This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
When it comes to a Sunday supper with the family, there is really nothing quite like a delicious Whole Roasted Chicken with Pan Gravy.
This dinner and so darn easy to make, and just tastes like good-ole home cooking from the heart. I am a gal that *really* loves gravy, and this simple pan gravy made from the juices of the roasted chicken, lots of fresh herbs, and a little white wine is just delightful smothered all over the chicken! I love serving this with some simple mashed potatoes, and it really pairs well with any roasted veggie or side salad– depending on what mood you are in.
For a small Easter Sunday gathering, this Whole Roasted Chicken with Pan Gravy is a great main dish to make! Try serving it with some of my other Easter-inspired dishes to create a beautiful spread!
Whole Roasted Chicken with Pan Gravy
Ingredients
For the Whole Roasted Chicken:
- 3 ½ pound whole chicken
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 large onion cut into 1/8th
- 1 large lemon quartered lengthwise
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon pepper
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- ½ cup white wine *see notes for Whole30 friendly version
For the Pan Gravy:
- 1 ½ cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot flour
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves loosely chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves finely chopped
- Kosher salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Whole Roasted Chicken:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit and position the rack in the middle of the oven.
- For the garlic, cut ¼ inch from the top of the head, exposing the individual cloves of garlic.
- In the bottom of a cast iron skillet or oven safe skillet, scatter the onion, lemon and garlic. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with 1 ½ teaspoons of salt and pepper. Give it a gentle toss and push the contents to the side, making room for the chicken.
- Remove the chicken giblets from the cavity of the chicken and pat the outside dry.
- Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the thyme and rosemary. Place the chicken in the center of the skillet and drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, remaining 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper.
- Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.
- Be sure that the garlic is face down in the skillet. Transfer to the oven and roast, basting the chicken every 20 minutes. After 40 minutes, add the white wine to the bottom of the pan, baste the chicken and lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Return the chicken to the oven and continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 more minutes. The chicken should be golden brown and the juices run clear when you cut between the leg and thigh, (mine took exactly 1 hour total, but you chicken may need longer depending on how large your chicken is.)
- Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes while you prepare the gravy.
For the Pan Gravy:
- Discard the lemon rinds from the pan. Squeeze the cloves of garlic out of the head into the sauce in the pan.
- In a small bowl, whisk the chicken broth and arrowroot flour until well combined.
- Heat the pan over medium heat. While whisking the contents in the skillet, slowly pour in the arrowroot and broth mixture, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom. Bring the gravy to a simmer.
- Stir in the thyme and rosemary. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce has slightly thickened about 4 minutes.
- Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
- Remove the gravy from heat and transfer to serving bowl or gravy boat. Carve the chicken and serve with the gravy. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
HOLY SH!T. The Defined Dish never disappoints, but this was quite literally once of the best things I have made in a very long time from this site + the cookbooks. My husband and I could not stop talking about how good this was! This will forever be our Sunday night dinner. Thank you, Alex!!
*We served this with cauliflower mash + roasted brussels.
So happy you loved it so much, Lauren!!!! The perfect Sunday Supper! 🙂
We cooked two chickens in a roasting pan and then used the same roasting pan on our elongated middle burner to cook the drippings and gravy. Seriously delicious! If you also choose to double up on the chicken, you probably don’t need to double all of the other ingredients. We had a lot of onions and maybe a little more lemon than necessary. A thermometer is really helpful if you have two chickens.
I even had to make an emergency trip to daycare and couldn’t finish the last 20 min at 425′ and it turned out golden and delicious.
I’ll use this method in the future for roasting chickens. Some other recipes make this sound a lot more complicated than it should be.