Gimme Some Oven

Crispy Roasted Garlic Chicken

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One of my new endeavors of the year is learning how to coupon. Yes, the verb – coupon. As much as I love to cook, and as tiny as my food budget is, this has probably been a no-brainer for years. But somehow I’d never really given it a try…

So, I’ve spent the last 9 or so months learning the art of store coupons, manufacturer coupons, “matching”, doubling, pairing….you name it! And, of course, learning how to smile and thank your cashier and the patient people behind you as you figure it all out. :D  Thankfully, it has been beyond worth it. Thanks to internet coupons, and especially to coupon blogs, I’ve saved a fabulously significant chunk in my grocery budget. Hoorah!

Anyway, all that to say that I’m totally proud to say that on a recent grocery trip, I was able to swing three whole frozen chickens for $1.50 each. Holla! Thus, one of the lucky birds turned into this delicious, simple roast. I know there are about five zillion different methods for roasting. But for this recipe, decided to go with a crispy-roasting method I learned about awhile back from Cooks Illustrated. Look out — it calls for heating up that oven to 450 and 500 degrees. But hey — when it’s snowing and dropping into the ‘teens here in KC — a toasty kitchen sounds just about perfect. :)

I ended up just going with a super-simple garlic, garlic, and more garlic recipe. But feel free to sub in your favorite fresh herbs, honey, or whatever may float your boat. This is definitely more of a “method” sort of post… Enjoy!!

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Crispy Roasted Chicken

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 60 reviews
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 90 minutes
  • Total Time: 95 minutes
  • Yield: 1 roasted chicken 1x

Description

You’ll love this Crispy Roasted Garlic Chicken Recipe for dinner! So good!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 (3-4 pound) whole chicken (giblets removed and discarded, if included)
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 Tbsp.)
  • 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Thoroughly rinse the outside and inside of the chicken. Gently pat try with paper towels.
  2. Using your fingers, carefully lift up the skin on top of the chicken (near the neck) and pull up gently. With your other hand, gently separate the skin from the breast and thigh meat. Then take half of the garlic and stuff it in between the skin and meat, so that it is fairly evenly spread out. Take the remainder of the garlic and spread it all over the cavity inside the chicken.
  3. Then take the butter and baste the entire outside of the chicken. Sprinkle generously with freshly ground pepper and salt.
  4. (Optional: Cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.)
  5. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat to 450 degrees. Place foil loosely in large roasting pan. Flip chicken so breast side faces down, tucking the wings under (as pictured below), and set V-rack in roasting pan on top of foil. Roast chicken 25 minutes.
  6. Remove roasting pan from oven. Using 2 large wads of paper towels, rotate chicken breast-side up. Baste briefly with pan juices or additional melted butter. Return to oven and continue to roast until instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast registers 135 degrees, 15 to 25 minutes.
  7. Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees. Continue to roast until skin is golden brown, crisp, and instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast registers 160 degrees and 175 degrees in thickest part of thigh, 10 to 20 minutes.
  8. Transfer chicken to cutting board and let rest, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Carve and serve immediately.

Notes

Original recipe with method adapted from Cooks Illustrated .

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150 comments on “Crispy Roasted Garlic Chicken”

  1. Great dish! I normally am not a fan of chicken skin, but this is delicious. New go to roast chicken recipe.






  2. For crispier skin don’t cover the chicken when you put it in the fridge. The cold air dries out the skin making it brown and crisp beautifully

  3. This was a big hit with my family! The whole chicken that I used was slightly bigger. But it was extremely crispy and had great flavor!!! I love garlic so this was perfect. I wasn’t sure how it would work- trying to flip it over but I did use paper towels and tongs and it was perfectly fine!






  4. Delicious. Thanks for the recipe.

  5. Made this tonight and it was delicious. Chicken was so juicy and flavorful. While the chicken was resting, I started cooking rice. Cut up some carrots and half an onion. Added the drippings from the chicken and it’s the best rice I’ve ever made.






