The Perfect Whole Roasted Chicken

This recipe is a day late, but it was totally worth it! We butchered our first batch of meat chickens yesterday, so to end out the day I roasted one of them in the oven. In my opinion, this is the best way to roast chicken. I know there are fancy glazes and spice rubs, skip them. This simple five ingredient recipe will give you the perfect whole roasted chicken.

The first step is to rinse and dry your chicken. Rinsing it won’t kill bacteria, the cooking will, but cleaning it isn’t going to hurt anything. If there are giblets inside remove those. You can cook them, freeze them, or discard them.

Place the chicken in a baking dish big enough to hold the chicken without forcing it. You can place it on a baking rack in the dish, but I rarely do. Drizzle the chicken liberally with olive oil, then sprinkle coarse salt, fresh ground pepper and dried thyme all over to taste. (I like a really salty, crisp skin.) At this point you can also tie the feet, but that is totally up to you.

The next step is important. The chicken is going to get ‘tented’ in foil. This allows heat to circulate around the chicken, but keeps the skin from getting burnt. I take a large piece of foil and put a crease in it down the center then sit it on top of the chicken.

Put the chicken in your preheated oven. A 3-4 lb. chicken is going to take 1.5-2 hours to cook. A 4-5 lb. bird is going to take 2-2.5 hours to cook. FoodSafety.gov says that you should cook your chicken to an internal temperature of 165º. If you are relying on temperature, use their guidelines. Our guideline has always been if you push on a leg and the joint separates, it’s ready to eat.

When you have about thirty minutes of cooking time left remove the foil and let the skin brown. If it starts to get too brown and you haven’t reached the correct temperature cover with foil again. Once it is done it is ready to eat, no need to let it rest.

I also started cooking my sides (fried potatoes and peas) when I removed the foil. Everything ended up being ready at about the same time, which to me is one of the biggest challenges of cooking meals. I do hope you’ll try this recipe-I think it will become one of your go-to, easy recipes!

The Perfect Whole Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

  • Whole Chicken (3-4 lbs. works best)
  • Thyme
  • Coarse Salt
  • Pepper
  • Olive Oil

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375º.
  2. Rinse and dry the chicken. If there are any giblets remove them and cook or discard.
  3. Place the chicken in a glass or enameled cast iron baking dish.
  4. Drizzle the chicken liberally with olive oil.
  5. Sprinkle coarse salt, fresh ground pepper, and dried thyme over the chicken to taste.
  6. Tent foil over chicken. Place in oven.
  7. For a 3-4 lb. chicken roasting time will be 1.5 to 2 hours and for a 4-5 lb. chicken roasting time will be 2-2.5 hours. Those are guidelines, you should cook until the internal temperature of the breast is 165º according to FoodSafety.gov. Our rule of thumb is that when the legs are ready to fall off, the chicken is done. During the last ~30 minutes of cooking remove the foil to let the skin brown.
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