I love visiting my old college campus now, driving up the hill and seeing the Cathedral still makes me think about how sad I’d be Sunday nights!
I like to call it Sunday Sickness! Have felt that way on Sundays since I was a kid too.
I’m a firm believer in the fact that goat cheese makes everything in life better. That, and chocolate.
I think everyone gets the Sunday blues to some degree. The long school/work week is about to start again…ugh! Your chicken stuffed with goat cheese looks so delicious!
Sandor Ferenczi, a Hungarian psychoanalyst, introduced the term “Sunday Neurosis” in 1919. Using several case studies, he explained that recurring anxiety, headaches, stomachaches, and nausea, were common among those who tended to fixate on the structure of their day. Ferenczi blamed the Sabbath, the day mandated as the day of rest according to the Fourth Commandment, for creating an open schedule that presented an unwelcome, even debilitating freedom.
Victor Frankl, renowned psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, took Ferenczi’s ideas a step further, positing that Sunday Neurosis was a symptom of the “existential vacuum,” a feeling of boredom and meaninglessness. He believed that people, given time to reflect, begin to question their own value and purpose. Frankl explored this problem and its solution in his book “Man’s Search For Meaning.”
Others have explored the meaning of the Sunday Blues through art. In the 1960s, a 29-year-old hard-living and recently divorced janitor penned a song about grappling with the rundown, empty feeling Sunday morning brings after the delirious high of the night before. The janitor was celebrated songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson, and the song, “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” became a chart-topping hit for Johnny Cash. Kristofferson wrote …
On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I’m wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there’s nothing short a’ dying
That’s half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.
Of the smell of frying chicken, Kristofferson added, “Lord, it took me back to something that I’d lost [s]omewhere, somehow along the way.” Perhaps this lost “something” is precisely what Frankl meant.
In recent years, several writers have piggybacked on Frankl’s core principles, adding their own insights. Blake Morrison, writing in The Guardian, a UK newspaper, in 2003, recalled the Sundays of his youth: “Feeling alive on a Sunday was, at that time, more or less impossible. The shops were shut; trains and buses ran less regularly … With few museums or art galleries open either, Sunday was a kind of exhibit in itself—a still life, or marble statue, requiring everyone to creep around in whispers. Even for a child, the torpor and melancholy were inescapable.”
Yet Morrison did escape. Out of boredom, he begged his parents to go to church, and when the Sunday closing laws changed in England, he worked at his neighborhood bar. Having witnessed a marked change in the way Sundays are spent nowadays, Morrison recognizes a different problem. “The empty, idle day has disappeared and been filled with shopping, birthday parties, sports games, and work.” He laments, “What ever happened to Sundays?”
In a 2003 New York Times article titled “Bring back the Sabbath,” Judith Shulevitz expanded on Morrison’s ideas and countered Ferenczi’s assumptions about the Sabbath as a root cause of neurosis. Instead Shulevitz blames our own “workaholic culture” for the decline in religious worship, as well as a lack of appreciation of community, and pure and simple rest. Whether through church, the synagogue or one’s own private passion, she encourages readers to keep the Sabbath sacred. She explains, “The Sabbath is to the week what the line break is to poetic language. It is the silence that forces you to return to what came before to find its meaning.”
Oh yummy! What a great combination!! I never paired goat cheese with chicken! Sounds fabulous!!!
I know what you mean…..that’s why I love 3-day weekends. I can put the Sunday blues off to one more day and have Monday blues. ;) I need to try roasting my own chicken soon…..glad to see that you have a tutorial.
We had roasted chicken twice last week and I thought I was sick of it now I absolutely need to try this!
My hubby used to get that way and then he’d start counting down the hours until he had to be back at work. Thankfully that phase is over but yeah, I get it. We started planning things we’d do on the weekend for midweek to have something to look forward to. I mean who says picnics, putt putt or board games are for the weekend? :-)
I’m not a goat cheese fan but I’m sure I could find an equally yummy cheese to stuff under there. Any suggestions?
You just made me ask myself why I don’t ALSO roast a chicken each week… It would seriously make my life a billion times easier. Any secrets for also erasing my long commute to the office? ;)
This looks awesome! I can’t say I’ve ever actually roasted a chicken myself.. I’m not sure what it is that scares me, probably the whole ‘removing the giblets’ thing.. like I’m sure it’d be obvious if I actually looked at a chicken but if you asked me right now, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what said giblets actually look like. Come to think of it, I bet Google would solve that problem. Ok, done. Chicken roasting will happen this weekend! :)
Wow, this is an awesome idea. I have never thought of goat cheese on a chicken! We make whole chicken VERY often too…although we always smoke ours on the grill. We love to use the meat for leftovers all week, but we also always make chicken stock out of the carcass. http://www.extraordinarybbq.com/leftovers-smoked-chicken-broth/. Especially with fall coming up, we will be making a ton of soups and the broth you make from these chickens is SO delicious. Also, have you ever tried injecting your chicken? http://www.extraordinarybbq.com/inject-a-whole-chicken/ Talk about adding flavor! As you can see I am very passionate about whole chickens too! In fact, I’m in the works of making a whole chicken guide to help people from beginning to end with the process.
Mmmmm! Speaking of goat cheese, I had a dinner party this weekend and did your goat cheese coconut cheesecakes…and let me just tell you they were a massive hit! You know I love me my goat cheese! Can’t wait to try this one!
PS. I plan my mani/pedis on Sundays to beat the Sunday blues!
