How to Cook a Whole Chicken

A roasted whole chicken is a staple in our house and not just because we raise chickens. I would like to share a few thoughts and recipe ideas for what to do with a whole chicken.

We cooked one for dinner this week and I did not even take any pictures! Just use your imagination, the smell as the drippings pop and spurt in the oven, and you can smell the skin begin to crisp. Imagine a beautiful roasted chicken, on a rustic cutting board with a tasteful garnish and carving knife ready to go.

Staged photos of beautiful meals are enticing to look at, and the reality in our house is that meal presentation takes a back seat to taste and simplicity. Here is what works for us in our house when cooking a whole chicken

Nathan’s Whole Chicken Cooking Tips

1. Thaw your chicken in the refrigerator

This will not surprise you, but my emphasis on this lies in flavor and tenderness, not food safety. When meat is frozen, little ice crystals form in the fibers of the muscle. They pierce through multiple layers of muscle and pull water in the muscle to the ice. When we thaw the meat this ice melts and leaves the thawing tissue. If we thaw our chicken slowly in the refrigerator, much of this moisture is retained in the chicken and we get a tastier bird.

1. Bake at 350 F

I’m a practical cook. Yes you will get the best crisp on your chicken if you raise the oven temp at the end, but this leads to lots of spattering in the oven and it makes a mess! I’d rather have a clean oven than crispy skin. I find you get great results with just putting the chicken in the oven at 350. No need to broil or sear the skin to get that delicious crispy skin.

1. Don’t overcook

If you don’t feel like an expert, it’s ok! Even an over cooked chicken is still delicious.

A few variations on how to measure “doneness”:

1. 20 minutes per lb of chicken at 350F
2. Use a meat thermometer (165) in the thigh/hip area
3. “Juices run clear” method. Pull away the leg on one side and watch the juices that come out. If they have a pink tinge, keep cooking. If they are clear you’re done!

1. Put yummy veg in the roasting pan

Potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, beets, parsnips, squash…the list is infinite. The key is timing. Potatoes and squash will cook with the chicken, but most other roots actually take more time than the chicken. Pro tip: parboil your roots (beets, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga) and then roast them with your chicken.

1. Plan for leftovers

In my opinion the best part of a roast chicken are the leftovers. We often nibble on the drums and wings when we have roast chicken. Lovett eats most of the skin. That leaves us with mostly breast and thigh meat for leftovers. I pull the meat off the bones, dice it into cubes and put it in a container in the fridge for dinner the next night. I also scrape the pan of the juices and set that aside. Usually I make chicken stir-fry or chicken burritos the next night by cooking the diced chicken in the pan drippings. 

1. Chicken soup!

Don’t forget the soup. If you’re feeling ambitious, try roasting some more vegetables along with your chicken carcass to get that caramelized flavor. Then simmer the bones and veggies overnight, strain and you’ve got your broth. Add chopped chicken, rice, potatoes and carrots for a wonderful soup.

1. Cut in Half or pieces

Sometimes if we are in a rush at the end of the day we will take a whole chicken and cut it into parts. Even just cutting it in half down the middle (often called a spatchcock chicken) will reduce the cooking time. This does take some practice to cut a chicken in half, but chicken bones are surprisingly easy to cut. 

To cut a chicken in half, use a large kitchen knife (chef’s knife) and using two hands on top of the knife push down between the breasts, just to one side of the sternum. The knife will break through and you’ll end up on the back of the chicken. Next, using a similar two hand technique, rock the knife back and forth just to the side of the back bone and neck until the chicken is split in half.

You can then take it a step further and make a cut between the breast and leg to split the chicken into quarters. These chicken quarters cook quickly in the oven and are a go to for us when cooking for a crowd. We can fit two hotel pans in our oven and cook four whole chickens at once this way!