Roasted Chicken

Last Updated: Sept 24, 2024

I do this mostly like I do the Thanksgiving turkey. I did pull ideas from the recipe listed at the bottom of this page

  • Prep:10 mins
  • Cook:1 hr 15 mins
  • Additional:15 mins
  • Total:1 hr 40 mins
  • Servings:6
  • Yield:6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 (4 pound) whole chicken, giblets removed
  • 1-2 tablespoons Olive Oil
  • salt and black pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 stalk celery, leaves removed
  • 1/4 onion (~40g)
  • 1/4 apple

Directions

  • Take chicken out of refrigerator 45 minutes prior to starting.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  • Place chicken in a roasting pan, coat outside with olive oil and season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Sprinkle inside and out with onion powder. Place 3 tablespoons butter in the chicken cavity. Cut the celery into 5 or 6 pieces, apple into 8 pieces, coarsely chop onion and place as much as possible in the chicken cavity.
  • Bake uncovered 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees F (74 C). Baste with melted butter and drippings periodically. If breast skin gets too dark, cover with aluminum foil shield
  • Cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest about 30 minutes before serving. Internal temp should reach 170 degrees (77 C) during resting.

Adjustments

  • The original recipe calls for ½ cup butter, divided between inside and outside in dollops. That amount of butter caused excessive smoking so I put 3 tbsp in the chicken and coat the outside with olive oil before seasoning. Then as needed during cooking I add may add a bit more butter to baste.

History

  • 2024-09-24 – Finally cooling off after a very hot and dry September. It was a largish chicken so took about 2 hours to get to 165 F. The only real change I made this time was to use some canola oil to get basting underway. I put a couple tablespoons in the pan after about an hour and then cooked as usual. Tasted great and browned well. I figure I’ll keep doing this because the canola has a higher smoke point and is probably somewhat better for us.
  • 2022-03-20 – First day of spring but a roasted chicken still smells great in the house cooking. I decided to keep with 350 for the entire roasting period and the skin turned out well cooked that way. Basting worked fine this time. Not sure if the 400 is really needed and it’s certainly easier to put it in at 350 and leave it that way so unless I need really crispy skin I’m good with this. Adjusted the quantity of the aromatics since I always had left-over even when stuffing as much in as I could.
  • 2022-02-02 – I’ve done this a number of timed and keep adjusting the butter/oil. I think I put too little olive oil on the bird so added a tablespoon of butter after about 45 minutes to allow for basting. In the past I’ve cooked it for 20-30 minutes at 400 to crisp the skin. I didn’t do that this time and think I will go back to it next time. All this said, it was a very juicy and tender chicken.

References