Oven Roasted Whole Chicken

Roasting whole chickens is one of the easiest main dishes to make. The cook time is a bit long but there is so little prep that it’s one of my go-to’s. Most of the time I don’t even put whole chickens in the freezer (they are a hassle to thaw). I try to cook them within a day of buying them and we have chicken for dinner and then whatever is left I can shred up and use for another meal.

Sometimes I don’t even make them for a meal I just roast a couple of chickens at a time then shred up all of the meat and freeze it in portions for all sorts of recipes. Like chicken pot pie, pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches, and cheesy mexican casserole…

I’m so thankful to have cooked meat in the freezer. I’m not much of a planner so I tend to come up with dinner on the fly every night and this has helped me out so many times!

Oven Roasted Whole Chicken

Ingredients

5 lb whole chicken

¼ cup of some sort of fat (I’ve used melted bacon grease, butter, olive oil, and avocado oil)

Salt and Pepper

Lemon slices-optional

Onion- optional

Fresh herbs-optional

Garlic-optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a large roasting pan with foil and place chicken in breast side down.

Pour over the fat and season with salt and pepper generously. If using, stuff lemon slices, herbs, and onion into the chicken.

Place chicken breast side down in oven for 1 hour and then flip the chicken over so the breast side can get browned. Bake for ~1 more hour or until the thigh measures 180 degrees and the breast measures 160 degrees with a meat thermometer.  Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes before slicing or shredding.