One Hour Roasted Chicken

Recently I’ve been making a roasted chicken every week. And before you click away because you think this is going to be some complicated, time-consuming recipe that only professional chefs are capable of pulling off, let me assure you that this will be the easiest roast chicken recipe you’ve ever seen and it only takes one hour. Yes… one hour.

My meal prep strategy for the last few weeks has gone a little something like this: roast a chicken, make 2 different types of soup, done. This has been a great formula for getting a home cooked meal on the table while also keeping some variety in our diet, and the key to being able to do this is being able to roast a chicken in just one hour. Here’s the secret recipe.

One Hour Roasted Chicken

Preheat oven to 475 degrees (no, this is not a typo)
Make sure chicken cavities are emptied of all giblets etc (we like feeding these to our dog)
Rinse chicken and pat dry
Bend wing tips back behind the bird so they are held in place
Place chicken, breast side up, in a roasting pan
Rub extra light olive oil (or any other high temp oil) onto all visible parts of the bird and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste
Roast uncovered for 1 hour (do not tie legs together!)
If the skin starts to turn too brown, you can cover with foil
When the one hour is up you can remove the bird from the oven and check with an instant read thermometer that it has cooked to 160 degrees. Optionally, you can forego the timer and use a temperature probe with an alarm set to sound when the chicken reaches 160. I like this meat thermometer)
Let your chicken cool for a bit then enjoy!

Roasted Chicken Meal Plan

Here’s how we make the most of that roasted chicken. Right away, we eat the crispy chicken skin (my husband and I really like crispy chicken skin… don’t judge!) and then have dinner using the chicken legs/thighs (depending on how hungry we are) and veggies. Then I take all the meat off the chicken bones and put it into the fridge until I need it. Be sure to use your hands and really pick the bones clean!

Once all the meat is removed from the chicken, put the bones into a slow cooker and cover with water. I then simmer on high for 24 hours with a capful of apple cider vinegar to make a delicious bone broth. The following day I will use that bone broth and the chicken meat to make big batches of two different kinds of soups.

I really like making my Southwest Chicken Soup, and my Thai Coconut Soup in the same week. Both recipes call for cilantro and I find that making these two soups at the same time makes sure that I’m able to use up my entire bunch of cilantro. My Oxtail Soup also calls for cilantro and would be a good addition if you wanted more variety and had leftover cilantro.

Depending on how much soup you make, you can either leave the pots in the refrigerator and grab a bowl as needed, or you can portion it out into individual servings or large gallon freezer bags, and freeze what you won’t eat right away.

Throughout the week, we’ll pick whatever soup we want for our meal and have that. To add variety throughout the week, we also usually have the ingredients for a kale salad on hand, and buy an veggies that are in season and on sale to add to our meals, or have as a standalone meal (like artichokes).

Photo by Jules is licensed under CC BY 2.0