Easy Whole Baked Chicken

A simple homemade meal is what everyone wants, am I right? I am all about meals that are quick to prep, practically make themselves, and the whole family enjoys. Baking a whole chicken used to be such an intimidating task that I avoided at all costs– until I learned how EASY it actually was to make! It takes about 5-10 minutes to prep for the oven and then you just let it bake for an hour without needing to baste it or do anything else until it’s ready to enjoy.

The recipe below is for a 4.5 to 5 pound organic chicken without the gizzards inside. To prepare your chicken.

IF FROZEN – defrost over night and place in fridge until you are ready to make it.

FRESH CHICKEN (NOT FROZEN) – remove whole chicken from packaging and rinse thoroughly. Then place on a large cutting board and pat dry completely with paper towels. You can let it sit out to air dry if you’d like. Bottom line, you want the chicken to be completely dry before baking– this will maximize crispiness!

Easy Whole Baked Chicken

Recipe by girlappetitCourse: animal protein, recipes

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Calorieskcal

Ingredients

• whole organic chicken 

• 1 tbsp salt

• 1-2 tsp pepper

• 1 tbsp garlic powder

• 2-3 large carrots

• 1 tbsp avocado oil

• 1 organic lemon

Directions

• cut carrots however you’d like… I typically cut my carrot in half long ways then each half into thirds.
• lightly grease a medium or large size cast iron skillet (or any oven safe cookware you are planning on using) and place carrots side by side without overlapping them.
• OPTIONAL: you may lightly season the carrots if you’d like.
• place raw chicken (breast side up) on top of layer of carrots.
• coat chicken entirely with avocado oil, top and bottom.
• season chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder (or any other seasoning you would like to add).
• rinse and dry lemon and place inside the cavity of the chicken.
• make sure you lower your oven rack to the last or second to last groove to avoid burning top of chicken while it bakes.
• bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 60 minutes.
• once done, let us rest for about 10 minutes before cutting.