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.
- 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, I had Yukon Gold leftover from our Clam Chowder
- 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!
Use leftover chicken carcass to make homemade chicken stock (stove top) or chicken stock in the slow cooker – and leftover chicken can be used for all kinds of meals.
How do you roast your chickens? Do you have a favorite recipe or technique?
Leave a Reply