How to Roast a Whole Chicken that turns out delicious every time. It is so simple, anyone can do it! With just 20 minutes of hands-on time (60-minutes baking time) this can be turned into other meals during the week! Video.
Here’s a simple recipe for Whole Roast Chicken with lemon, garlic, and rosemary, baked in the oven in a skillet that turns out perfect every time. Crispy skinned, yet moist and juicy on the inside, this is one of our favorite comfort food meals! The lemon, garlic, and fragrant rosemary infuse the whole bird with deliciousness as well as all the veggies underneath! A simple tasty one-pot meal!
From start to finish it takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes, with 20 minutes of hands-on time.
If you’ve been intimidated by roasting a whole chicken, here’s your opportunity to learn something fun and new that I promise, you will use over and over again. Once you get the idea, you can use the basic recipe for your own creative flavorings!
What I love about this recipe is how the leftovers can be used for other delicious meals – or to create the most flavorful soup ever (or stock) the next day. So it’s like 2 meals in one! The meal that keeps on giving. ?
HOW TO ROAST A WHOLE CHICKEN
So the recipe starts with preheating the oven to 425 F and placing the oven rack in the MIDDLE.
While the oven preheats, bring the chicken to room temp and prep any optional veggies. Feel free to skip the veggies if you like! But I love roasting a chicken over a bed of veggies that will catch all the drippings- so tasty!
Here I’ve used 3 stray carrots, a russet potato and one onion. Other root veggies would work too. You want to use veggies that can hold up to being in the hot oven for an hour. So for example, asparagus would not work here. Get it? ?
But parsnips would, or beets, cauliflower, celery root, fennel bulb – tougher veggies! Wedges of cabbage also work great. These will cook under the chicken, catching all the flavorful drippings.
Toss the veggies with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and lemon zest and create a base or platform for the chicken.
Cut a garlic head in half and lemon in half and place half of each, open side down in the pan.
STEP TWO: PREP THE CHICKEN.
A NOTE ON CHICKEN: I’m using a small 4-pound organic, local free-range chicken here- and this smaller size tends to work best. Having a whole chicken is a special treat in our house- it doesn’t happen all the time, perhaps a couple of times a year, if that.
So I splurge and buy the best local organic chicken I can find. It really does make a difference. They truly do taste better, more tender, more juicy, better texture overall.
This little guy cost about $17 dollars. This may seem like a lot, but if you think about how you will get 2-3 meals out of this- for 2 people, it is actually not that bad.
Using a better quality of chicken here will truly elevate the final dish. I promise!
HOW TO USE LEFTOVER CHICKEN
Feel Better Chicken Soup
Kale, Chickpea and Chicken Soup with Rosemary Croutons
Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)
Chicken Salad Sandwich with Tarragon
Quinoa Chicken Salad with Chickpeas, Arugula, Tomatoes and Herbs
