A perfect roast chicken, complete with gravy, can be ready to serve on your dinner table in under two hours and with only a handful of ingredients!
There is no shortage of chicken thigh recipes around here. Some recipes even offer a cook time guide to accommodate other parts of the chicken. Considering you may be getting tired of seeing only recipes for parts of the chicken, I thought it may be time to share a recipe cooking a whole chicken.
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Click here for the recipe from the video
In search of the Perfect Roast Chicken recipe, I of course, turned to the queen of chicken. In my opinion, roast chicken is one of those recipes that every home cook should know how to make. There’s very little fuss involved and can be the go-to recipe when you have no idea what to serve for dinner.
Involving only a handful of ingredients, you can have perfect roast chicken on the dinner table in under 2 hours. Serve it with a simple salad or my broccoli and green beans and you have yourself a complete and delicious dinner.
To prepare this roast chicken, you simply season it with salt and pepper, brush on some butter, and stuff and surround it with aromatics. In this case, thyme, lemon, garlic, and onions. Then, it goes into the oven to cook. That’s it! The oven practically does all the work.
When it comes out, you’ll place the chicken on the serving platter to allow it to rest while you make a gravy from the chicken’s drippings and chicken broth. The gravy is so good, I even skip the salad dressing and use the gravy instead!
Considering you will be making a whole chicken, you will likely have leftovers. Feel free to throw any leftovers in my white chili or use it to make a sandwich!
Perfect Roast Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 5 to 6 pounds roasting chicken, giblets removed
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- Kosher salt
- Freshly gruond black pepper
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
- 1 lemon, halved
- 1 head garlic, halved crosswise
- 1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into thick rounds
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Remove any pinfeathers from the chicken. Rinse the chicken and pat dry.
- Place the chicken into a roasting pan and tuck the wings under. Brush the butter all over the outside of the chicken. Generously apply salt and pepper to the outside and inside of the chicken.
- Place the thyme, lemon, and garlic inside the chicken. Place the onion slices around the chicken.
- Roast for 90 to 120 minutes, until the juices run clear when cut between the leg and thigh.
- Carefully remove the chicken to a serving platter and tent with foil.
- In a small bowl, reserve two tablespoons of the fat collected at the bottom of the roasting pan. Discard the remaining fat and onions.
- Add the chicken stock to the roasting pan and heat over medium heat until reduced, scraping up the brown bits.
- Add the flour to the fat in the bowl and whisk until smooth. Add to the broth and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, until thickened.
- Strain through a mesh sieve and season with salt and pepper. Serve with the chicken.
Adapted from Ina Garten
Being able to roast a chicken is a skill any home cooks should have, but it intimidates so many! Yours looks just perfect!
Agreed! I think it only takes one chicken to get rid of that intimidation factor though :)
WOW, what a perfect chicken. Will be trying this recipe soon.
Thank you! Hope you enjoy :)