This is one dinner you won’t have to worry about while it’s cooking! With just a little prep, this Ranch Oven-Baked Whole Chicken is juicy and delicious.
Oven-Baked Ranch Chicken
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We are loving cooking with whole chickens lately! They are very affordable at the grocery store (usually around $1/pound, or less), and so simple to pop in the oven! Not to mention all the leftovers… yum…
Since our son is dousing everything in ranch dressing right now (all pre-school kids go through this phase, right?), I decided to do something with ranch on purpose, instead of ending up with the ranch as an afterthought. So I doused this whole chicken with a packet of ranch dressing!
And then I stuck it in the oven.
And then I walked away until it was done.
Ok, actually, I stuck around for the first 20 minutes it was cooking. I like to start whole chickens (and whole turkeys) on a really high heat to sear the outside of the bird. That helps to keep all the natural juices from the meat inside, instead of leaking out into your pan. After the first 20 minutes of cooking really hot, I’ll add an aluminum foil triangle over the chicken breast to keep the meat from drying out and the skin from burning while it finishes cooking. (See the recipe card below for more details.)
How to Carve a Whole Chicken
But then what do you do with a whole chicken when it comes out of the oven?
First, you let it cool a little bit, enough so you don’t burn your fingers when you handle it.
Then you carve it, just like you would carve a turkey!
Enjoy!
Free Printable to Help Know When Your Chicken is Done
It can be hard to tell when chicken is fully cooked. Get our best tips, and grab the free printable cheat sheet to keep handy in your kitchen so you never have under-cooked chicken again!
3 Ways to Take the Fear Out of This Recipe
- How to Store a Whole Chicken
- How to Thaw a Whole Chicken
- What’s That Stuff Inside My Turkey? (the same stuff is inside your chicken!)
3 More Recipes to Try
Printable Recipe Card for Oven-Baked Ranch Chicken
Oven-Baked Ranch Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion cut into 3-4 pieces
- 1/2 apple cut into 3-4 pieces
- 1 cup water
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 Tablespoons canola oil or vegetable oil
- 1 3- ounce packet ranch dressing mix
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. (Yes, 500 degrees. Trust me!)
- Place onion, apple, and water into a microwave-safe bowl. (I like using these measuring cups.) Microwave on high for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, remove the giblets from the chicken.
- Place the chicken on a rack inside a roasting pan, and liberally brush the chicken with canola oil.
- Fold a length of aluminum foil into a triangle shape, and mold the foil to the chicken breast (with the tip of the triangle pointing toward the legs).
- Carefully remove the foil and brush the "<g class="gr_ gr_200 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="200" data-gr-id="200">down side</g>" of the foil with canola oil. Set the foil triangle aside, being sure to keep the shape.
- When the microwave is done, use tongs to carefully place the onion and apple inside the chicken's cavity.
- Sprinkle the ranch packet over the entire surface of the chicken.
- Place the chicken in the hot oven and cook at 500 degrees for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees.
- Gently place the foil triangle over the chicken breast.
- Place a probe-style meat thermometer in the center of one chicken breast, through the foil.
- Place the chicken back into the oven (do not wait for the oven to cool down to 350 degrees).
- Let the chicken cook until the internal temperature of the chicken breast reaches at least 165 degrees F (about 1-1/2 to 2 hours total cooking time).
- If you notice that the tops of the wings or legs are starting to get burnt, you can cover them with additional strips of aluminum foil.
- Let the chicken rest (and cool) for about 5 minutes before carving.
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