The Best Whole Roasted Chicken Recipe

Learn the six secrets to making the most flavorful and moist whole roasted chicken. Don’t settle for dry, disappointing chicken anymore! Your family will thank you, and you’ll never go back to eating dry chicken again.

As most of you know, we raise meat chickens here at Riverbend. The chickens are free-ranged in their mobile chicken tractor and are fed our homemade fermented chicken feed for better health.

Since we have such a large family, we’re usually eating four chickens at one meal, so that’s a lot of chickens to raise for a year’s worth of meat. You might be wondering how much land is needed to raise a year’s worth of meat… check out that post to learn more; the answer may surprise you! And finally, you can see how we store a year’s worth of food (storing all that food takes some creativity!).

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Not all home-cooked recipes need to be difficult or labor-intensive. This whole roasted chicken recipe is no exception! You’ll love this recipe because it’s…

• Simple – We’re taking simple ingredients and adding them to our home-raised Cornish Cross chickens to boost the flavor for a from-scratch recipe everyone will love.
• Flavorful – With the addition of our homemade poultry seasoning, you’ll never eat bland chicken again.
• Versatile – Once you know the basic steps of roasting a whole chicken, you can adapt it to whatever flavors your family loves most!

Tips for the Best Whole Roasted Chicken

These are six non-negotiable steps you must follow to make the best roast chicken your family has ever eaten:

1. Good Quality Chicken – If you’re already raising meat chickens, then you’ve already got a great quality chicken! If not, find a local farmer who’s raising and selling free-range, pastured chickens (especially if you can visit the farm and see their living conditions!). Not only will they be healthier for you, but they taste much better than store-bought chicken.
2. Homemade Seasoning Blends – Homemade blends taste way better than store-bought, and you know exactly what’s in them. The seasoning won’t have any fillers and hasn’t been irradiated at all, and you can customize it for your family’s favorite flavors.
3. Defrost – Never start the cooking process with a still-frozen chicken. It will change the end results, and you run the risk of not cooking your chicken all the way through. This also tends to result in a dry outer chicken. We like to defrost our whole chickens in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
4. Deep-Sided Cast Iron Pan – The deep-sided pan is great for holding in moisture and flavor! You can check out our posts on the benefits of cast iron, how to choose it, the best enameled cast iron, how to clean cast iron and how to strip and reseason cast iron.
5. Butter – Butter makes everything better! For a roast chicken, it adds flavor, helps the seasonings to stick to the chicken and allows the skin to cook to golden crispy perfection.
6. Pull Chicken Early! – When baking your chicken, take it out of the oven when it reaches 160°F and allow it to come up to 165°F while it rests.

How to Make a Whole Roasted Chicken

Supplies Needed

• Knife & Cutting Board – Save those counter tops and use a cutting board and sharp knife!
• Cast Iron Dutch Oven with Lid – The deep-sided cast iron is the trick to moist chicken! Make sure it has a tight-fitting lid to trap in all that moisture.

Ingredients Needed

• Chicken – We love our Cornish Cross meat chickens that are raised here on Riverbend. Do your best to source high-quality chicken that’s been pasture-raised when possible! The flavors are incredible.
• Butter or Oil – If you’d like to try making homemade butter, that post has three different methods! We use salted butter for this recipe. If you use unsalted butter or the optional olive oil (or another neutral-flavored oil), you may want to increase the salt just slightly.
• Poultry Seasoning – Grab our homemade poultry seasoning recipe here. This recipe makes enough for about 12 whole chickens!
• Lemon & Onion – Don’t skip these! They add incredible flavor to the chicken.
• Salt – As always, we love Redmond Real Salt. By using that link and coupon code “HFSalt” you’ll get 15% off your order! No need to pepper the chicken as the poultry seasoning already contains black pepper. If you love added flavor, feel free to add additional salt and pepper, but we like it as is.

