Elevate your weeknight roast chicken with this golden and fragrant Saffron Chicken baked in a saffron butter glaze.
Have you ever cooked with saffron? Most of us would answer, no. I remember when I was single, working in Miami and wanting to make some basmati rice with saffron. I didn’t have any saffron in my pitiful bachelorette kitchen, so I went to the Whole Foods Market next to my place to buy some.
My eyeballs popped out of my head when I saw a small jar with like 10 threads of saffron selling for $20! Luckily, my mother ended up giving me some saffron the next time I saw her, but I will never forget that day in the market.
Did I buy the saffron? No, I did not. I wasn’t making enough money at the time to splurge $20 just for a spice. That was my weekly grocery budget!
Today, I am lucky to have a cupboard filled with saffron. My main source of saffron is from family and friends who visit us from Iran, bringing small gifts of this glorious spice. I learned early on how to cook with saffron.
But for those of you who are rightfully intimidated with this expensive spice, I have these pointers for you.
How to Cook with Saffron:
- If you can, use only saffron threads and grind it yourself using a mortar and pestle. Already ground saffron typically has additives mixed in and uses cheaper quality saffron.
- Keep your saffron in a sealed container and store in a cool dark place.
- A little bit of good quality saffron goes a long way!
- Add your ground saffron to a hot liquid and steep to develop it’s rich orange color. You can add it to hot water, hot oil, melted butter or any other warm liquid.
Take an ordinary roast chicken and make it extraordinary. Grind a little saffron, add it to melted butter, brush it over your chicken and you end up with a very special golden bird.
Saffron isn’t just for paella. Add it to your ice cream, your cookies, your cake, your potatoes, your fish, and even your rice. You can learn more about saffron here.
If you are looking for more classic comfort food with a twist, try my Braised Chuck Roast with Herb Dumplings and Pulled Pork Ragu with Polenta. So delish!
I still have saffron my family has brought for me from Iran, but I still ordered this saffron to try it out. The saffron threads are crimson red, its smells amazing and it produces a bright yellow color to your foods.
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Roast Chicken with Saffron Butter
Elevate your weeknight roast chicken with this golden and fragrant Saffron Chicken baked in a saffron butter glaze.
Ingredients
- 2 TBS unsalted melted butter
- ½ teaspoon ground saffron
- 4 lb whole roasting chicken
- ½ onion, quartered
- 1 sprig of rosemary, fresh
- ½ lemon, quartered
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ⅜ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine butter and ground saffron. Let it steep and reserve.
- Preheat oven to 425ºF.
- Remove giblets and neck inside chicken cavity and place on a roasting pan with rack.
- Season cavity of chicken with ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper..
- Stuff onion, rosemary, and lemon inside the cavity of the chicken.
- Using kitchen twine, tie the legs of the chicken together (optional).
- Brush the entire chicken with the golden saffron butter, brushing under the skin of the chicken breast, as well.
- Season the entire chicken with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
- Roast chicken for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350ºF.
- Roast chicken until meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 170ºF, approximately 1 hour 20 minutes.
- If chicken starts to brown too quickly, loosely cover with aluminum foil.
- Tilt chicken to allow juices from cavity to run into roasting pan.
- Transfer chicken to platter, cover with foil and let stand for 10 minutes, allowing internal temperature to rise.
- Spoon and discard fat from surface of pan juices. You can also use a fat separator.
- Serve chicken with pan juices on the side.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
4 oz meatAmount Per Serving: Calories: 763Total Fat: 45gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 26gCholesterol: 276mgSodium: 570mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 83g
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I would make paella
I tweeted! @The_Mom_Chef. Many thanks!
What I’d make with saffron? Paella, of course! I have a handed down recipe from a Spanish friend that’s absolutely fantastic. Now you’ve made me think of it and I’m going to have to make it!
Ooh…what a wonderful give-away! I always add a few threads to my homemake chicken stock. However, an incredible fish soup will be the first thing on my list to make if I win this wonderful give-away!
I have a sopa de mariscos (seafood soup) recipe that calls for a tiny bit of saffron but I haven’t added it because it’s too expensive to buy! I’d love to win some. 🙂
Mmmm … saffron rice!
Oooh, that sounds nice! We’ve had saffron in our house, but I have to admit we don’t use it a lot. I love chicken, so I think I’d try something with that and see how good it tastes with really nice spices! 🙂
I had a similar eye-popping experience years ago when attempting to purchase saffron for a wonderful saffron rice recipe that I have. Thankfully I had a friend at the time who owned a restaurant, and was willing to keep me stocked! That was forever ago, but I am still too thrifty to buy it on a regular basis. I’ve never used it for cookies or other sweets, but that sounds interesting!
One of my best friends makes chicken & rice with saffron and I love her recipe so I’d make that if I won.
Following on Twitter as well.
– @hip_m0m
Just tweeted. https://twitter.com/Culinary_Cam/status/281818988021964800
Following SaffShop on twitter. User name = @Culinary_Cam
I liked the SaffShop on facebook. User name = Camilla M Mann
I would try your Sholeh-Zard recipe!
Liked on Facebook
Tweeted twice 🙂 !!
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Fb ! done !!
I would make saffron almond milk with some honey. My fav way to use saffron 🙂