Learn how to cook a whole chicken in a cast iron dutch oven with minimal prep and maximum flavors. This easy healthy chicken dinner is cooked alongside garlic cloves, onions, carrots, and parsnips. The meat comes out juicy and flavorful with crispy chicken skin.
If you are like me and looking for easy no-fuss meals you might find yourself grabbing a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. I’ll admit I do that at least once a month when I know I’m going to be busy. However, if I can plan correctly I’ll make a whole chicken in my dutch oven on the weekend. This will ensure that I have a delicious dinner with my family, and then I will meal prep and use the leftovers for lunches for the week.
I love to pair roasted chicken with my Air Fryer Baked Potatoes, Israeli Couscous, or even baked risotto. If you’ve never cooked a whole chicken before it’s time to conquer your fears.
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Why This Recipe Works
Minimal Prep – This recipe takes about 15 minutes to put together and then bakes for 90 minutes in the oven. You can even prep the vegetables ahead of time if you are trying to put this together in a hurry.
Maximum Flavor – The seasoning blend paired with the butter make for a delicious combination on both the chicken and the vegetables.
Easy – This is a super easy dinner. If you are new to cooking and want to learn how to roast a whole chicken this is the recipe for you.
Complete Dinner – Technically, you don’t need any sides dishes for this meal if you don’t want extra work. Vegetables are cooked alongside with the chicken. However, you can easily beef up the meal with bread, strawberry spinach salad, and my favorite sour cream and chive mashed potatoes if you have the time and energy.
Ingredients
- Whole Chicken – I like to buy a 2 pack from Costco or Sam’s Club. I find it’s a bit cheaper.
- Spices – I use a mix of my house seasoning and paprika. The paprika is what is going to really give chicken skin that bronze color.
- Dairy – A stick of butter is what you’ll need for the top of the chicken skin. The butter and juices melt down into the pot seasoning the vegetables.
- Vegetables – I use carrots, parsnips, and onions for the bottom of the roast pan along with garlic cloves. I also like to add a few garlic cloves, halved lemon, and onion for the cavity of the chicken to give it additional flavor. After it’s done cooking you can always remove the lemon and squeeze the juices on top of the chicken.
Directions
Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and arrange the rack in the middle of the oven.
Rinse chicken and pat dry. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with a few garlic cloves, 1 onion, and a lemon halved.
Arrange remaining garlic, onions, carrots, and parsnips on the bottom of a 5-6 quart oven-safe baking dish to create a bed.
Place chicken on top, brush the chicken with half the softened butter.
In a bowl mix together the house seasoning and paprika. Then sprinkle the seasoning on top of the chicken. Massaging onto the skin of the chicken so the seasoning is coated all over the chicken.
Add broth to baking dish, and cover tightly with foil. Roast until chicken reaches 135 to 140 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 1 hour.
Remove foil, brush chicken with pan juices, and increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F. Roast, basting occasionally with remaining butter (melted), until temperature of chicken on inner thigh is 165 degrees Fahrenheit, skin is golden brown, and juices run clear, about 30 to 40 additional minutes more.
Let the whole chicken rest 10 minutes before carving. Carve chicken and serve each portion with 1 head of garlic and pan sauce.
How to make chicken gravy
To make gravy from the juices, remove everything out of the Dutch oven. Mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water. Bring the juices to a simmer over medium heat, begin to whisk in the cornstarch slurry until gravy is at desired consistency (about 5-7 minutes). Taste and adjust seasoning, as desired.
Recipe FAQs
If you have a larger chicken, like this recipe calls for you want to cover it for the first 30-60 minutes to get the cooking process moving along. After that, you need to remove the cover so that you can begin to crisp up the skin. Don’t forget to baste the chicken with additional butter, to help brown and flavor the skin.
When roasting a whole chicken in the oven, you need to baste the chicken with butter (or olive oil) often to ensure it will not dry out. This also helps the skin get that nice, crispy brown color and gives moisture inside the bird, so the meat stays tender and juicy.
The rule of thumb to go by is that it will take about 25 minutes per pound to cook a whole chicken in the oven. I almost always have a 5 pound chicken so on average it takes about 125 minutes which is a little over 2 hours.
