Make this easy Dutch Oven Whole Chicken for a delicious one pot dinner! With vegetables, potatoes and crispy chicken, it’s the perfect meal.
ONe-pot
Easy cleanup
You’ll Learn: How to roast a crispy, juicy whole chicken with ease
Worth It: Hands-off cooking that fits your busiest days
Bonus: One-pan approach for easy cleanup
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- One pot dinner – A one-pot meal is one of my favorite recipes to make! This dutch oven roast chicken recipe takes a bit of cooking time, but it requires very little active time and uses simple ingredients so you can make it any night of the week. Everything goes in the same pot for a simple easy recipe with quick clean up!
- Great for a small group – If you’re hosting for dinner, this is a great recipe to make. It’s easy but feeds the whole family with an easy cooking process that does not require too much effort.
- Best leftovers – The best way to use leftovers is to make sandwiches, wraps, and chicken salad. Leftover roast chicken is so the most flavorful chicken and perfect for meal prep or lunch all week long.
Serving Suggestions
This whole roast chicken dish is a whole meal on its own with the root vegetables and potatoes in the pot. If you would like some extra greens in side dishes, you could make a salad to go with it. While the chicken roasts, you could make this kale cranberry quinoa salad, brussels sprouts salad, or wedge salad.
If you have leftovers of this whole chicken recipe, you can use them like a rotisserie chicken. Make jalapeno popper chicken salad or poppy seed chicken salad.
For other dutch oven recipes, try this One Pot Lemon Chicken Orzo or Creamy Meat Sauce Pasta next.
Ingredients
- Baby potatoes – I use quartered baby potatoes to make sure they cook fully for the perfect bite
- Yellow onion – Slice it into half moons so as it cooks it melts into your vegetables
- Large carrots – I like to cut them into matchsticks for this recipe, but you could also do rounds
- Whole chicken – take note of what size chicken you have because it will impact the amount of time needed to cook
- Extra virgin olive oil – you will use the olive oil to saute the vegetables and brush on the chicken skin
- Salted butter – I use salted butter to coat underneath the skin of the chicken for the perfect crispy skin
- Kosher salt and black pepper – season your chicken everywhere with salt and pepper to make sure you get the best flavor. If you use sea salt, cut back on the amount you use slightly because it’s more concentrated than kosher
Ingredient substitutions
This recipe is simple and has great flavor as is, but you can feel free to mix it up. You can minced garlic cloves to your vegetables, or roast the chicken with a head of garlic then remove after cooking. If you prefer a bit more bite in your onions, you could substitute red onion.
For the seasoning, I kept it simple with salt and pepper, but you can add any seasoning blend you would like. Fresh herbs like fresh rosemary would be great, or some lemon zest from the lemon rind added to your spices. You could also make a garlic herb butter mixture to spread in between the skin of the chicken. Combine softened butter, pressed garlic, lemon juice and herbs in a small bowl, then put the herbed butter under the breast skin and thigh skin.
I like using baby potatoes, but you could swap in fingerling potatoes or sweet potatoes.
How to make
Step 1: Season the Chicken
Preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit. Place potatoes, onions and carrots into the bottom of a large dutch oven or roasting pan (I used an enamel cast iron dutch oven) and toss with 1 tbsp olive oil. Season with 1 tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper. Toss to coat evenly in the bottom of the pot (Image 1).
Unwrap chicken and remove anything from the cavity of the chicken. Allow it to come to room temperature for an even roast. Pat dry with paper towels everywhere, including the chicken cavity. Use a basting brush to spread melted butter under the chicken skin on the breasts, thighs and legs to get the juiciest, tender meat.
Brush 1 tbsp of olive oil over the top of the chicken skin. Season with salt and pepper (Image 2). Place the entire chicken in the five quart dutch oven on top of the vegetables, chicken breast side facing up (Image 3). Place lid on the dutch oven.
Step 2: Roast the Chicken and Vegetables
Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour in the covered dutch oven. Remove the lid and cook uncovered for another 10-30 minutes. Cook times depend on the weight of the chicken. Use a meat thermometer to check the chicken. Remove from the oven when the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thigh shows 165F on your instant-read thermometer (Image 4).
If you want extra crispy skin, turn the oven temperature to broil the roasted chicken for just 1-2 minutes before removing from the oven.
Remove the tender chicken from the dutch oven and allow the chicken rest for about 20 minutes before carving and serving with the roasted vegetables. Drizzle excess juices from the dutch oven over the sliced chicken and bed of potatoes.
If you would like to make a sauce from the pan juices, you could deglaze the bottom of the pan with some white wine and allow it to simmer. Use a wooden spoon to scrape pan drippings from the bottom of the dutch oven. You could add some chicken broth or chicken stock and then pour it over your chicken.
Storage and Reheating
Allow your leftover chicken from your dutch oven chicken recipe to cool completely, then place chicken in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to four days.
My favorite way to have these leftovers is cold in salads or sandwiches, but you can also reheat them in the microwave or toaster oven.
Check out these other Chicken recipes
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
Email Recipe for Later
Recipe
Dutch Oven Whole Chicken
Ingredients
- 16 oz baby potatoes quartered
- 1 yellow onion sliced into half moons
- 4 large carrots cut into matchsticks
- 3.5 – 4.5 lb whole chicken
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil separated
- 2 tbsp salted butter melted
- 2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F. Place potatoes, onions and carrots into the dutch oven and toss with 1 tbsp olive oil. Season with 1 tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper. Toss to coat evenly.
- Unwrap chicken and remove anything from the cavity. Pat dry with a paper towel. Use a basting brush to spread melted butter under the chicken skin on the breasts, thighs and legs.
- Brush 1 tbsp of olive oil over the top of the chicken skin. Season with salt and pepper. Place chicken in the dutch oven on top of the veggies, breast side facing up. Place lid on the dutch oven
- Bake at 425F for 1 hour with the lid on. Remove the lid and cook uncovered for another 10-30 minutes depending on the weight of the chicken. Remove from the oven when the internal temperature of the chicken thigh is 165F
- If you want extra crispy skin, broil the chicken for just 1-2 minutes before removing from the oven.
- Remove the chicken from the dutch oven and allow to cool for about 20 minutes before carving and serving with the roasted vegetables. Drizzle excess juices from the dutch oven over the sliced chicken.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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