  6. This was easy and so delicious wish I could post my pictures. I’m 69 and I’ve never roasted a chicken before.

  7. Going to try this for dinner tonight! Wish me luck :)

  8. I have made roasted chicken before but this recipe made it fabulous so good tasted great and was jiucy loved it!

  9. The chicken came out excellent juicy flavourful my guests loved it I was the only one who did not eat it I am a vegetarian ???






  10. My chicken is not restaurant style as it is always tough though I cook on high heat and short time

    • Have you checked your oven with an oven thermometer? I had problems with my food being undercooked. I tested it and discovered my (old) oven was 30° too cool. I wonder if yours is cooking too hot?

    • The slower you cook the meat the more moist and tender it is but with steak you’re right faster is better

  11. Awww wanted to leavea pic…best recipe for whole chicken…thank u so much…never knew i could roast a chicken ths way!!??

  12. Great recipe!!!
    Delicious, flavorful and juicy. Only issue I had was the smoke…..maybe not enough foil on the bottom of my roasting pan?






  13. My first thought was – this better be worth all the work/steps. So worth it! This has to be the best roasted chicken recipe I’ve made. So delicious!.






  14. If u don’t use the aluminum foil is that ok just don’t have any on hand must have used it all an forgot to buy more hopefully still works since already started everything ugh hate when I don’t precheck for all tools needed!!






  15. I was looking fir a good whole chicken recipe with a crispy skin last week. This was simple and the flavor was great! I’m making it again tonight!






  16. Amazing! I also stuffed it with parsley for some additional flavor.






  17. I tried this tonight and we really liked it! Not hard very moist. Will def make again. Thank you.






  18. I have made this twice and it was great both times …
    Second time around I decided that i would blend crushed rosemary into the garlic before placing under the skin..and I also took a stick of butter and sliced it up and spread it evenly under the skin as well, along with my garlic rosemary mixture.
    The end product was absolutely delicious!!






  19. I made this the other evening for dinner, turned out delicious. I didn’t have garlic so I Incorporated garlic powder and butter in place of the garlic cloves. Will definitely be making this again!!






  20. I make thi recipe and it’s delicious ? rostered chicken ? thank you ? for shearing. It is my first time doing roasted chicken and all my family love it.






  21. This is amazing, but discarding giblets is a shame. Too many uses for people to see that food waste ?






  22. I use this method on the bbq all season long especially in summer
    works every time






  23. Trying for the first time tonight. Excited to see how it turns out. Thanks for the helpful tips ?
    JB

  24. I made this recipe with a 6# whole chicken and increased garlic cloves (you can never have too much garlic) and butter. My cooking times were the max of 25-30 minutes each side. IT. WAS. DELICIOUS! My daughter said it was “the bomb” to her friends and my 2 yr. old grandson couldn’t get it in his mouth fast enough. The breast meat was absolutely tender & juicy (we are a dark meat fans) but didn’t hesitate eating it all. I made 4 additional meals from it. Oh that flavor. YUM! Thank you for sharing.

  25. This was a great, great crispy roasted chicken recipe. Perfect!
    Followed recipe exactly.
    Thanx so much.

  26. I love it when a plan comes together. I carefully followed the easy directions and it came out beautifully.

  27. This is the best chicken I have ever made. I loved your suggestion of using wadded foil to flip it–so easy. Thank you@






  28. Im trying this tonite wish me luck never roasted a chicken before

  29. Turned out really juicy. Used ghee instead of butter.






  30. #GIMMESOMEOVEN came out perfect!!!

    Wanted to post picture..






  31. This is the easiest and most flavorful chicken! Every time I make a whole chicken I use this recipe. The family loves it!

