Last Updated on July 1, 2022 by Cheryl Moreo
Serve roasted chicken at your next Sunday gathering. We all love the convenience of store-bought rotisserie chicken. But, is it healthy?
We all love the convenience of store-bought rotisserie chicken. But, those chickens probably have been injected with sugar and other ingredients. It is so easy to roast a chicken, and the flavor and moistness of the chicken with the butter/herbs under its skin will make a roaster out of you. Your family deserves the best!
How Do You Bake a Roasted Chicken?
Equipment:
A cast-iron skillet is just the right size. You want a skillet that the chicken just fits into.
Ingredients are simple:
- 5-6 pound whole chicken – Buy the freshest, plumpest chicken you can find.
- large onion
- fresh herbs or 2 teaspoons of poultry seasoning
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 6-8 cloves of minced garlic
- 1 cup chicken broth
- salt and pepper to taste
Steps
- Preheat oven.
- Rinse and pat the chicken dry. Any moisture left in the chicken turns to steam in the oven and keeps the skin from turning crisp and brown.
- Spread the giblets with the onions around the skillet so there the pan bottom is completely covered with the onions and giblets. This will help keep the juices from the chicken from burning on the pan bottom.
- Place chicken breast side up on top the onions in the skillet
- Combine softened butter with the seasonings
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper
- Place the butter mixture under the loose breast skin
- Place the reserved garlic inside the cavity
- Then, place any remaining butter mixture in the cavity
- Secure the legs
- Add the broth to the skillet
- Roast
How to Carve a Chicken
- Place chicken breast side up. Cut through the skins between the breast and thigh. By gently pulling the leg away, you can expose the joint and cut through the joint freeing the leg.
- Cut off wings at joints.
- With a chef’s knife, slice each breast in half from the bone, working the knife along the rib cage contour.
- Wriggle drumstick to find where it meets the thigh. Cut through the joint with a firm, downward motion.
- Slice the breast in half crosswise. Or, slice crosswise for the desired thickness.
Homemade Chicken Stock
After dinner, don’t forget to save the chicken carcass for Homemade Chicken Stock.
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Keto Friendly Garlic-Herb Whole Roasted Chicken
This flavorful chicken recipe is a true home run. It’s the perfect choice for a nice Sunday dinner with friends and family. Plus, you can use the leftovers to make a delicious homemade chicken stock. Also you can shred the remaining meat to use in a quick soup or salad recipe the next day. The onion in this recipe serves two purposes: It raises the chicken out of the juices while it cooks and it imparts a lovely flavor to the pan sauce. After cooking, the onion is discarded, rather than eaten, to keep the overall carb count low. If you would like to omit the onion completely, you can replace the onion slices with ovenproof metal cookie cutters to lift the chicken while it cooks.
Equipment
Heavy oven-proof 12-inch skillet
Ingredients
- 1 large white onion cut into thick slices
- 1 5-6 lb. whole chicken
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 small container fresh poultry herbs thyme, rosemary, & sage, rinsed and divided
- ¼ c. unsalted butter room temperature
- 6-8 cloves garlic finely minced, divided
- 1 c. sugar-free organic chicken broth or stock
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425° F and arrange onion slices in bottom of a large, heavy-duty 12” skillet with high sides.
- Remove and discard neck and giblets from chicken and place bird breast-side up on top of onion slices in skillet. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and generously season the outside with salt and black pepper.
- Separate out approximately 1/3 of the fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage from the bundle. Remove and discard the tough stems from the thyme and rosemary leaves. Combine the leaves with the sage before roughly chopping.
- Add the softened butter, half the minced garlic, and the chopped fresh poultry herbs in a small bowl and stir to combine. Divide the herb butter into small chunks before tucking evenly under the chicken skin covering the breast meat.
- Massage the remaining minced garlic inside the cavity of the bird before stuffing with the remaining fresh poultry herbs. Secure legs together with kitchen string, and then add the chicken broth to the skillet.
- Place skillet in pre-heated oven and roast for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165° F. Check every 30 minutes while cooking to make sure the skin isn’t becoming too brown. If it is, cover with aluminum foil after 1 hour and check for doneness after another 15-20 minutes.
- Remove skillet from oven and carefully transfer chicken to a serving platter.When lifting the chicken out of the skillet, use a wooden spoon inserted into the cavity and tilt the chicken so the juices run into the skillet. Cover loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm and let rest for 15-20 minutes.
- While the chicken rests, discard the onion slices in the skillet and heat the remaining liquid over medium-high heat. Scrape the bottom of the skillet with a spatula or wooden spoon to remove the browned bits. Continue cooking until the liquid is reduced by one half. Once reduced, taste and season with salt and black pepper, if desired.
- To serve, carve the chicken and top each serving with a spoonful of the warm pan sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
Don’t forget to use the carcass to make chicken stock.
Carving
If you need to extend your chicken pieces for your family, cut the chicken breasts in half and separate the thigh from the drumstick. Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
