How To Cook a Perfect Roast Chicken

4.64 from 58 votes

Learn how to roast a chicken in this easy tutorial. A simple meal with veggies and meat can be as easy to throw together as a frozen pizza.

Prep Time5

Cook Time1

Total Time1 5

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: American

Keyword: how to roast a chicken, roasted chicken, whole chicken

Servings: servings

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Rinse the chicken in cool water and pat dry with paper towels. Make sure to remove giblets from the chicken cavity before rinsing if they are included.
Drizzle the chicken with two tablespoons of neutral oil.
Sprinkle on the garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, Italian seasoning blend, and freshly ground black pepper.
Place the chicken in a large baking dish or baking sheet. Bake for one hour in the hot oven until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. You can use an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature. There should be crisp skin on the outside and the juicy meat on the inside. All the juices inside the chicken should be clear, not pink, whenever you cut into it. If it is not all the way done, just bake it a little longer.
Allow the chicken a little bit of resting time (15-20 minutes) before picking the tender meat off of the finished product.

Another way to cook a whole chicken is in the Instant Pot. This way does not produce that gorgeous crispy skin. Although I definitely prefer to roast chicken, because it has great flavor, I do sometimes use the pressure cooker when I am in a pinch. Here is a blog post on how to make a whole chicken in the instant pot.
Be sure to thoroughly pat your chicken dry after rinsing. This extra step, along with the higher temperatures of the oven, helps to achieve the beautiful golden skin on your delicious roasted chicken
Let the chicken rest 15-20 minutes after removing from the oven. This will help to lock in the flavors and juices of the meat and keep it really tender.