Easy Roasted Chicken – The Best Sunday Dinner

One of my very favorite Sunday dinners is this super easy roasted chicken recipe! It only takes 3 ingredients, and 10 minutes to prepare, and will please a big crowd!

I like to throw this in the oven an hour before we head to church… We come home to a wonderful-smelling, perfectly roasted chicken for dinner! The smell excites everyone, and motivates the kids to help finish getting dinner on the table!

This has to be the easiest way to cook a whole chicken that I’ve ever heard of, and also one of my favorite tasting! All you need is a casserole dish, or roasting pan, a whole defrosted chicken, salt, and pepper! That’s it!

Keep Whole Chicken On Hand For Easy Dinners

I like to keep whole chickens in the deep freezer. Just take them out and set them on the counter the night before, so they are ready to go Sunday morning!

I usually stock up on whole chickens when they go on sale, but this year I’d like to try raising my own chickens!

Tools You Will Need

• Casserole Dish

• Carving Knife

• Serving Plate

• Hot Pads

• Salt & Pepper

• Cutting Board

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350° . (If you have it, use convection mode!)
• Remove thawed chicken from the plastic wrapper in the casserole dish. This is always a bit messy because the thawed chicken will have lots of juices in the bag too. That’s why I do this in the roasting pan. You can just keep the juices in the pan with the chicken because it provides a bit of moisture and makes great gravy!
• Open the legs, and remove the gizzards inside the chicken. I throw these away, but if you like chicken gizzards, you can keep them in there or put in the pan with the chicken. Place chicken on its back, with legs on top, in your casserole dish. At this point, some people tie the bottoms of the drumsticks together with twine… but I just leave them. They turn out great without tying them!
• Season your chicken. Salt and pepper the outside of your chicken! I like to salt and pepper the entire exterior of the chicken, but if you’re done handling it, just salt and pepper the top generously! You can also use other seasonings, like Thyme and Sage for a great flavor!
• Place your prepared chicken on the middle oven rack, in the center of your oven. If you have a convection oven use this mode!
• Bake chicken for 2.5 – 3 hours, to an internal temp of at least 165°,  or until brown and crispy on the outside! I cook my chicken WELL DONE. So I roast it till the skin is brown and crispy on the outside. (My kids love the crispy seasoned chicken skin.)
• Optional: *This is the best time to get potatoes in the Instapot, or Crockpot, so they’ll be ready to mash when the chicken is done!*

Make Gravy With Chicken Drippings

If you are serving mashed potatoes with your easy roasted chicken, save your drippings, and liquid in the roasting pan, for the BEST-tasting gravy!

Using a spoon, remove liquids on the bottom of the roasting pan, and put in a small saucepan. Add 2 cups of chicken broth, or water and a tablespoon of chicken bouillon. Salt and pepper to taste. Heat to a simmer.

In a separate small cup, add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of water. Mix vigorously till there are no lumps.

Using a whisk, slowly drizzle cornstarch water into the simmering gravy WHILE WHISKING to prevent lumps in the gravy.

If you get lumps in gravy, simply strain them out, or use a blender to blend up.

How To Cut Roasted Chicken Up

• First, Grab a serving plate to put the sliced chicken on.
• Grab a fork and a good knife, and start by cutting the breasts out. I cut down the middle of the sternum bone, the cut around the sides to remove the breasts.
• Slice breasts up for serving. (I usually cut chicken breasts into 4 -6 pieces each… Trying to keep the skin on top.)
• Next, I cut the drumsticks off, at the joint between the drumstick and hip bone, and place on a serving platter… Kids love these!
• Then, I cut thighs off… Usually, these will almost fall off so be careful if you want to keep them together.
• After all that is done, I remove the meat from the back of the chicken.. There isn’t a lot, but it’s brown, moist, and tasty!
• Put all your meat on the serving tray, and Enjoy!

What To Serve With Easy Easy Roasted Chicken For Dinner

I like to serve this easy roasted chicken with a salad, cooked veggies, and mashed potatoes with gravy, and rolls. Here are several side dishes that go great with roasted chicken dinners:

• Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
• Baked Potatoes
• Any kind of fresh salad.
• Steamed veggies: We keep frozen peas, corn, and mixed veggies on hand for this.
• A bowl of Pickled Beets or Olives.
• Homemade Rolls
• Deviled Eggs
• Grandma’s raspberry & cream jello.
• And of course, I usually do a dessert on Sundays… My favorite, and usual, is Texas Sheet Chocolate Cake! But when I’m being good, it’s a bowl of sliced-up Mellon!

What To Do With Leftovers

Leftovers from roasting a whole chicken are great! You can make broth with the bones by simmering it on low all day, then turn that into chicken soup!

Use leftover chicken meat in a shepherd’s pie!

I like to use the leftover meat in chicken enchiladas too!

Chicken sandwiches are yummy for lunch.

More Chicken Recipes

Chicken Salad – The Best Chicken Salad Recipe – Healthy & Easy!