Today, I’m sharing one of my all-time favorite dinners. This one hour roasted chicken is simple to make, and so delicious! The chicken is juicy and flavorful, and it has a lovely crispy skin that is a must for a roasted chicken. One of my favorite recipes is my slow cooker chicken, and this is an oven roasted variation of that recipe.
Let’s get started!
You will need:
Instant-Read Meat Thermometer
One fresh whole chicken, 5-5 1/2 pounds
A large cast iron skillet or roasting pan
4 Tablespoons of melted butter
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 tablespoons of all-purpose steak seasoning. I like McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning.
Step 1. Place cast iron pan inside oven and preheat oven and cast iron pan to 450 degrees. Preheating the pan helps the chicken cook faster. This is the trick to speeding up the cooking process.
Step 2: Remove giblets and neck from inside of chicken. If this part makes you a little squeamish, try and find a brand that sells them with giblets and neck already removed. My local Fresh&Easy market sells them already cleaned.
Step 3: Rinse chicken well with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. I don’t worry about tying the legs together, but I do tuck the wing tips under the wings.
Step 4: Pour melted butter over chicken and season with salt and all-purpose steak seasoning.
Step 5: Working carefully, open oven, slide oven shelf out, and transfer chicken to hot skillet.
Step 6: Roast chicken at 450 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until temperature in thickest part of thigh reads 165 degrees.
Step 7: Remove chicken from oven and let rest 15-20 minutes before carving. Resting the meat before carving is an important step. If you cut into the meat straight from the oven, the juices will run out and the meat will be dry. If you let the meat rest, the juices will redistribute and the meat will be wonderful and juicy.
If you are just learning to cook, or are intimidated by cooking a whole chicken, this recipe is for you. It’s really simple, and the results are so impressive. When my husband and I were first married, this was the recipe I always made for company. Roast chicken also has the benefit of being extremely economical. This 5.5 pound chicken was only nintey-nine cents per pound.
If you like this recipe, you may also like some of my recent favorites:
This post originally appeared on I Heart Nap Time.
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I’ve tried the high heat methods for roasting whole chickens before. I LOVE the taste, but the smoke that fills the house is unbearable. I put the cooking fan, the house fan on and open all the windows. But it’s so bad my family won’t let me roast them at home any more, even though we all love it. What’s the secret to avoiding this?
Hi Tracy!
What kind of pan are you using? Make sure you start with a super clean oven and try moving the chicken down on a lower rack while it cooks.
Made this last night and it was delicious! The chicken was perfectly cooked and very tender. So much better than a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store (and costco!). An added bonus was it looked exactly like the picture too! Thank you for sharing!
Mine did too!!! 🙂
Tracy, I did this in a small baking bag like those used to bake turkey but a smaller size. It turned out beautiful and very delicious 🙂
Holy cow! I just made this and it was AMAZING! Practically foolproof! It’s so delicious I’m standing at the stove eating it right out of the pan!
This was soooo delicious! We LOVED it! It might have been a bit too salty, but I will adjust next time. God was it good!
Wow! The perfect chicken! I will cook chicken this way for the rest of my life!
Thanks
On my goodness, this is the best method for roasting chicken! I added some coconut oil to the butter to keep it from smoking at such a hot temperature. Perfect!
Oh my gosh! I saw this recipe on Pinterest yesterday afternoon and made it last night for dinner. It was AMAZING! My husband and son absolutely loved it. The aroma it left in the house was delightful. I think I’ll be cooking our whole chicken and other chicken like this from now on. I cannot wait to see how wings taste using this recipe.
YUMMY!!!
Oh…it was super juicy too!
I’m so glad! Thanks for sharing!!!
Will this work with a 7 lb chicken? How long would I leave it in? Thanks!
It will! Try 10 extra minutes and check with a meat thermometer.