Simple Oven Roasted Chicken Recipe

Flavorful and tender Oven Roasted Chicken. Brining is the secret to making this chicken tender and moist. Similar to Rotisserie Chicken, perfect for dinner!

How to Brine a Chicken

Do you ever have problems with chicken drying out while you are baking, grilling or slow cooking it? I’ve had that problem before. But there is a super simple remedy for that: brining. Sure, it’s an extra step in the process that will add about 3-8 hours to your prep time, but it’s oh so worth it! See that chicken in the photo above? I call that an darn good flavorful and tender Oven Roasted Chicken. Seriously, that chicken came out just as flavorful and juicy as a rotisserie chicken. When I tried to cut off one of the drumsticks, the bone just pulled right out of the meat! The secret to getting a juicy, flavorful chicken like this is brining and basting.

I know that isn’t the best photo, but that gives you an idea of how I brined my chicken. I needed something big enough to hold a 6 pound chicken. I used a huge stock pot and a 6 quart crockpot liner. I filled the pot with a simple brine consisting of kosher salt, sugar and cold water. I placed the chicken in the brine and let it soak away for about 4 hours.

How to Season Oven Roasted Chicken

After it was done soaking, I made a delicious, flavorful rub that was adapted from the Williams Sonoma Cookbook. I applied the rub all over the chicken, stuffed the chicken with some fresh rosemary and thyme, placed it on a roasting pan and roasted it for about 1 1/2 hours. During the roasting process, I basted the chicken every 10 minutes. The ending result was this beautiful, delicious chicken! After the roasting, I made gravy using the juices from the roasting pan.

Oven Roasted Chicken Recipe

Yield: 6 servings

Prep Time: 4 hours 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time: 5 hours 35 minutes

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Ingredients

For the brine

• 1 gallon of cold water
• 3/4 C kosher salt
• 1/3 C brown sugar

For the chicken

• 1 4-6lb roasting chicken
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 C fresh lemon juice
• 4 tbsp butter, room temp
• 1/8 tsp ground chipotle pepper
• Pinch of paprika
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• Extra sprigs of rosemary and thyme
• 1 1/2 C water for the roasting pan

Instructions

For the brine

1. Line a large stock pot with a crockpot liner.
2. Add the cold water, the salt and the sugar. Stir the mixture until the salt and sugar are dissolved.
3. Add the chicken, cover and refrigerate for four hours. Remove the chicken from the brine and discard the brine once the process is completed.

For the chicken

1. In a mixing bowl, mix together the rosemary, thyme, paprika, salt, pepper, butter, chipotle pepper, garlic and lemon juice (the lemon juice won't completely blend in if mixing by spoon but if you put all of this in a food processor, it should blend well)
2. Stuff the chicken cavity with the extra rosemary and thyme sprigs.
3. Coat the chicken with the seasoning mixture and place in a foil lined roasting pan (your roasting pan should have a rack insert. The chicken should not be in the water/touching the bottom of the pan). Pour 1 1/2 C water into the pan.
4. Roast the chicken at 425 for 1 1/2 hours, basting liberally throughout the roasting process. If the skin begins to darken too much, cover will foil and continue to bake until an internal temp of 165 is reached.
5. Remove the chicken from the oven, cover with foil and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
6. Reserve the juices from the pan to make gravy. Put the juices in a sauce pan over medium heat and start off with 1/4 C flour. Whisk in the flour and then gradually add more flour if needed. Whisk the mixture until thickened.

Notes

Adapted from the Williams Sonoma Cookbook.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 713 Total Fat: 53g Saturated Fat: 18g Cholesterol: 247mg Sodium: 263mg Carbohydrates: 1g Fiber: 0g Sugar: 0g Protein: 56g

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