Logo of Old Way Farm featuring illustrations of a pig and chickens, promoting the values of happy animals and healthy food in a circular design.
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Logo of Old Way Farm featuring illustrations of a pig and chickens, promoting the values of happy animals and healthy food in a circular design.
M

How to Cook a whole chicken

Recipes

Roasted whole chicken garnished with fresh herbs like parsley and dill, served in a white dish on a light background, perfect for holiday meals or family dinners.

If you’re looking for an affordable, healthy meal that you can count on, week after week, this recipe is so for you!

I usually eliminate all the “optional” steps just to keep it simple, and it turns out great!

This article from NY Times gives tons of background of different methods you can use. It helped me a bunch when I started cooking these. (If you don’t have an NY Times subscription, you may only be able to access the article a few times per month.)

But in the interest of picking just one recipe, I’ll get ya started here.

Ingredients

  • Whole chicken from Old Way Farm, 3.5-5lbs.
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 1 lemon, quartered
  • 3 sprigs, rosemary
  • BUTTER:
  • 1/4 – 1/2 C butter (softened), or avocado oil, or lard
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1TBSP sage finely chopped
  • 2tsp resemary finely chopped
  • 1TBSP parsley finely chopped
  • (If desired, you may swap or sub in or out 2-3 tsp of herbs like thyme, oregano, sage, dill).
  • 1/2tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper

TO GO UNDER CHICKEN:

  • 1 cup white wine or bone broth or water
  • 1 onion quartered (OPTIONAL if using a traditional roasting pan).

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425F; set shelf into the middle of the oven.
  2. Remove chicken from the bag and drain out any extra liquid from the cavity. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel.
  3. In a bowl, mix together 1/4 – 1/2 cup of fat (oil, butter, lard), along with sage, rosemary, parsley, salt and pepper. (Optional: add juice from 1/2 lemon into butter mixture).
  4. Using the back of a small spoon or your fingers, separate the skin of the chicken breast from the meat slightly so you can apply your butter/ oil mixture below the skin. Separate from the leg as well.
  5. Spread/ drizzle the butter / oil mixture under the skin of the breast and leg generously, and then smear it around the top of the skin all over the chicken. (Optional to drizzle juice from 1/2 lemon over the chicken as well. — avoid the underside of the chicken with this step.
  6. (OPTIONAL): stuff a sprig of rosemary or the squeezed lemon skins inside of the chicken cavity, if desired.
  7. If desired, you may tie the drumstick ends with string at this step. I prefer not to, but rather to slice the skin open between the drumsticks and the body of the chicken and to open up the hip joint. This allows for more even cooking and ensures the dark meat cooks as fast as the light meat.
  8. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken.
  9. If using a roasting pan, you can set the chicken directly on a roasting pan. If not, you can quarter an onion and set the chicken directly on top of those in a 9×13 baking dish.
  10. Pour bone broth, water, or white wine in the bottom of the pan.
  11. Transfer to oven, roasting for 10 min at 425F. Without opening the oven, turn it down to 350F and cook for about 20 minutes more per pound of chicken, so for example, a 4lbs chicken would cook an additional 80 minutes.

f desired, you can play around with roasting various veggies with your chicken as well. Sometimes I’ve had more success adding them in partway through. Potatoes and carrots often do the best. Keep a close eye on them, as they can burn easily on the bottom of the pan. Once you master this, you’ll have a one-dish-wonder!

Recipe modified from RecipeTinEats.com