Simple Whole Roasted Chicken

A simple whole roasted chicken is the perfect recipe for an elegant dinner, or just meal-prep for the week. With few ingredients (and without lemon!), you can have a delicious and easy dinner.

Easy Whole Roasted Chicken

A roast chicken is a beautiful thing. It can be made as a cozy dinner for family, or as a meal-prep for lunches the rest of the week. Some (Ina Garten & Glamour Magazine) even say it’s the way to a proposal. Apparently it’s what worked for Meghan Markle, who became engaged to Prince Harry after an evening of cooking roast chicken. Unfortunately for those on a migraine diet, lemon and onion are a roast chicken staple. But what’s a migraineur to do? Never get engaged?!

My "Anyone-Can-Cook" Chicken

I decided I would set out to create my own recipe that had nothing to do with engagements. In fact, I was inspired by the movie Ratatouille. If you haven’t seen this movie and you love food, you should watch it immediately. Remy, a French rat, dreams of being a chef. He mixes and matches flavors that ordinary rats could never discern. The overall moral of the story is that “anyone can cook”, including rats! So never judge a book by it’s cover, especially if you see a rodent in your kitchen. It could just be preparing it’s mise-en-place.

All joking aside, I think it’s a really important concept to remember. There are many things you can do, as long as you set your mind to it. As fancy and complicated as a roast chicken can seem, it’s surprisingly easy to make even when you’re not feeling the best. It’s also a wonderful, easy dish for those nights where you’ve scheduled company and you just don’t feel up to it. I mean, just look at my pictures. The chicken is upside down for crying out loud. It’s been an exhausting week, but I still managed to roast a chicken. And it turned out delicious even if it was cooked upside down.

Simple Ingredients

Previously I had this recipe with a few ingredients, like lemongrass, but I wanted to update it to make it easy for whatever you have on hand. I make this recipe with so many variations. Sometimes I use olive oil (for dairy free) other times I cover it in butter...like the below.

I actually wouldn't recommend this much butter, but I had girlfriends over for a cooking class on how to roast a chicken and they used the entire pat of butter I had set out our class. C'est la vie! 

This past week, I tried to conserve my garlic so I wouldn't have to run to the grocery store with COVID-19 still around and our lockdown in full force. So I used shallots! But if you have garlic and no shallots, do that instead. This can really be made your own recipe. 

Roast Chicken without Lemon

Because lemon and onion are higher in tyramine, and lemon can be a histamine liberator, they’re both on the avoid list for the Heal Your Headache diet. There are ways to incorporate a similar flavor while using safe ingredients and I found that lemongrass and lemon thyme, were wonderful ways to add a light citrus flavor. If you can’t find lemon thyme, you can use regular fresh thyme. I have found lemon thyme is pretty prevalent in some of the grocery stores at the moment. Just don’t skip making the sauce, because it’s absolutely delicious. 

Here's a tip - store your herbs in some water in the fridge. They'll last you much longer than out on the counter or wrapped up in plastic in the fridge.

Just for reference, here is how your chicken should look. 🙂

This post was originally published March 28, 2018, but has been updated April 2020 with fewer ingredients and new pictures.

You can use this pulled chicken in the following recipes:

Chicken Taquitos
Chicken and Rice Soup
Chicken Sandwiches

For more chicken recipes:

Honey Garlic Chicken
Chicken Tinga Tacos
Creamy Rosemary Chicken
And more...