Step-by-Step Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Take your defrosted chicken and place it in a deep-sided roasting pan. Pat it dry with paper towels and then rub it all over with butter or brush with oil.
3. Season chicken generously with the poultry blend and salt.
4. Stuff the chicken with half a lemon; this adds incredible flavor.
5. Quarter your onion and place that into the pan alongside the chicken.
6. Add about half to one cup of water to the bottom of the pan.
7. Cover with a lid and bake at 375°F for about 50-60 minutes.
8. Remove the lid and continue baking to get that nice, crispy skin. Bake until the chicken’s internal temperature reaches 160°F. This will take about 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken. Cooking times will vary based on the size of your chicken.
9. Remove chicken from the oven and allow it to rest, uncovered, for 15 minutes (up to 30 minutes) until the internal temperature reaches 165°F and the juices have had a chance to redistribute.
10. Carve it up and enjoy!

Did you make this recipe? If so, please leave a⭐star rating and your comments in the recipe card below. Then, snap a photo and tag us on social media @homesteadingfamily so we can see!

How to Serve a Whole Roasted Chicken

Roast chicken is delicious on its own or sliced and enjoyed over a fresh garden salad. We love pairing it with a combination of our favorite side dishes: mashed potatoes, oven-roasted veggies, creamy corn pudding, Southern-style creamed onions, or on top of this creamy leek pasta! And you can’t have a whole roasted chicken without sourdough Parkerhouse rolls!

Whole Roasted Chicken

Learn the six secrets to making the most flavorful and moist whole roasted chicken. Don’t settle for dry, disappointing chicken anymore! Your family will thank you, and you’ll never go back to eating dry chicken again.

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Course: Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 servings

Calories: 198kcal

Author: Carolyn Thomas

Equipment

• Deep-Sided Oven-Safe Pot w/ Lid
• Knife & Cutting Board

Ingredients

• 4-5 pound whole chicken
• 4 Tablespoons butter or oil
• 3 Tablespoons poultry seasoning poultry seasoning recipe
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 onion quartered

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Take your defrosted chicken and place it in a deep-sided roasting pan. Pat it dry with paper towels and then rub it all over with butter or brush with oil.
• Season chicken generously with the poultry blend and salt.
• Place half a lemon into the cavity of the chicken.
• Quarter your onion and place that into the pan alongside the chicken.
• Add about half to one cup of water to the bottom of the pan.
• Cover with a lid and bake at 375°F for about 50-60 minutes.
• Remove the lid and continue baking until the chicken’s internal temperature reaches 160°F (about 10-20 minutes).
• Remove it from the oven and allow it to rest, uncovered, until it reaches 165°F.
• Carve it up and enjoy!

Notes

Tips for the Best Whole Roasted Chicken:

1. 1. Good Quality Chicken – If you’re already raising meat chickens, then you’ve already got a great quality chicken! If not, find a local farmer who’s raising and selling free-range, pastured chickens (especially if you can visit the farm and see their living conditions!). Not only will they be healthier for you, but they taste much better than store-bought chicken.

1. 1. Homemade Seasoning Blends – Homemade blends taste way better than store-bought, and you know exactly what’s in them. The seasoning won’t have any fillers and hasn’t been irradiated at all, and you can customize it for your family’s favorite flavors.

1. 1. Defrost – Never start the cooking process with a still-frozen chicken. It will change the end results, and you run the risk of not cooking your chicken all the way through. This also tends to result in a dry outer chicken. We like to defrost our whole chickens in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

1. 1. Deep-Sided Cast Iron Pan – The deep-sided pan is great for holding in moisture and flavor! You can check out our posts on the benefits of cast iron, how to choose it, the best enameled cast iron, how to clean cast iron and how to strip and reseason cast iron.

1. 1. Butter – Butter makes everything better! For a roast chicken, it adds flavor, helps the seasonings to stick to the chicken and allows the skin to cook to golden crispy perfection.

1. 1. Pull Chicken Early! – When baking your chicken, take it out of the oven when it reaches 160°F and allow it to come up to 165°F while it rests.

Nutrition

Serving: 3ounces | Calories: 198kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 64mg | Sodium: 663mg | Potassium: 165mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 246IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg

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