  32. I’m not a fan of chicken in any form but my husband sure is, so at age 56 I finally decided to try to roast my very first whole chicken. It turned out perfectly!!! Very crisp skin, tender moist meat throughout, husband was thrilled! Only problem that I had (other than not being able to eat any myself since I hate the taste of chicken, must be a DNA flaw within my family lineage or something) was the splattering fat that messed up my nice clean oven, plus the smoke that filled the kitchen after opening the oven door. Next time I’ll roast a whole chicken using the exact same recipe but use our outdoor trench fire pit with a dutch oven instead (not a common asset for most households, but it sure is great to have one for messy projects like this one over here). Husband continues to rant and rave over his delicious roast chicken lunch with sweet potatoes and sauteed mushrooms, then tonight he made a chicken salad with spinach and avocados for dinner, and tomorrow I’ll make a vat of chicken bone broth for use in various recipes in the coming weeks. THANK YOU SO MUCH for this amazing tutorial, I’m very pleased over baking my first whole chicken ever with such excellent results!






  33. My go-to chicken recipe. I always add fresh squeezed lemon juice and fresh oregano over the whole bird, and stuff the carcass with squeezed lemon halved to give it a Greek flair. I definitely recommend brining the entire chicken beforehand in salt water mixed with fresh lemon and garlic cloves for about 24 hours in the fridge prior to roasting- the chicken will be moist and bursting with flavor. I mix 1/2 cup of salt, 1 cube of chicken bouillon, 2-3 tbsp of lemon juice, and 4 cloves of garlic in 6 cups of water and bring to a boil on the stove, then let cool to room temperature. Place the chicken in a gallon-sized ziploc bag, then pour the brine over the chicken, close the bag, and place in a sturdy bowl in the fridge the day before roasting the chicken. Remove from brine immediately prior to drying off and roasting.






  34. Turned out crispy & juicy! The best tasting roast chicken recipe that I have tried. I just need to figure out how to keep from smoking out the whole house. No one else had this problem? What did I do wrong?!






    • You can put a couple of cm of water in the bottom of the roasting pan so that fat drips into that which prevents some smoking, also helps keep the meat moist! Then if you want to use the fat for roast potatoes etc just need to let it cool in a jug then skim off the fat from the top to reuse ?

    • Turn the heat down. Chicken doesn’t really need to be roasted at such high temperatures. It will just take a little longer at a lower temp.

  35. This is a go-to recipe that my family loves. The one thing I added is an overnight brine.






  36. Nice and crispy
    Thanks






  37. Follow directions to the T and get fabulous moist results! I made gravy with giblets and leavings from chicken- rich and savory!






  38. LOVE IT!!! so much, cooking it today the second time!!! kitchen smells so yummy!!!






  39. Best chicken I have ever made, this is going to be my only go to for whole chicken. Skin is crispy, flavor is excellent.






  40. My new go to when I want to roast a whole chicken. So delicious and easy!






  41. The chicken was tender, but I thought it could use some seasoning. The texture was nice. The flavor was mostly bland. I would follow this recipe again, but would definitely use a combination of other spices in addition to the garlic.






  42. I have used this recipe several times and with a little variation this recipe is amazing!! The only difference I use is I slice a stick of butter into 1-2 tbsp sections and also put that evenly spread underneath the skin after spreading the garlic under the skin as well. It always turns out crispy and delicious!!

    The V-rack is a must for this recipe but, in a pinch I have made it with a cookie cooling sheet so it is lifted off the bottom of the pan while roasting. This allows both sides of the skin to equally crisp properly and stay that way.






  43. What kind of adjustments for drumsticks instead of a whole chicken?

  44. Delicious! I had a 6.5 lb chicken so I had to bake for about 30 minutes longer but it was crispy and juicy






  45. Maybe this is a good recipe? But I followed the recipe and currently have every vent fan on in my house and have set the smoke detector off at least 3 times… maybe it was the depth of the pan I’m using but my wife said no more lol I think I’ll stick to smoking the chickens outside

  46. I have a 5 lbs chicken. How should I adjust the cooking time and temperature?

  47. Made this recipe several times and my family was skeptical at first because I said the chicken’s skin (everyone’s favorite part) was going to have a lil crunch to it….I made believers out of them and they love it every time I make it….. comes out perfect?
    thanks for sharing this recipe….






  48. Love this and cant wait to use it. Im gonna do a lemon pepper garlic roast.






  49. Delicious! We made this for dinner tonight and won’t go back to a store-bought rotisserie ever again!