Buttery, citrus-scented and moist, this roast chicken is a crowd-pleaser

I chose this recipe because Food & Wine said it was Julia Child’s favorite for roast chicken.

But – during preparation, at least – it wasn’t the bird that stood out.

It was the butter.

The vegetables stuffed into the chicken are first sauteed in butter. Then the poultry is massaged all over with more butter. After 15 minutes of cooking, the bird is brushed with still more butter.

In all, the recipe calls for 2 ½ tablespoons. But by the time I was done, it felt like much more than that. Maybe that’s because I doubled the recipe – stuffing, rubbing down and roasting two birds in one pan.

Company was coming, and I needed chicken for 10: six adults and four children.

I opted for roast chicken because of its versatility and approachability. It pairs well with so many sides. And, in general, people seem to like it. It’s hard to go wrong with roast chicken, especially when you can say the recipe was Child’s favorite.

In her classic cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” she wrote, “You can always judge the quality of a cook or a restaurant by roast chicken.”

Similarly, in “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home,” which she co-wrote with the famed chef Jacques Pepin, she said, “A well-roasted chicken is the mark of a fine cook.”

Don’t let her words intimidate you. This buttery, citrus-scented chicken really isn’t too difficult to make. Pretty much the worst thing you can do, Child herself said, is overcook it and dry it out. Luckily, in this recipe, there’s plenty of butter, lemon, herbs, vegetables and pan juices to help keep that from happening.

On the “To Roast a Chicken” episode of her famed cooking show “The French Chef,” Child cut off the chicken’s “little elbow knobs” and snipped out the stubborn wishbone before roasting to make carving later a little bit easier. She called the wishbone removal a “useful operation,” but where’s the fun in that?

I didn’t bother with trimming the elbows, and I kept the wishbones – just in case a couple of the kids wanted to pull them apart while making a wish.

Child trussed her bird with a thick, big-eyed needle. In the end, it was all tied up, like a gift. A present of raw, stuffed, string-bound chicken.

Hers was going on a rotisserie. Mine was headed for a pan. So I followed the alternative option, simply tying the ends of the drumsticks together.

No matter which you cook the bird, “it should have a butter massage,” Child said on her show. This helps the bird to brown and gives it flavor, she explained.

In the “Julia and Jacques” book, she further noted, “Not everything I do with my roast chicken is necessarily scientific. For instance, I always give my bird a generous butter massage before I put it in the oven. Why? Because I think the chicken likes it – and, more important, I like to give it.”

Her butter massage on the show was, to be sure, much more enthusiastic than mine. I approached this step a little more gingerly,washing my hands immediately after the task with extra-hot and extra-soapy water.

This leads to an important point. Also on the show, Child rinsed her chicken, and the recipe from 1997 includes that step, too. But these days, we don’t do that anymore for the same reason that Child did it years ago: food safety.

Rinsing poultry won’t kill the salmonella and other bacteria that are more likely on the raw meat – and all you do it spread that nastiness all over your sink. The way to make chicken safe to eat is to thoroughly cook it. The internal temperature should reach 165 degrees, according to the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

That usually takes a half hour longer then the estimated time listed on a recipe, Child said on her show. She was right about that. Even allowing extra time for cooking two birds at once, the cooking time was longer than I expected – even after bringing both birds up to room temperature before placing them in the oven.

Good thing there were plenty of appetizers.

When it finally came time for carving, I recalled Child’s advice. “You start with the leg, and you nudge it off,” she said on her show.

She also recommended presenting the chicken at the dinner table, then carving it in the kitchen, if you aren’t particularly confident with the process. (That, of course, assumes a home cook doesn’t have an open-concept kitchen, like I do.)

After a couple hours of hors d’oeuvres, I gave guests the honors of being first to dig in, handing knives to two of them. We took turns carving. Kids got dibs on the drumsticks.

By then, it was the moist and tender meat of the two birds that stood out, not the butter.

Julia Child’s Favorite Roast Chicken recipe

Adapted from Julia Child in Food & Wine magazine, January 1997

Julia Child seasoned this roast chicken inside and out by packing sauteed vegetables, lemon slices and fresh herbs into the cavity, then rubbing the skin with butter. In typical French fashion, she trussed the bird to promote even cooking. Pair with a minerally, full-bodied Cour-Cheverny – or, as we did at our recent dinner party, viognier from Walla Walla.

2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup finely diced carrots

1/3 cup finely diced onion

1/3 cup finely diced celery

1 teaspoon thyme, savory or mixed herbs, or 2 fresh thyme or savory sprigs

1 (3 1/2- to 4-pound) chicken

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Parsley stems

Celery leaves

Six ( 1/8-inch-thick) lemon slices

1/2 cup sliced onion

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup chicken stock or broth

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a skillet. Add the diced carrots, onion and celery and cook over moderate heat until softened. Stir in the herbs.

For easier carving, cut out and discard the wishbone. Pull the neck skin up over the breast and secure it to the back with a toothpick. Salt and pepper the cavity and spoon in the cooked vegetables, a handful of parsley stems and celery leaves and the lemon slices. Massage the chicken all over with 1 tablespoon of the butter, then truss it. Alternatively, tie the ends of the drumsticks together and tuck the wings under the body.

Choose a flameproof roasting pan that is about 1 inch larger than the chicken. Salt the chicken all over and set it breast up on a rack in the pan. (Thoroughly wash all surfaces and utensils that have been in contact with the raw chicken.)

Roast the chicken in the oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, as follows:

At 15 minutes: Brush the chicken with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of butter. Scatter the sliced onion and carrot all around. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

At 45 minutes: Brush the lemon juice over the chicken. If necessary, add 1/2 cup of water to the vegetables to prevent burning.

At 60 minutes: Baste with the pan juices. Test for doneness: The drumsticks should move easily in their sockets; their flesh should feel somewhat soft. If not, continue roasting, basting and testing every 7 to 8 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer registers 165 degrees.

Spear the chicken through the shoulders; lift to drain; if the last of the juices run clear yellow, the chicken is done. Let rest on a carving board for 15 minutes; discard the string.

Spoon all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the juices in the pan. Add the stock and boil until lightly syrupy, 5 minutes. Strain; you will have just enough to bathe each serving with a fragrant spoonful.