When it comes to getting the best bang for your buck, cooking an entire chicken—over the individual parts—gives you the most meat, best taste, and highest nutrients. Our favorite method to do this is by slow cooking it in the oven. Here, we will show you a step-by-step guide on exactly how to slow cook a whole chicken in the oven.
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The beauty of this slow roasted chicken recipe is how easy it is! Simply cook all day on a low oven temperature. At the end of the day, broil the chicken for a few minutes, and voila. An almost completely hands off way to produce an end product similar to a store-bought rotisserie chicken!
Bonus, you can turn the leftover chicken into other favorites like chicken salad and use your own homemade chicken stock to make soup. Cooking a whole chicken is a weekly rhythm in our home and has been a game changer to our weekly meal prep.
Why A Whole Chicken?
When I was a kid, I remember dousing dry and flavorless boneless, skinless chicken breast meat in so much ketchup to cover up all that the chicken was lacking. Now, our kids happily gobble up our juicy chicken always asking for “more crispy skin, please.”
Honestly, I can’t remember the last time we bought chicken in any other way than as the whole animal. There are many benefits to purchasing chicken in its whole form:
1. It’s cheaper. Quite often the per pound price of a whole chicken is significantly less than buying the individual cuts, like chicken breasts only. You can usually walk away with more chicken for less money this way.
2. More nutritious. When you cook a whole chicken, you get a significantly greater nutrient profile than when you have only selected cuts. Gelatin and collagen present in the bones and joints, the skin, and unique make up of both the white meat and dark meat give you a more complete and nutritious food than just eating individual cuts would.
3. All the broth. Broth is all the rage, and for good reason! There are so many benefits of regularly adding broth into your diet. I’ll go into more detail on this below.
4. No waste. When you cook a whole chicken, you can consume everything including the meat, chicken skin, and turn the bones into gelatin rich chicken broth, maximizing everything that chicken has to offer.
5. It tastes better. I think we can all agree that a boneless, skinless, chicken breast leaves something to be desired. But, when you cook a whole rotisserie style chicken, it is so much more moist and more flavorful.
The Benefits of Making Bone Broth When Cooking a Whole Chicken
Originally, when I began to learn about the benefits of adding “bone broth” to my diet, I was always told to cook the meat first, then make broth with the bones afterward. The result was OK. But it was not that flavorful and usually was a thin liquid instead of the thick, gelatinous broth that I was after.
At some point, I started making the broth right along with our slow cooker chicken. The result was completely different than the previous flavorless and thin broth. It was jiggly and thick, with a rich and flavorful taste.
The difference is because of more than just the meat. The connective tissues remain on the bones with all of the collagen and gelatin rich parts still attached that are often removed if only using bare bones.
There are so many benefits to including bone broth in your regular diet (from health.com):
- Amino acids help heal and build the lining of the digestive tract, are anti-inflammatory, and can calm the nervous system (glycine).
- A great source of gelatin and collagen helpful for healthy hair, skin, and nails.
- Contains vitamins A and K2
- A great source of minerals including calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, selenium, boron, and manganese.
Why Slow Cook a Whole Chicken?
After much experimentation, we have determined that slow cooking is by far our favorite method for cooking an easy whole chicken.
We used to make a roast chicken recipe that called for cooking it in the oven at a higher heat for a shorter amount of time. This resulted in a chicken that was more dried out. Slow cooking leaves the cooked meat extremely moist and fall-off-the-bone tender.
You can either slow cook a whole chicken in your oven or in a crock pot. When we purchased our AGA oven a few years ago, we switched to slow cooking chicken in the oven instead of the slow cooker. You can easily use the directions below for a crockpot whole chicken recipe instead of cooking it in the oven. Just place it on low in your slow cooker and follow the rest of the directions as is.
What To Do with All That Chicken?
