Roasted Chicken Provençal

Recipe from Steven Stolman

Adapted by Sam Sifton

Updated July 20, 2025

  • David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
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Total Time
1 hour 15 minutes
Rating
5(15,099)
Comments
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This is a recipe I picked up from Steven Stolman, a clothing and interior designer whose “Confessions of a Serial Entertainer” is a useful guide to the business and culture of dinner parties and general hospitality. It is a perfect dinner-party meal: chicken thighs or legs dusted in flour and roasted with shallots, lemons and garlic in a bath of vermouth and under a shower of herbes de Provence. They go crisp in the heat above the fat, while the shallots and garlic melt into sweetness below. You could serve with rice, but I prefer a green salad and a lot of baguette to mop up the sauce. —Sam Sifton

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

  • 4 chicken legs or 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt

  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

  • ½ to ¾ cup all-purpose flour

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

  • 2 tablespoons herbes de Provence

  • 1 lemon, quartered

  • 8 to 10 cloves garlic, peeled

  • 4 to 6 medium-size shallots, peeled and halved

  • ⅓ cup dry vermouth

  • 4 sprigs of thyme, for serving

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

35 grams carbs; 189 milligrams cholesterol; 682 calories; 21 grams monounsaturated fat; 8 grams polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 43 grams fat; 5 grams fiber; 814 milligrams sodium; 37 grams protein; 7 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 400 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Put the flour in a shallow pan, and lightly dredge the chicken in it, shaking the pieces to remove excess flour.

  2. Step 2

    Swirl the oil in a large roasting pan, and place the floured chicken in it. Season the chicken with the herbes de Provence. Arrange the lemon, garlic cloves and shallots around the chicken, then add the vermouth to the pan.

  3. Step 3

    Put the pan in the oven, and roast for 25 to 30 minutes, then baste it with the pan juices. Continue roasting for another 25 to 30 minutes, or until the chicken is very crisp and the meat cooked through.

  4. Step 4

    Serve in the pan or on a warmed platter, garnished with the thyme.

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Comments

BAJZ

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.

Margaret

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

Sam Sifton

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!

Jeff Prenevost

I'm confused about what you do with everything at the end. The chicken, of course, comes out of the pan and gets served as-is. And then what? The shallots and garlic cloves get scooped out onto dishes? To... eat? Smush onto pieces of bread? (Yum.) And the juice... gets reduced, perhaps? Or it's already reduced? You spoon it over the chicken? (Nah.) Put it on the plates and then put the chicken atop? (Hmm.) Hope you've got some worthy starch? Sorry to over-think; I yam wud I yam.

Dave

I'm not a great cook but this is a popular dish when I make it. The shallots and whole garlic cloves really give it flavor and people argue to get more shallots. Herbes de Provence are great if you have them but poultry seasoning works fine or make your own mix from individual herbs you have on hand. I usually skip coating the skin in flour. When I do I also skip basting to help get crispy skin. If that's a bad move, well the dish is still great. BTW, skin up is how I do it.

julia

for those aiming for crispy skin, a few notes: 1. as prepared, the vermouth and veggies in the pan will generate steam. if your pan is too high in the oven, the steam will have nowhere to go except to the chicken skin, which will cause it to get soggy 2. for those of you omitting the flour, make sure to pat the chicken dry 3. for a little help, adding a little fat to the chicken skin before it goes into the oven can do wonders 4. dry brine uncovered in the fridge for a few hours or overnight

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Credits

Adapted from Steven Stolman

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