I love saving time and energy – both seem to be in short supply these days. When I figured out that I could roast two chickens at once – doubling the output (and meals) with minimal extra work it was a serious “aha” moment!
The follow-up meals that can be built from the extra chicken are endless – sandwiches, salads, tacos, soups, casseroles, etc. It’s like killing two birds with one . . .you get the point. The thing that pleases me most is the whole “production” only has to happen once – but you can use it for many other meals.
I realize if you have a large family (or teenagers) you might already roast two chickens at a time. Forgive me for just realizing this was a possibility!
Here is my recipe as we’ve always used for roasting chicken – I just modified it for two birds.
TOOLS NEEDED
Large roasting pan – At least 12 x 16 inches. Advice from the peanut gallery (take it for what it’s worth) – Invest in a good roasting pan. I had one for under $20 that started chipping and flaking within a year. Not good for your food and super frustrating. I ended up buying a Pampered Chef one (LOVE) and it looks brand new to this day – it’s at least three years old and has roasted a lot of chickens and turkeys. Not to mention it heats evenly, cleans up like a charm and won’t leech “non-stick” stuff on my food. You are probably looking at spending $100 or so on a pan – for a good one – but you’ll likely only buy one in your lifetime.
Something like this (has good ratings) over on Amazon: Calphalon LRS1805P Contemporary Stainless Special-Value 16-Inch Roaster with Nonstick Roasting Rack or Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick Roaster with Rack, Baster, Injector, and Lifters
Meat thermometer – A valuable and handy tool to have around when cooking. . .well, um, meats! You can buy them with alarms that go off when the meat has reached a certain temperature. We have something like this from Amazon: Taylor 1470 Digital Cooking Thermometer/Timer and it sits outside with the oven, but has a probe that goes into meat.
- 2 whole chickens (4-5 pounds each) – as close to the same size as possible so they cook at same rate
- 5-7 medium potatoes, quartered – whatever kind you like
- 6-8 carrots, peeled
- 6-8 celery stalks, quartered
- 4-5 medium onions, quartered
- 4-5 garlic cloves
- 1-2 lemons
- Olive oil
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Sweet basil
- Sage
- Kosher salt and pepper
- Remove giblets and insides from chickens.
- Wash chickens well (do not use soap, haha) and make sure all feathers are removed. Dry very well with paper towels and set aside.
- Prep vegetables – quarter the potatoes, peel the carrots, quarter the celery stalks, peel and quarter the onions, quarter the lemons.
- Spread out all vegetables in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Add a few whole garlic cloves to the vegetables mix (or if you’re ambitious – mince garlic and mix it in). Reserve ½ onion, ½ lemon and two garlic cloves for chicken.
- Drizzle olive oil over vegetables, sprinkle with rosemary and sweet basil. We also had fresh parsley in the fridge, so we added that.
- It’s probably about time to preheat oven to 425 degrees
- Now back to the chicken – put a quarter of a lemon, quarter of an onion and a whole garlic clove in each chicken.
- Truss chickens with kitchen twine. This is to keep the legs in close to the body to keep them from burning. (Alton Brown does a great video tutorial on trussing turkey – same concept.)
- Put both chickens on top of vegetables in roasting pan.
- Drizzle olive oil over chickens, sprinkle salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage and sweet basil on top. I also rub on minced garlic, but that’s because we LOVE garlic. If you don’t have a seasoning or don’t like one – leave it out, it won’t make too much of a difference.
- Pop in the oven at 425 degrees for 60 to 90 minutes (mine took exactly 75 minutes) – basically internal temperature of chicken breasts should read 180 degrees. Rotate pan half way through to help chickens cook evenly. If you need, you can also stir around veggies – but I usually just leave mine alone and they are delish.
- When your chickens have reached 180 internal degrees (as taken in the breast) – take chickens out of oven and if you can stand it, let them rest about 10 minutes before cutting (it will keep them more moist).
- Enjoy!
What’s your favorite way to cook chicken?
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