Buttermilk Roasted Chicken Breast

I placed sliced potatoes and Kale under the chicken to make a one pan meal.

This simple and easy chicken should be in your weekly rotation. It cooks up juicy and flavorful all the way through and the skin browns beautifully without any coaxing. The leftovers will be wonderful for sandwiches, salads, pasta and for me – a cold out of the fridge snack.

Yeah, you guessed it. I still had some buttermilk I needed to use up. I've grilled, I've fried and baked cake with buttermilk. This time I was going to roast it in the oven.

I mixed up a batch of the same buttermilk soak that I used for the steak, simply because it was a no brainer. Poured it over a couple of chicken breasts then tossed it in the fridge thinking that I was going to cook it the next day.

That didn’t quite work as planned because of the fresh sea bass that I spotted at the fish market. Did I mention that it was swimmingly FRESH!  So the chicken had to wait another day to become dinner.

Two days later when it was time to cook the chicken I pulled up my Simple Roast Chicken post to reference the chicken breast cooking guide (I placed it below). Then out of curiosity I typed into the search bar - Buttermilk Roasted Chicken and sure enough, it has already been done. Now it was my turn to check it out for myself.

I read through the post and reviews and discovered that the fresh sea bass saved my chicken. The word on the street is that you absolutely need to let the chicken soak in the buttermilk for 2 whole days. So plan ahead when you make this chicken, it will be worth the wait.

I highly suggest you use Bone-in chicken breast with the skin on. The bone protects the chicken from the bottom and the skin protects the top and bastes the chicken as it cooks.

Buttermilk Garlic Soak

This is enough marinade for 4 large or 6 medium bone in/skin on chicken breast halves

2        cups   buttermilk

2        tsp.    garlic, minced (about 2 cloves)

1        tsp.    kosher salt

½      tsp.    black pepper
optional, but highly recommended

1 tsp. herbs de Provence
1 Tbsp. honey

Mix ingredients together and marinate for 2 days.

Place chicken skin side up on a sheet pan and roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for 35 min. (I had large pieces). Then turn off the oven and let the chicken sit in the oven for 10 min. with the oven off.

Chicken Breast Cooking Guide

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Cooking times vary with ovens and size.

This is my general rule for oven roasting chicken breast.

	Boneless and Skinless	Bone In with Skin
Small	10 min.	20 min.
Medium	15 min.	25 min.
Large	20 min.	35 min

 When cooking with BONE-IN chicken - turn OFF the oven (after the suggested cooking time) and let the chicken sit in the oven for 10 min. with the oven OFF to allow the residual heat to finish cooking the chicken.

Notes to Self...

6/16/2019
I marinated chicken breast for a day and a half for our father's day grill and it was wonderful - flavorful, tender and juicy.

I added the optional 1 tsp. of dried herbs de Moraga (a gift) and 1Tbsp. honey. It was perfect! I will be adding this to my bbq from now on.