Years ago a friend of mine told me how to roast chickens. Her mother-in-law showed her how to make roasted chickens and she passed it on to me. This has become one of my favorite main dishes.
About five years ago, I noticed that Costco was selling whole chickens in a two pack. I am sure they had been selling them for a lot longer, I just had not see them. The price for whole chickens, before the pandemic and everything inflationary, was about $.99 - 1.29 a pound. This was a much better price per pound than chicken breasts or any other chicken part which usually was running about $2.29 - $3.49 a pound.
I decided to roast two chickens once a month, take all the meat off the bones and then save all the juices (chicken broth) for soups, gravies or whatever else I was making that month for dinner. I put all the meat in plastic bags and put whatever I did not use in the freezer. Now, I have chicken whenever I need, without having to boil or cook chicken for the recipe!
How to Make Roasted Chicken
1. Buy two whole chickens. You can do this with one chicken if you have a smaller family or if you do not want the meat from two chickens. My thought process is, if I am going to cook one for 3 hours, why not do two chickens and freeze all the cooked meat.
2.Wash the chickens. You never know what is in a packing factory. I am assuming there might be a lot of things I do not want on my chicken.
3. Place them in a roasting pan with a lid. If you do not have a roasting pan, put them in a deep pan that you can cover with tin foil. It is important that the chickens are wrapped air tight.
4. Preheat oven to 350°.
5. Open up 8 chicken bouillon cubes and put them in the bottom of the roasting pan. You can also use chicken bouillon granules and sprinkle these on top of the chickens. You might be worried about the bouillon cubes, but I promise you, I have been doing this for 30+ years. They always dissolve and create a kind of brining for the chickens which creates the best tasing chicken, ever!
6. Put the lid on and put the pan in the oven on the bottom rack. Close the door and set the timer for 3 hours.
7. When the timer goes off, turn off the oven and leave the pan inside. I usually cook my chickens in the evening 7-10 pm. I turn off the oven and leave them inside the oven overnight. This is something you just have to try and trust me. I am telling you it works!
If you want to eat roasted chicken for dinner, now is the time to serve it. The chicken meat will fall off the bones and you can use the chicken broth in the bottom of the pan to make gravy to serve with mashed potatoes. YUM!
8. When you take the pan out of the oven, drain off all the wonderful juices the chickens have made. This is the most amazing chicken broth you will ever taste! This chicken broth has so much flavor because you have all the marrow that has melted out of the chicken bones. When you refrigerate this, it will gel up like Jello. Did you know this is where the idea for Jello came from? After it has been refrigerated, I skim off the chicken fat and put it in my freezer. I use it when I make biscuits and gravy!
9. Take the meat off all the bones. It should just fall off at this point. Be careful to get the small bones out and the joints. You will get better at taking the meat off the more you do this.
10. Put all the meat in Ziploc bags, write the date on the bag and then refrigerate or freeze. Now you have the tastiest chicken for all your soups, casseroles, salads, sandwiches, etc.
Post a picture and tag me @dinasdiner. I want to know how it turns out.
Roasted Chicken
2 Whole Chickens
8 Chicken Bouillon Cubes or
8 tsp. of Chicken Bouillon Granules
1 Large Roasting Pan
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Wash the chickens.
3. Place them in a roasting pan with a lid.
4. Open up 8 chicken bouillon cubes and put them in the bottom of the roasting pan.
5. Put the lid on and put the pan in the oven on the bottom rack.
6. Cook for 3 hours.
7. When the timer goes off, turn off the oven and leave the pan inside.
8. When you take the pan out of the oven, drain off all the wonderful juices the chickens have made.
9. Take the meat off all the bones.
10. Put all the meat in Ziploc bags, write the date on the bag and then refrigerate or freeze.
Years ago I would wait for a 40 pound box of chicken breasts to go on sale at my local grocer. When I got home, I would trim the fat off of each piece and trim them up like the expensive cuts of chicken in the store. Then I packed them, six breasts deep, in a plastic bag, dated it and put it in the freezer for later use. I seriously have not done this for five or more years because I am roasting whole chickens now and having much better tasting chicken for all of my recipes with so little work.