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How to Make Best Roasted Chicken
Every home cook should know how to roast a whole chicken! This foolproof recipe produces a flavorful, golden roasted chicken, plus a delicious broth to serve over the chicken and whatever sides you serve with it. Cooking a whole chicken is great for meal prepping—roast the chicken over the weekend and use it for salads, sandwiches, or other meals throughout the week. As a bonus, you can save the bones and carcass to make your own chicken broth!
15 min prep time
1 hr, 15 min cook time
8servings
3 ounces chicken
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Step-By-Step Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Coat a 9x13 baking or roasting pan with cooking spray.
- Add chopped onion, carrots and celery to the pan and top with fresh parsley and fresh thyme. Mix ingredients to evenly distribute them.
- Remove and discard giblet and neck from chicken cavity. Trim excess fat around neck and cavity opening. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.
- Starting at the neck, loosen skin around breast using your finger. Rub entire chicken (including breast meat under the skin) with olive oil. Season the outside of the chicken and the inside of cavity with the salt and pepper.
- Fill the cavity of the chicken with the lemon wedges and smashed garlic and place chicken breast- side up into the pan on top of the herbs and vegetables.
- Pour the chicken broth over the vegetables and bake in oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake chicken additional 45 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and let it rest, covered with foil for 20 minutes. Strain the vegetables and herbs from broth in the bottom of the pan. De-fat the broth and set aside (you should end up with about one cup of broth). Discard the vegetables. NOTE: To de-fat the broth, use a fat separator, or chill the broth in the fridge—the fat will rise to the top and solidify making it easy to scrape off the top.
- Once the chicken has rested, remove the skin and cut into 8 pieces, discarding the carcass, lemons and garlic. Pour the de-fatted broth over the chicken and serve.
Nutrition facts
8 Servings
-
Serving Size
3 ounces chicken
- Amount per serving Calories 200
-
Total Fat
8g
- Saturated Fat 2.2g
- Trans Fats 0g
- Cholesterol 90mg
- Sodium 150mg
-
Total Carbohydrate
0g
- Dietary Fiber 0g
- Total Sugars 0g
- Added Sugars 0g
- Protein 29g
- Potassium 0mg
- Phosphorous 0mg
Ingredients
fresh thyme
about 5 whole sprigs
fresh parsley
about 5 whole sprigs
celery stalks (roughly chopped)
2
onion (roughly chopped into a few large pieces)
1
carrots (roughly chopped into a few large pieces)
2
nonstick cooking spray
1
whole roaster chicken (5-1/2 pounds)
1
salt (optional)
1 tsp
black pepper
1 tsp
olive oil
1 tbsp
lemon (cut into wedges)
2
garlic (peeled and smashed)
4 clove
fat-free, reduced sodium gluten-free chicken broth
1 cup
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