Roasted Chicken Provençal

I've made this about 5 times now, and it’s not much work relative to the super pay-off. I use a lot more garlic and shallots - like about 20 cloves of garlic and about 1.5 cups of shallots. I found a really good vermouth recently that blows the traditional Martini & Rossi away. The name is Dolin, and it's their blanc style. Found that it tastes great over ice too!
Brands of herbes de Provence that have a good amount of fennel seem to flavor this dish the best.

Did you bake with chicken skin side down or up? It's not clear in the recipe.

These are some marvelous and helpful notes. They recall a couple of truisms about the kitchen. First, "a large roasting pan" means different things to different people. One with relatively high sides will yield more "juice" than one with low. Second, oven temperatures vary. Roasting chicken in a 400-degree oven for an hour should almost by definition yield crisp skin. No? Maybe 425 on your oven will yield true 400. Love the idea of adding some knobs of butter! Cook on!

Am a bit confused. Should you cover both sides of the floured chicken with the olive oil? And do you cover the chicken when baking, or cook it uncovered?

Great recipe...have given it out to people more times than I can count. Adding to some of the other comments: 1) double the liquid at least. More vermouth, stock, white wine...doesn't matter but 1/3 cup is not enough. 2) I've found that 425 works better than 400. 3) if you live in the boondocks and can't get shallots, red onions work in a pinch.

Used 4 skinless bone-in thighs and 2 skin on, bone in breasts. Didn't have flour so subbed almond meal. Used enough oil to cover pan bottom so it ran freely. Cut the lemon in 1/8's, tucked 1 or 2 between each piece of chicken. Added the chopped shallots &garlic all over the place. Added about a cup of Vermouth &seasoned chicken liberally with the herbs. I turned the chicken over about half way through cooking it. Set oven at 425 and baked about an hour. Came out amazing.

Absolutely the best chicken ever! Very easy too. I added artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and Kalamata olives.

I've made this dish quite a few times. I would not omit any of the ingredients called for with the exception of using white wine instead of vermouth since I don't keep vermouth in the house. What I find the most important aspect is to not crowd the chicken pieces. Each piece should have its own space which will aid in the crisping of the skin. I crowded a pot once with 8 large pieces. The taste was as it always is but the presentation was not as the skin that was crowded was a pale white.

I have made this three times and every time it turned out perfect. This is one of only two recipes I make that my partner rated a 10/10. I have a convection oven that I put on roast, put the chicken in a large iron skillet and it gives the chicken an absolute perfect browned skin. The herbs and seasonings are the perfect combination. This is the best roasted chicken out there if you are looking for a recipe that has a great combination of full seasonings and tender flavorful meat — amazing.

I thought that, too, going into the testing process. But the chicken skin renders fat in the oven, so it self-bastes to some degree and the result is deliciously crisp. Not getting that way? Your oven may be "low," meaning it's not delivering a true 400 degrees. In which case: Turn it up to 425.

Delicious, easy. I've made this several times. Use the vermouth; add more if you need more liquid. I use 2 lemons. I also double the shallots and garlic: they melt down to sweet wonderfulness (the garlic is great on the baguette). I've made this with bone-in, skin-on breasts, too, and they work great (you may need to adjust cooking time). Dish also reheats perfectly (skin won't be crisp). Dish can be assembled earlier in the day, covered, and refrigerated; add vermouth just before cooking.

I make this with 4 skin-on bone-in chicken breasts. Leftovers, if any, make a great chicken salad. It's leaner with the breasts, just as tasty. Used the convection on the oven @ 375, makes the skins brown and crispy.

Really, really good; one of the best chicken recipes ever, and SO SIMPLE. I love recipes that also teach a new technique you can use often. Thanks, Sam, I've pre browned chicken for the last time. The technique of dusting with flour and basting half way through gives the crispest skin ever. Basting is the key step - baste generously.

Excellent, easy, delicious! However, like several of other posters here, I increased the olive oil a bit and used a little over ½ cup of Vermouth. Also, as the skin didn't appear to be too crisp, I finished the dish under the broiler (low setting) for the last 5 minutes or so. BTW, you can't have too many garlic cloves or shallots in this dish!

This dish is stunning. I added additional vermouth, not a lot just some; it needed it. I also an additional half of a lemon. I cooked 9 thighs (the 10th would have overcrowded my roasting pan). At the half-way point I added French green beans to the pan. Pushing some of them gently into the sauce, they were just right at the end at about the 1hr point. I served with quinoa (1.5 cups dry). For four. Everyone said, "Wow." It was the recipe!