Nothing beats a plump, moist, and perfectly roasted chicken when it comes to comfort food. While cooking a whole chicken is a fairly straightforward process, there are a variety of tips and tricks that you can use to make the difference between mediocre and mouthwatering. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Here's everything you need to know about how to make chicken in a dutch oven.
The simplest solution to guaranteed success is to invest in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven. This one-pot wonder can be lined with fresh vegetables, which roast together with the chicken to produce an easy, delicious, and nutritious meal.
No flavor is lost as the aromas and juices mingle while the bird slowly roasts. You end up with the moistest, tenderest, and most flavorsome roasted chicken and potatoes that you've ever had.
There are many whole chicken dutch oven recipes to choose from. Our simple yet delicious recipe for a roast chicken is tender and juicy on the inside, crispy and flavorsome on the outside. Cooked together with potatoes, it makes for an easy one-pot meal for the whole family.
So, yes, while whole chicken recipes = Dutch oven goodness, we highly recommend this one.
Here's our recipe for making a Dutch oven chicken that's guaranteed to become your family's favorite.
FAQ
What other vegetables go well with this lemon-roasted chicken?
This is one of the easiest roast chicken recipes online today; it gives you the most delicious, juiciest, and crispiest roast chicken you've ever cooked.
Other veggies you can add are parsnips, beets, carrots, celeriac, butternut squash and rutabaga. Basically, you can throw in anything that takes a long time to cook.
Some people prefer to keep their veggies in a separate roaster because they don't get as soggy from all the chicken juices, but it's entirely up to you. Cooking a whole chicken together with yummy root vegetables is the most convenient and tastiest way to make a nutritious meal with very little preparation time.
What can I do with the skin and bones?
Most people throw all of this away once the meat has been eaten, but every part of the chicken is usable, if you know what to do with it. Your one-time chicken dinner can yield several meals in the following days. We think the skin deserves to be eaten because it's just so good. You could also give the skin to your dog, but absolutely don't feed them the bones. Chicken bones are very dangerous for animals.
The bones and carcass can be used to make a nutritious broth later on, ensuring that every inch of the bird is used. Make the broth or soup with some of your cooked vegetables. You can put all of this into your dutch oven, top it off with water and return it to the over for 5-6 hours. Once done, strain it through a sieve and enjoy!
Tips on how to cook a whole chicken in a Dutch oven
For a nice, even roast, create some space around the chicken. Layer your vegetables so that the bird sits off the bottom of the Dutch oven, but not so high that it touches the lid. Make a small indentation in the vegetables to allow space for the steam to pass under the chicken.
Aim for 1 hour of covered roasting, allowing the juices from the chicken to flow and flavor the bed of vegetables. This is where the magic happens and ensures that you end up with moist, tender meat.
After 1 hour, take the lid off the Dutch oven and enter the crisping phase. Allow 30 min of further cooking and remove when the skin is golden and crispy; no basting required. Once you've tried some cast iron Dutch oven chicken recipes, you'll wonder what you ever did without it!
How long to roast a whole chicken in a Dutch oven
This recipe provides the simplest and quickest method to have a crispy roast chicken, but you can also play with the temperature and time ratio for an even more tender, falling-off-the-bone meat.
Preheat your oven to 315°F and allow the chicken to slow cook in the Dutch oven for up to 5 hours. Make sure to baste every hour or so. Experiment and find your perfect match!
Do you roast a chicken with the lid on or off?
Ideally, you want to roast the chicken in a dutch oven and remove the lid. The butter that you smear on the outside of the chicken, as part of the roast chicken recipe, is exposed to the heat and makes the skin delicious and crispy.
The butter that you put under the skin of chicken breasts will protect the meat so it doesn't overcook and get dried out.
If you see the skin becoming too dark and you're worried it's going to burn, cover it with some foil.
Our advice: roast the chicken uncovered every time, for a crispy, moist and delicious feast.
Serving the chicken
When it comes to chicken, one of the things people struggle with most is carving. Here are some tips for carving, as well as how you can serve your roast chicken.
Make sure the chicken is on its back, breast facing up. Pull one of the legs away and slice through the leg meat. Pull the leg until the round end of the hip bone comes out of the joint. Use your knife to completely detach the leg and thigh from the body.
Find the natural line between the leg and the thigh and cut straight down through that. You'll need to push the knife down quite forcefully. Separate the leg and the thigh and place on your platter. Repeat this with the other leg.
Next, cut along the breast bone by sliding the knife along one side of the center at the front of the breast cavity. Slice from the front to the back of the bird, while pulling the meat away from the bone. Repeat on the other side.
Now, remove the wing from the breast and cut the breast into small piece.
FInally, you'll want to arrange all your meat on a platter surrounded by the vegetables you cooked along with it. Serve and enjoy!
Key Takeaway
From chicken soup to chicken stock, a chicken dinner is unbeatable. Leftover chicken also makes for a tasty sandwich at lunch. We especially love roasting chicken in a Dutch oven. It is a quick and easy way to prepare a delicious and healthy meal for your family. Just combine all the ingredients, pop in the oven, and you can leave it for an hour or so. You will end up with roasted chicken so good and flavorful you'll wonder why you haven't made this before!
If you enjoyed making this recipe, why not try other dishes using a Dutch oven? This pot roast is to die for, and the braised beef recipe is also very good. You can even make a Dutch oven bread. Also, check out our article on Dutch oven recipes to get more ideas.
With a Dutch oven, the possibilities are definitely endless. Feel free to explore other recipes and enjoy with the whole family!
2 Responses
Refael
I had to read it twice. Very nice.
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Rod pinkham
May 04, 2021
I have never used a Dutch oven before. I have used a pressure cooker on everything. I have some of my own recipes for that.and a lot of that is buy accident. Which have turned out great. The only thing with a pressure cooker is you can’t brown, I’ve cooked chicken in it and it falls off the bone, but it’s kind of tasteless.