This is one of my absolute favorite, easy go-to recipes. We often have this on a weekend night, as it is so easy to get the chicken prepped, through it in the oven, and then go off and do something else, like read a good book. I’m especially fond of the recipe, as it usually nets three or four meals, depending on what I do with the leftovers.
Baked Chicken
Serving size will depend on use – we typically get three meals out of a 15-pound chicken
1 whole chicken around 15 pounds, neck and giblets removed
1 small onion
4 garlic cloves, peeled
3 sprigs of rosemary
¼ cup olive oil
2 teaspoons coarsely ground salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Cut the onion in half. Put one half aside for now, and chop the other to a small dice. Chop two of the garlic cloves about as finely as the onion. Take the leaves off one sprig of rosemary and chop coarsely. Combine chopped onion, garlic, and rosemary in a small bowl and add olive oil, salt, and pepper. Stir. Set aside.
Slice the remaining onion into four large pieces. Place the whole chicken in a cast iron skillet or other large oven-safe pan. Gently loosen the skin on the chicken breast. Take the olive oil mixture and pour under the loosened skin, gently pushing so that it goes under as much of the skin as possible. Take the large chunks of onion, the remaining garlic cloves, and the remaining rosemary sprigs and use these to stuff the chicken’s cavity.
Bake the chicken for fifteen minutes at 425 degrees. Drop the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 1 ½ hours to 2 hours, depending on the size of the chicken. The chicken is done when its internal temperature hits 185 degrees. In the last half hour or so, keep an eye on the chicken – if the skin is getting too crispy, drop the oven temperature to 325 to finish baking.