So glad you liked them!
I feel you on the Sunday blues! But this chicken recipe looks great!!!!!
as a kid, the sound of the 60 minutes stop watch was the end of fun forever. well, until the next weekend. now, sunday is one of my favorite days. especially in the fall when football sounds are in the background. i get to make the biggest dinner of the week. something like a roasted chicken, short ribs, beouf bourguigon. and maybe a dessert. then it’s back the the hustle and bustle of two kids, school, sports and somewhere in there, dinner.
you are awesome. contrats on the three years.
hahaha OMG – same here! I heard it last night and it was actually what inspired this post.
I’ve been LOVING goat cheese stuffed chicken lately. I especially like mine with rosemary and a honey butter glaze. So freaking good! It’s become a once-a-week meal in my house!
I only started hating Sundays when I got a 9-8 job. Yes, I’m under no misconceptions that I have a 9-5. But now, Sunday nights make me grumpy. But Chicken and Goat Cheese makes me happy. So perhaps if I make this, I won’t have a case of the grumpies.
Jessica – curious, what temperature do you normally put the kibosh on your roasting and take your chicken out of the oven to let it rest? And what part of the chicken do you check? I know chicken is supposed to be cooked to 157-160 but sometimes mine gets too dry when I let it cook all the way up to that so I was just wondering what you do. Thanks! -Meg
I actually go about 180 (breast) and 190 (thigh) and then I also slice into the leg (per Ina Garten) and make sure the juices run clear. Are you talking about a whole roasted chicken or separate breasts/thighs? I’ve actually never had a whole roasting chicken be dry, ever. But the separate parts – yes!
Yeah I guess I’m thinking about the separate parts (which is why I should just roast the whole chicken like you do! duh!) I guess you can go much higher when you have the bone on because it helps it stay juicy. This helps – thanks Jessica!
This sounds wonderful!!
i am salivating at my desk right now. goat cheese stuffed chicken sounds weirdly delicious with my pumpkin spice coffee this morning. i want some! wah.
Seriously, I could marry you right now. I love goat cheese. Like, my whole day is better when I walk over the cafeteria at our hospital and they have goat cheese in the salad bar. Which is only a couple days a week every few weeks…which could explain why I mostly hate grad school. But oh, those goat cheese days. Please come live with/cook for me. Or let me come live with you???
Goat cheese is pretty much my favorite thing ever. Well, behind chocolate and bacon.
I have been eating SO MUCH GOAT CHEESE lately. I guess I could eat some chicken with it instead of just straight up….
My mom and my grandma both roasted a chicken every weekend! I love that you have this little tradition that you do, no matter what!
You know, I’ve done something similar before and i was cah-razy good! This is going to have to get on the dinner menu this week!
mmm goat cheese chicken. mouth is officially watering.
Great combo… And pretty cra-cra too. ;) I love Sunday night traditions! Happy 3 yrs too, yay! ;)
Yea… so sunday blues – – me too!! But it’s because I have to leave my kitchen and go the work the next day. This chicken – – I need it. And shares in goat cheese, dear me – – sign me up!!
Love, love, love this!! Will Have to try this weekend when my kids come home! We all LOVE goat cheese! I’ll let you know how it turns out!!
Also had the Sunday blues when I was younger, but not so much anymore. Totally understand it though.
Does it get better than that? Yum yum yum!
Erin – ekcantcook.blogspot.com
looks amazing-love goats cheese!!
Total card carrying member of the goat cheese-aholics club!
Wow, I love this!!!! I’m obsessed with goat cheese!
WOW! That looks incredible. I need to try this soon.
I get the Sunday blues too! Especially right at dusk. I think Douglas Adams said it best when he called it “the long dark tea-time of the soul.”
Look at that skin! Now I want a roast chicken.
Oh girl, I love any excuse to eat goat cheese! Yum.
YES. I NEED THIS – as soon as i have an oven again i’m all in!
Jess!! Sorry I am WAY late to the party, I typically always read your new posts on my Google reader, so I didn’t see the updates to your blog…but I LOVE it!! Congrats- it is just beautiful :)
That sounds amazing! I just roasted my first chicken a month or two ago (and have one sitting in the fridge, as a matter of fact) and it was definitely tasty. Clearly, this is just improvement on perfection. :-)
I was such a punk yesterday, I had the worst ever case of the Sunday blues. So glad to know it’s not just me!
I’d eat creamy goat cheese all day every day. Love this recipe!
This looks so good; love goat cheese. Ive gotten lazy about roasting my own chicken; been buying rotissiere. Sometimes i would roast two at a time.
That’s not crazy, unless you mean crazy good!
You are so amazing! You post the best recipes out of anyone I’ve found.
Alicia
Quirktastic Adventures
Oh my gosh, this looks amazing and I need to try it! I have done a similar under-the-skin dealie with chicken before, except using butter and herbs and salt. Goat cheese sounds SO GOOD. Wow!
Too funny! I went back to culinary school today for a class on cheese-making (very cool) and we made a roast chicken, and put roquefort cheese and herbs under the skin. I was sitting there thinking that I would love to try it with goat cheese!
This looks great! :)
Aw, I get the Sunday blues too especially in the winter. This sounds like a great recipe.
Drooling already. Love goat cheese. Sundays are always winners in my book but I think that makes it extra sad as the day comes to a close. Mondays will never be a good thing.
Oh EM GEE!!! I’ve only been combining plain chicken and goat cheese in my salads but this just made me second guess everything.