Simple Whole Roasted Chicken

By Addie

"The combination of unique ingredients make this chicken dish delicious. It roasts beautifully and is surprisingly fast once it's in the oven. I serve this with the Chimichurri Sauce I found on Allrecipes, and I can't get enough! Plus the leftovers are fantastic for sandwiches, salads, and Mexican dishes."

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (4 pound) whole chicken
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed

Preparation

Step 1

In a bowl, mix the salt, sugar, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Rub the chicken with the mixture. Cover chicken, and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Stuff the chicken cavity with the garlic. Place the chicken, breast side down, on a rack in a roasting pan.

Roast 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce heat to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C), and continue roasting 15 minutes. Baste chicken with pan drippings, reduce heat to 425 degrees, and continue roasting 30 minutes, to an internal temperature of 180 degrees. Let stand 20 minutes before serving.
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REVIEWS: (565)

This is only the 2nd time in my life making a whole roasted chicken (because I find them too dry and bland to bother), but after using *this* recipe it may just become a weekly occaision! Not only was this easy to prepare and the flavour outstanding, this was the JUICIEST chicken I have ever eaten - anywhere! I am so impressed with this recipe, I'm going to try this rub/marinade and roasting method with my next holiday turkey. I think roasting it breast-side down may be the key in retaining the flavourful juices. My only changes were to double the spices and add an onion to the cavity with the garlic. Amazing chicken!

Excellent recipe. I didnt realize I was out of allspice, so I substituted with dried rosemary and pepper. I put 1 cup of water in the bottom of the pan, with quartered potatoes, celery, onions and carrots. Cooked uncovered at 400 for 30 min and then 350 for 45 min. Once the skin was crispy, I covered with foil. It was so tender and juicy. A HIT!

The savory aroma of the cooking chicken didn't disappoint the eater. My husband loved this roasted chicken. I doubled the spices as other reviewers recommended. I didn't marinade overnight... I just rubbed it in and put it in the oven. I also stuffed it with an onion. Husband has already requested for this chicken again. It was so easy. And the result was a hot, juicy and tender chicken.

I am an extremely picky cooker and eater. My kids could not be pickier. I also love to cook and am considered to be pretty good at it. Having said this, this was the best chicken recipe I've ever made! I followed the advice to double the spices and I did marinate it overnight. I put the spices under the skin and rubbed them inside the bird as well. then I cut slits in the skin to make sure the flavors got in. Being concerned about the smoke issue, I used one of those stand up chicken cookers where you place the bird on two metal arches with a bowl in the middle to catch the juices. I cooked it at 350 for just over an hour and It was perfect. The only things I changed were I sprinkled garlic powder inside and out instead of crushing garlic and I basted it once with some melted butter.This recipe was a total sucess with not one morsel left over. The dogs were going crazy over the smell, but as cinnamon is bad for dogs we did not give them any. This is a great company dish and I plan to make it again this weekend when we have friends over. Absolute perfection!

AWESOME recipe! I just made it for the first time tripling the spices because I cut out the backbone to butterfly it (and put it under the skin for me to eat) coating both the inside and out, as well as under the skin and marinated in a zip bag only a few hours because that's all the time I had. I roasted a 4 lb chicken with the directions shown butterflied breast down with minced garlic on the inside of the breast, and it is EXCELLENT! My 9 year old even gobbled it up! DEFINATELY will make again and again.

This recipe is good, my family loves it. At first I was a little hesitant to put sugar and cinnamon on meat, but I'm glad I did, because it's the best whole chicken recipe I've made.

I didn't have allspice and put the seasoning under the skin since we are non skin eaters. Otherwise I made this as written- YUM! It was moist and delicious. I had hoped for leftovers- but my husband and I and his parents ate every single piece of meat off the chicken! We were literally hunting for the smallest morsels that were left.

WOW! We were having guests over and I wanted to serve more than just a basic roasted chicken. I followed advice and doubled the spices, no allspice though. I rubbed the mixture under the skin with the garlic and marinated for the recommended 24 hours. I baked it according to directions, and it came out delicious! The left-overs made a delicious and exotically spiced chicken soup. These are my only changes: #1 Double the spices, mix with grated garlic. #2 Rub under skin, marinate for 24 hours. This is my standard baked chicken now - thanks so much!

I have made this over and over again just like the recipe, and it is always delicious. I was a little leary at first because it seems to be a strange mixture of spices, but once I tried it, I'm a true fan of this recipe. Thanks for sharing.

This recipe is soo good. my husband loved it, and he wants me to make it like this forever! I will double the ingredients next time for that double flavor, thanks for this recipe!!

This was the first time I made roast chicken, and this got rave reviews! The bf talked about how "awesome" it was all night, and from him "I like it" is high praise. That said, I thought it was way too salty. The only change I made was to add onion to the stuffing and I put the spice rub under the skin since I don't like the skin. I think next time I make this I'm going to cut back on the salt, because otherwise it was DELISH! Easy to make, though I was a bit afraid the smoke was going to set off alarms...

I usually do not eat chicken, however I cook it frequently for the family. I tried this recipe and the chicken was so beautifully brown, so delicous smelling, I had to eat some. OMG! This is the best roasted chicken in the world. Make TWO because one will not be enough.

If I could gove more stars I would! This was so delicious. I doubled the seasoning, added about 4 TBLSpns butter under skin and on top of chicken, I cut up some red potatoes, carrots, celery and onion put it in the pan with the chicken. Added onion inside the onion with the garlic as well!!! OMG OMG so delicious! my husband not too excited about chicken took 1 bite and was said it was the BEST chicken he had ever eaten. My kids cleaned the bones and even ate the veggies and potatoes there was just soo much flavor... SO good our new go to!!! Thank you for sharing

I've NEVER made a whole chicken before and was pretty nervous about roasting it for the first time. THIS WAS SO DELICIOUS! I didn't let it marinate and I didn't have most of the spices - I just did the salt, sugar, and doubled the cinnamon. I rinsed the chicken, put an onion and the garlic in the cavity, and rubbed it with the spices. That is all the prep work I did for the chicken and it took less than 10 minutes. Then I chopped up some red potatoes, carrots, leftover radishes, and one more onion to roast along with the chicken. I tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary. I put the veggies around the chicken and lastly put about a cup of chicken stock in the bottom of the pan with the veggies. This was so good and the cooking time was perfect. I think I might use less salt next time though. Thank you for the recipe!

This is a great recipe. I have to admit I was concerned about starting off with 500 degrees but it comes out perfect; very juicy. It cooks perfect in one hour. My chicken was just over 4 lbs. I doubled the spices and put them under the skin, put in zip lock bag for about 12 hours; because that's all the time I had. I am a dark meat person because I think the white meat is too dry and I ate the white meat because it was so juicy :)

I have made this chicken a few times and it always gets rave reviews from everyone - even the picky eaters. I normally make a 4 lb chicken, double the spices and add an onion in the cavity like so many others based on other reviews. Tonight I made a 7 lb chicken and was concerned that it would not come out as well due to another review I read. However - it came out awesome! It fed 5 adults and 2 toddlers with nothing left over! Due to the size, I cooked it at 500 for 25 minutes, 450 for 25 minutes and 425 for about 40 - 45 minutes until it reached a 180 temp. I also added a cup of chicken broth to the roasting pan and basted about 3 - 4 times. It did get smoky so I tented it with tin foil and the combination of that and the broth kept the smoke under control. The result was a fully cooked, flavorful and moist chicken! My "dark meat only" eaters were raving about the white meat. This chicken was such a hit, I will be making it over and over and over again!