Roasted Chicken with Orange Honey Mustard Glaze
on Sep 30, 2019, Updated Jan 28, 2025
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Just 45 minutes gets you a moist, flavorful roast chicken with a beautiful glaze.
This orange and honey roasted chicken recipe will cure any winter cooking blues. It has a beautiful, burnished, crispy skin, a nice amount of sweetness, a touch of acidity from the oranges, and a bit of zingy from the grainy Dijon mustard. So, this roasted chicken with its tangy glaze was a very welcome Sunday dinner all around, and it’s been welcome ever since.
Pair this with herbed mashed potatoes or crispy sautéed potatoes and some sauteed fresh green beans, and you could not make a better cold-weather meal.
Table of Contents
Preparing the Glazed Roast Chicken
You may notice that the bird is cut and roasted in an unusual way. First, I don’t usually truss chickens for a very good reason: I’m lazy and can never find string when needed. But then I got this technique from my friend Mandy, who helped me make the magic happen in the kitchen. She got it from Bon Appetit. So, credit where credit is due.
In this recipe, the chicken is partly spatchcocked but not totally. You just pat the bird dry, then cut the thighs part way through so they splay out in the pan. It helps the dark meat of the thighs cook more quickly so that the whole bird is cooked through at the same time. It’s a halfway version of butterflying a chicken. You can use this technique with a plain roasted bird or whatever rub or glaze you wish. Pat dry, cut thighs, and roast in the cast iron pan at 425 degrees for 45 minutes. That’s it.
And see How to Make a Perfect Roasted Chicken for more roasting chicken tips!
Add the Glaze Towards the End of Roasting
Orange juice and salt and pepper are first squeezed over the bird, and the cavity is stuffed with orange rind and onions for extra flavor.
This glaze is gorgeous and very flavorful, but you don’t want to pour it over the chicken until close to the end of the roasting time so that the sugars in the sauce don’t burn. I have learned this the hard way, and not just once.
Ingredients
- Chicken – This recipe is designed for a whole roaster chicken.
- Orange – Adds a bright and citrusy flavor.
- Onion – These cook in the cavity of the chicken and offer a wonderful aromatic component to the chicken.
- Salt and pepper – To taste.
- Unsalted butter – Helps make the glaze silky and the chicken irresistible.
- Dried rosemary – For earthy and herbaceous flavors.
- Chicken broth – This helps loosen the glaze while amplifying the flavor.
- Grainy Dijon mustard – The mustard offers a delicious spiciness and tanginess, and using grainy mustard provides such great textural elements.
- Honey – For a sweet note.
- Grand Marnier or other orange liquor –
How to Make Roasted Orange Chicken
- Prepare the chicken: Preheat the oven to 425 F. Place the bird on a cutting board breast side up, cut between the thighs and the main body of the bird, and place the chicken in a cast iron pan.
- Season the chicken: Squeeze the orange segments over the bird and place the squeezed oranges and onion chunks into the cavity of the bird. Dot the chicken with butter, sprinkle with the rosemary, and season with salt and pepper.
- Cook: Roast for 45 minutes.
- Make the glaze: In a small saucepan, heat the water, mustard, honey, Grand Marnier, or orange juice, and the remaining tablespoon of butter, stirring until smooth.
- Glaze the chicken: After 25 minutes, brush the chicken all over with the glaze. Roast for another 20 minutes, basting with the liquid at the bottom of the pan occasionally.
- Let sit and enjoy: Let sit for about 10 minutes before carving. Serve with the juices from the roasting pan, and enjoy!
Storage
Store this orange chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for about 1 week.
What to Serve with Roasted Chicken with Orange Honey Mustard
More Roast Chicken Recipes
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Roasted Chicken with Orange Honey Mustard Glaze
Ingredients
- 1 (5-pound) roaster chicken
- 1 orange (quartered)
- 1 onion (cut into 8 pieces)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (divided and cut into small pieces)
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary (crumbled)
- ½ cup chicken broth (or water)
- 3 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liquor (or orange juice)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- Place the bird on a cutting board breast side up. Using a very sharp knife, cut between the thighs and the main body of the bird so that the thighs can open up and lay fairly flat. Place the chicken in a cast iron pan. Squeeze the orange segments over the bird and season with salt and pepper all over. Place the squeezed orange segments and the onion chunks into the cavity of the bird. Dot the chicken with two tablespoons of the cut-up butter and sprinkle with the rosemary.
- Roast for 45 minutes. While the chicken is roasting, in a small saucepan, heat the water, mustard, honey, Grand Marnier or orange juice, and remaining tablespoon of butter, stirring until smooth. After 25 minutes, brush the chicken all over with the glaze. Roast for another 20 minutes, basting with the liquid at the bottom of the pan occasionally, until the juices run clear and an internal thermometer stuck into the thickest part of the thigh registers 160 F. If the top is browning too quickly, tent the chicken with foil and continue cooking.
- Let sit for about 10 minutes before carving. Serve with the juices from the roasting pan.
This was amazing and surprised me. Moist and flavorful! Great supper and the leftovers would make great sandwich meat. I used the leftovers for chicken pot pie and it was fabulous. The orange flavor came through.
½ cup chicken broth or water In pan during roasting or in sauce?
apologies – in the sauce! it’s fixed now.
one of my family’s go-to’s. Love the simplicity and the flavors!!! Thanks for the great recipes!!
Nothing like a good roast chicken (just ask Ina Garten!)
That looks great!
Too bad I don’t eat dark meat — otherwise I would be running to the store for a whole chicken. But since I live alone, that would be lot of chicken to not eat.
Wonder if I could adapt and use chicken breasts?
Oh, love your site, and cookbook too! In fact I had some of the spaghetti sauce tonight for dinner (froze into individual servings).
You could totally use the glaze on skin on-bone in chicken breasts! Just roast them for 35 minutes, add the glaze and give them another 15 or so minutes, same temperature. Love spaghetti sauce in the freezer!