Our favorite way to eat the cooked chicken is to immediately eat it for a meal right off the bone after it has been slow cooked. Then I debone the chicken, removing all of the meat to have on hand for future use.
The size of your chicken will dictate how much extra chicken you have to use in future meals. We like plenty of leftovers, so we always try to cook one very large chicken (6-7 lbs ) or two smaller one’s (3-4 lbs).
Extra shredded chicken is great for adding to tacos, pizzas, quesadillas, soups, casseroles, stir fry, or on a salad. It’s a great ready-to-go protein to accompany any quick meal. Shredded chicken is one of my favorite things to have on hand for easy meals on busy days!
How to Slow Cook a Whole Chicken in the Oven and Make Bone Broth
The perfect, easy recipe with simple ingredients for delicious and tender meat every time that can feed your family for several meals.
Ingredients:
1 Whole Chicken
1 tsp Sea Salt
½ tsp Pepper
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Onion Powder
Water
Directions:
1. Place chicken, breast side down, in the base of a large roasting pan or Dutch oven. We have a couple of Le Creuset Dutch Oven’s for this and love them!
2. Dry off your chicken with a towel until dry.
3. Cover your chicken with whatever spices or fresh herbs you desire (salt, black pepper, garlic, onion powder).
4. Fill your pot around half to two-thirds full of water.
5. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar.
6. If using a stove safe baking dish, heat pot on medium-high heat until the water begins to lightly boil.
7. Place the lid on dish and place in a 220°F oven for at least 8 hours. There is no exact cook time for slow cooking a whole chicken. We’ve done it for as short as 7-8 hours or as long as 14-16 hours.
Tip: Typically, we put the chicken in the oven before bed and eat it for lunch the next day. Alternatively, we’ll start it early in the morning to have for dinner.
8. An hour or so before you want to eat, remove from oven.
9. Before eating, remove the chicken from the bone broth and broil on a broiler safe baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, checking regularly, until the skin is crispy and lightly browned.
10. Serve the chicken and enjoy!
11. Strain the bone broth from the pot, pour into mason jars and store in refrigerator in an airtight container for later use.
Some of our favorite recipes for using that leftover cooked chicken:
Chicken SaladCreamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup with ChickenSimple Einkorn Pizza Dough
Butternut Squash Chili
How to Slow Cook a Whole Chicken in the Oven
Yield: Whole Chicken + ~4 Quarts Bone Broth
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours
Total Time: 8 hours 5 minutes
When it comes to getting the best bang for your buck, cooking an entire chicken—over the individual parts—gives you the most meat, best taste, and highest nutrients. Our favorite method to do this is by slow cooking it in the oven. Here, we will show you a step-by-step guide on exactly how to slow cook a whole chicken in the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 Whole Chicken
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
- ½ tsp Pepper
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- Water
Instructions
- Place chicken, breast side down, in the base of a large roasting pan or Dutch oven. We have a couple of Le Creuset Dutch Oven’s for this and love them!
- Dry off your chicken with a towel until dry.
- Cover your chicken with whatever spices or fresh herbs you desire (salt, black pepper, garlic, onion powder).
- Fill your pot around half to two-thirds full of water.
- Add a splash of apple cider vinegar.
- If using a stove safe baking dish, heat pot on medium-high heat until the water begins to lightly boil.
- Place the lid on dish and place in a 220°F oven for at least 8 hours. There is no exact cook time for slow cooking a whole chicken. We’ve done it for as short as 7-8 hours or as long as 14-16 hours. Typically, we put the chicken in the oven before bed and eat it for lunch the next day. Alternatively, we’ll start it early in the morning to have for dinner.
- An hour or so before you want to eat, remove from oven.
- Before eating, remove the chicken from the bone broth and broil on a broiler safe baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, checking regularly, until the skin is crispy and lightly browned.
- Serve the chicken and enjoy!
- Strain the bone broth from the pot, pour into mason jars and store in refrigerator in an airtight container for later use.
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