Golden brown, fragrant and juicy. Some foods enthrall the senses and draw you in with their enticing aroma reminding you of home and family, warmth, comfort and security. Roast Chicken with a rich and flavorful gravy evokes wonderful memories for me and I make it often. It’s so easy to master and a joy to serve and once you learn how, you’ll make it often too!

One roast chicken can make lots of different meals.

• After the chicken has cooled, pull off the skin, remove the meat from the bones and make Chicken Salad. Save all those bones and skin in a plastic bag in the freezer and save for chicken stock or soup.
• Remove the meat and make Easy Chicken Sliders. These are so good!
• Cut your cooled roast chicken into breasts, thighs, legs and wings and use in garlicky, amazing Chicken Vesuvio. Skip the first three steps and go right to step four! This is the perfect recipe to double or triple for a big crowd.
• Make White Chicken Chili. Super quick for last minute meals.
• Make a quicker Chicken Cacciatore by skipping the browning steps. This is Italian comfort food at it’s best!

Veggies ready to go in the chicken along with salt, pepper and a few dried herbs. Super easy.

Why I love this recipe:

• It’s a classic
• Your family will love it
• It’s easy to do and basically foolproof
• It’s the basis for more than one meal

Roast Chicken 

Easy Roast Chicken

Kate Battistelli

Golden brown, fragrant and juicy roast chicken is so easy to make!

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs

Course Main dish

Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

  

• 1 roasting chicken or fryer about 4 - 5 pounds. I use organic pastured chicken (when they go on sale, I buy several whole chickens and freeze them)
• 1 large carrot peeled and chopped into 3 or 4 big pieces
• 1 stalk celery with the leaves chopped into about 3 or 4 pieces
• 1 small onion peeled and quartered
• 1 clove garlic peeled and cut in half
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 handful fresh parsley
• 1 tsp each dried thyme and sage
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter softened
• 4 cups organic chicken broth
• 1/4 cup flour - gluten free works fine

Instructions

 

• Take your chicken out of the fridge about 30 minutes to an hour before roasting to bring to room temperature. This will insure even cooking. Discard the pop-up thermometer if there is one.
• Preheat the oven to 350. Dry the chicken well with paper towels. Remove the bag of giblets from inside the bird and refrigerate or freeze for soup.
• Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a greased roasting pan or an iron skillet. Sprinkle inside and out with salt and pepper. Put the onion and other vegetables inside the chicken along with the bay leaves, herbs and garlic. Tuck the wing tips under the body. If you have kitchen twine, you can tie the legs together but it's not necessary. For a crispier skin, rub softened butter or olive oil all over the chicken. Pour a cup or two of chicken broth into the roasting pan.
• Place chicken in the oven and let it roast for about 20-30 minutes.
• Now it's time to baste. You don't have to baste but I think it makes for a juicier chicken. Open the oven door and baste the chicken all around. If the pan is looking dry, add a little more broth.
• Continue roasting and basting every 15 minutes or so until the chicken is done. The chicken is done when a thermometer inserted into the thigh registers 165. You can also tell if it's done if you stick a sharp knife into the thigh and the juices run clear with no touch of pink. Total cooking time should be anywhere from an hour to 1 ½ hours. By now your house will smell heavenly and your chicken should be brown and crispy.
• Remove chicken from the oven, take it out of the roasting pan, place on a platter and tent with foil to let the juices settle. When it's cooled a bit, carve and serve.

Kate’s Tips for Roast Chicken

• You can use different herbs if you like. Tarragon or Rosemary would both be amazing. Fresh herbs are wonderful too if you have them.
• Save all the ends of the celery, carrots, onions or garlic in a freezer bag. Add to it whenever you chop veggies and when it’s time to make soup or stock, you’ll have a stash of carrots, celery, onions, parsley, cabbage, etc. to add to your broth. It saves money and prevents a lot of waste. I do this all the time.
• You can roast your chicken in a good quality roasting pan or a large cast iron skillet. 
• This is the chicken broth I use if I don’t have any homemade on hand:  Organic chicken Broth. I love these 8 ounce containers! They come in super handy when you just need a cup of broth. They also make quart size containers.
• I always take out the pop-up timer if there is one. They don’t usually work and when they pop, your chicken will either be overcooked and dry or undercooked and pink. So do what I do and toss ’em!
• Sometimes I put a cut lemon inside the chicken instead of vegetables. You can also scatter sliced onions, carrots and potatoes around the chicken while it cooks.

Roast Chicken Gravy

You might have a preferred method for making gravy and if so, go ahead and do that but I’ve found both these methods to be easy and foolproof. If you’ve never made gravy before give it a try. It’s so easy and tastes way better than canned! Feel free to use gluten free all purpose flour if you like.

1. Method 1: Remove the roast chicken to a platter and put the roasting pan on the stove. If there’s lots of fat in the pan, take a spoon and skim some of that off. You want some fat but not more than a couple of tablespoons. Remove any black burned bits from the pan. Add a cup of broth, put the heat on medium and stir up all the brown bits.
2. Mix about ¼ cup of the flour with ¼ cup of water and mix together to make a slurry.
3. Whisk it into the broth and keep whisking till smooth. As you continue cooking the gravy, it will thicken but if it’s not thick enough, feel free to add a bit more flour and water. If it gets lumpy, put it through a sieve and it will be fine. If there is any juice that has collected under the chicken on the platter, add that to the gravy. If it’s too thick, add more chicken broth.
4. Method 2: Heat the fat in the bottom of the pan. Add the flour (at a ratio of 1 tablespoon flour to 1 tablespoon fat) and stir and cook for a couple of minutes till golden. Then add the remaining chicken broth whisking as you go. It will thicken as it cooks. Feel free to add herbs and salt and pepper to taste.

Now it’s time to carve your chicken, pour on the gravy and enjoy! Save some of that gravy because that’s the secret ingredient in my homemade Chicken Soup!