This pan roasted chicken recipe is one of my family’s favourites. It serves 4, but if you’re cooking it for 2 – or you double the recipe, you’ll have amazing leftovers to enjoy the next day.

While I do cook with chicken parts, there’s nothing like a whole chicken. Not only does it look impressive when you take it out of the oven, but it also allows people to choose between light and dark meat.

A whole chicken also gives the best drippings for gravy, which is an important part of this recipe. You can cook this chicken recipe without the gravy, if you want, but a good pan gravy tastes so delicious on roasted chicken and potatoes. 

best roast chicken recipe

If you put this chicken in the oven when you get home from work, it will be done in around 75 minutes, your house will smell amazing, and you’ll only have 1 pan to clean! 

Just a word about how I cook roast chicken.

I like to start the bird with high heat – like 400F – for at least ½ of the cooking time, so that the skin gets crisp and the juices are sealed in. I turn the heat down for the latter half of the cooking, and the result is a juicy bird with bronzed skin. 

First off, I use fingerling potatoes because I love their waxy texture, but you can use quartered yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes,or baby potatoes, whatever you want. Just make sure to cut them all around the same size so that they cook evenly.

Also, if you don’t want to use thyme, you can use sage, or tarragon, or a combination of those or any other herb. I use fresh herbs but you can also use dry, keeping in mind that dried herbs are more potent than fresh ones. 

Reading the ingredients in this recipe, I can imagine that a lot of you are like, ‘what’s marsala!?’

This cooking wine from Italy is amazing and you should have it in your kitchen. It’s pretty cheap, and it lasts forever. I use it in all gravies, stews, and braises. Once you use it, you’ll discover the flavor that it adds to your cooking, and you’ll wonder how you got by before.

Choose a roasting pan that’s big enough for the potatoes to cook alongside the chicken.

best roast chicken recipe

best roast chicken recipe

Print
One Pan Roasted Chicken and Gravy
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
1 hr 15 mins
 

This one pan chicken recipe is absolutely delicious and simple!

Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
  • 1 4-5 lb chicken patted dry
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 lemon halved and sliced
  • 1 large yellow onion peeled and halved – leave one half whole, and chop the other half into small pieces
  • 1.5 lb potatoes I used fingerling
  • Gravy:
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 4-5 sprigs of thyme
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1-2 tablespoons marsala wine
  • 2 teaspoons AP or gravy flour
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 450F.
  2. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the garlic.
  3. Pour the garlic oil over the chicken, then salt and pepper the inside and outside of the bird and lay it in a roasting pan. Lay lemon slices under the chicken, and the thyme on top of it. You can also slip lemon slices under the skin of the chicken if you’d like.
  4. Stuff the ½ of the onion and the other half of the lemon into the chicken cavity.
  5. Toss or brush the potatoes and remaining onion with olive oil, and place them alongside the chicken in the pan.
  6. Roast the chicken at 400F for 30 – 35 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350F for the remaining time, which should be around 40 minutes. You’ll want to stick the chicken with a knife in its leg joint, or even cut away a bit of it to make sure its done.
  7. When a chicken is done, its juices run clear. You can always put a chicken back into the oven, so please don’t stress about this. You can’t, however, undo a grossly overcooked chicken. So try to not do that.
  8. When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, lift it out of the pan and onto a carving board. Put the potatoes alongside the chicken, but leave the onions in the pan.
  9. There will be some fat at the bottom of the pan. Remove all but 1-2 tablespoons of it, being careful not to remove any of the browned pan drippings, which are going to add flavour to your gravy.
  10. In a measuring cup, mix the 1 cup of chicken broth with the flour and stir vigorously to dissolve the flour.
  11. Place the chicken pan with the drippings onto a stove burner on medium high heat. Pour in the broth and the marsala, and using a wooden spoon or a whisk, start scraping the browned drippings off the bottom of the pan while stirring the broth in. You’ll see the mixture begin to thicken as it starts to simmer. That’s your gravy!
  12. When the gravy is at the desired thickness, remove it from the heat and place into a cup or gravy boat.
  13. Serve immediately.