An instant read meat thermometer will help you determining when you know a whole roasted chicken is done. The thermometer should be inserted in the thickest part of the whole chicken which will be the breast area. I always check multiple areas before determining the chicken is done. You will want all areas of the bird to read at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything under 200 degrees Fahrenheit will yield you a juicy piece of chicken. Anything over, and you may have dried out the chicken.
Expert Tips and Tricks
I have been slow roasting a whole chicken in my cast iron dutch oven for two decades now. Here are some of my favorite tips and tricks I have found helpful when making this recipe.
- Seasoning – Don’t feel that you have to stick to the seasoning blend I used on this recipe. You can use whatever blend you would like, just remember the vegetables will take on the blend too. So you could have a completely different taste then what this recipe was intended to be like.
- Smaller Portion – Cooking for say, just two and don’t want a lot of leftovers? You can roast a half chicken by splitting the whole chicken in half (make sure to remove the backbone). Cooking time will be almost half of what a whole chicken takes to cook.
- Vegetables – I have found that any root vegetable works best for the slow roasting in the oven. You can always add potatoes to this blend as well as Brussels sprouts make for a great addition.
- Meal Prep – Looking to meal prep either lunches or dinner for the week? This is the perfect recipe to do so. Roast the chicken and vegetables, let cool, then cut meat, divide and package.
Side Dishes for Chicken
If you are looking to serve additional side dishes with the whole chicken I’m here to share with you a few of my favorites.
If you make this dutch oven whole chicken recipe, I would be honored and love for you to take the time to leave a ⭐ star rating and comment! I spend hours developing and testing these recipes, and always love to hear feedback and user experience!
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Dutch Oven Whole Chicken
Equipment
- 1 Dutch Oven
- 1 Silicone Brush
- 1 Bowl
- 2 Oven
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Carving Knife
Ingredients
- 5 pound Whole chicken
- 1 lemon halved
- 3 Onions divided
- 8 garlic cloves
- 4 Parsnips peeled and cut
- 8 Carrots peeled and cut
- 1 stick Salted Butter
- 2 teaspoons House Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter softened and divided
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and arrange the rack in the middle of the oven.
- Rinse chicken and pat dry. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with a few garlic cloves, 1 onion, and a lemon halved.
- Arrange remaining garlic, onions, carrots, and parsnips on the bottom of a 5-6 quart oven-safe baking dish to create a bed. Place chicken on top, brush the chicken with half the softened butter.
- In a bowl mix together the house seasoning and paprika. Then sprinkle the seasoning on top of the chicken. Massaging onto the skin of the chicken so the seasoning is coated all over the chicken.
- Add broth to baking dish. Cover and roast until chicken reaches 135 to 140 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 1 hour.
- Remove foil, brush chicken with pan juices, and increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F. Roast, basting occasionally with remaining butter (melted), until temperature of chicken on inner thigh is 165 degrees Fahrenheit, skin is golden brown, and juices run clear, about 30 to 40 additional minutes more.
- Let the whole chicken rest 10 minutes before carving. Carve chicken and serve each portion with 1 head of garlic and pan sauce.
Notes
- Seasoning – Don’t feel that you have to stick to the seasoning blend I used on this recipe. You can use whatever blend you would like, just remember the vegetables will take on the blend too. So you could have a completely different taste then what this recipe was intended to be like.
- Smaller Portion – Cooking for say, just two and don’t want a lot of leftovers? You can roast a half chicken by splitting the whole chicken in half (make sure to remove the backbone). Cooking time will be almost half of what a whole chicken takes to cook.
- Vegetables – I have found that any root vegetable works best for the slow roasting in the oven. You can always add potatoes to this blend as well as Brussels sprouts make for a great addition.
- Meal Prep – Looking to meal prep either lunches or dinner for the week? This is the perfect recipe to do so. Roast the chicken and vegetables, let cool, then cut meat, divide and package.
- Chicken Gravy – To make gravy from the juices, remove everything out of the Dutch oven. Mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water. Bring the juices to a simmer over medium heat, begin to whisk in the cornstarch slurry until gravy is at desired consistency (about 5-7 minutes). Taste and adjust seasoning, as desired.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!