Make a beautiful golden roasted chicken with a glaze of honey and turmeric! Simple enough for a weeknight meal, but fancy enough for company.

Photography Credit: Sally Vargas

With just a few spices you can turn a plain ol’ roasted chicken into something special to make on a weeknight or for an outstanding dinner for company.

The warming combination of turmeric, ginger and coriander is an easy way to bring some Middle Eastern spices to a roasted chicken. Turmeric adds a beautiful color to this dish, and with its slightly bitter overtones, marries well with ginger and coriander.

Top it off with a honey soy sauce glaze at the end of cooking, and you have a gorgeous bird that is bursting with flavor and a touch of sweetness.

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SPATCHCOCK YOUR CHICKEN FOR FASTER COOKING

Spatchocking, or butterflying, refers to a whole chicken whose backbone has been removed. The chicken is then flattened slightly so that it forms an even layer in a baking dish to roast.

This reduces the cooking time in comparison to a whole roasted chicken. In addition, a butterflied chicken is much easier to cut up after it is cooked, which is why I favor this method of roasting a chicken, especially for a weeknight meal.

Look for a chicken that is three to three and a half pounds, which will take less time to cook than a larger bird. That size is plenty for four servings. If you can only find a large chicken, then expect it to take an extra 15 to 25 minutes longer to reach the desired internal temperature of 165ºF.

You can ask the butcher at the meat counter to do the work of spatchcocking the chicken for you but you can also easily do this yourself with a good pair of kitchen shears:

HOW TO MAKE HONEY-GLAZED ROAST CHICKEN

Once you get home from the market, all you need to do is slice some onions, layer them in a baking dish or skillet (either one will do), and place the chicken on top.

Rub the chicken with olive oil, sprinkle with turmeric and spices, salt and pepper and pop the chicken in the oven. I recently discovered a neat trick to distribute the spices over the chicken.

Pro tip! Instead of trying to sprinkle the spices on the chicken with my fingers (which is messy), I put them in a mesh tea strainer and shake them evenly over the chicken.

All the juicy goodness of the chicken and the flavors of turmeric, ginger and coriander infuse the onions, which cook gently along with the chicken. Wait to brush a honey glaze over the chicken until the last 10 to 15 minutes of roasting for a gorgeous golden bird.

MORE EASY ROAST CHICKEN RECIPES

How to Spatchcock (Butterfly) a Chicken