How to Roast a Chicken (step-by-step!)

Learn how to roast a chicken and make an amazing dinner at the same time. After tasting this delicious chicken with crispy skin and juicy meat, you’re going to be putting this on the weekly menu.

Hi to all the amazing readers of the Rachel Cooks, Phi here, and I am so excited to be a guest contributor on Rachel Cooks. You may remember me from when I did one of Rachel’s Day in the life posts where I shared all about how I spend my crazy days, so you already know that I love sharing how to make dinner time a little easier, which is exactly what I’m going to do today.

Today I’m going to teach you how to roast a chicken. I tend to make roasted chicken on the weekends. I find it’s a really nice dish to prep and cook in the afternoon and then have ready for dinner. It also makes delicious leftovers (if there are any, because I guarantee everyone will love this).

Thinking about the task at hand might be intimidating … what if it doesn’t turn out? I mean, it’s a whole chicken we’re talking about…just you and the raw chicken, I get it, it can be a little scary, but I’m here to walk you through it, so fear not!

And while we’re at it, we’re going to make a complete and delicious meal, because there’s nothing worse than having one component of a meal but then needing to make something else. I’m all about making tasty dishes and meals without spending hours and hours in the kitchen. The beauty of this dish is that you can put together and then leave it in the oven.

What we’re going to do is start from the bottom up, and by that I mean we’re going to start by prepping what goes at the bottom of the roasting pan and then work our way up to what goes on top … the chicken!

You really don’t need a fancy pan. If you have a Dutch oven like the one I’m using, great, if not feel free to use any baking dish that you have. You can see in this post where I make a Whole Roasted Chicken with Lemon Garlic and Thyme in a 9 x 13 baking pan. 

Start by cutting up some carrots and potatoes and placing them at the bottom of the roasting pan or baking dish you’re using. You don’t need to peel the carrots, just cut off the ends and scrub them. Likewise with the potatoes, just cut off the dark bits and leave the skin on. Nestle the carrots and potatoes at the bottom of the dish and liberally season with salt and pepper.

Next, prep the chicken. Make sure your hands are clean and you have a clean cutting board to work on. You’ll remove the little packet of innards and wash the chicken, patting it dry with paper towels.

Create a butter-with-seasonings mixture that you’ll spread beneath the skin. Here’s how to spread it: Gently lift up the skin of the chicken, scoop the butter with a spoon, put the spoon beneath the skin and press the butter mixture off the spoon onto the chicken by pressing on the top of the chicken. Massage it in from the top layer of skin.

When you’re done, place the chicken on top of the potatoes and carrots. Pour olive oil over the chicken, squeeze a half of a lemon over it and then place the lemon into the cavity of the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to season the chicken and vegetables.

Bake the chicken for an hour and then remove the roasting pan from the oven. Gently remove the chicken from the pan and place it on a cutting board. Stir the vegetables, then place the chicken back in the roasting pan. Use a baster to baste the chicken with juices from the bottom of the pan.

Then it’s back in the oven to bake for another half-hour to forty-five minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.

Cut the chicken and serve it with the vegetables. It makes for one delicious meal.

See? Roasting a chicken is totally doable! If I can learn how to roast a chicken, trust me, you can too!

And if you have any chicken for leftovers, you can make this Farro Salad with Chicken from Rachel. I have already made it more than once and can tell you that it is amazing! Other good uses for this chicken would be chicken enchilada flatbread or chicken barley soup with kale and butternut squash.

I hope you’ve learned how to roast chicken easily at home. I’ll be back next month, and if you’d like to see what I’m up to on my own blog in the meantime, you can visit me over at The Sweetphi Blog.