Meal Prep 101: Baking a Whole Chicken

My mother meal prepped before meal prepping was a cool mom thing to do. Back then I had no idea that’s what she was doing. It wasn’t trendy. In fact, it’s the most old fashioned thing I can remember her doing: baking a whole chicken dinner on Sundays.

Now I look back and the strategy involved is clear to me, although I don’t think she would have called it meal prepping at that time either. It’s also one of the cooking habits I picked up from her that I use the most. Baking a chicken or turkey on the weekend to enjoy a delicious feast and either freeze or use the already-cooked chicken meat in another few meals is way less daunting than it may seem. And the endless possibilities of left over meals are equally fantastic without feeling like you’re eating the same leftovers for days!

I’ll post my easy soup, pot pie, and stir fry recipes soon, but for now, this is about the showstopper: how to bake a whole chicken so that you can use the carcass for homemade stock and the meat in other recipes according to your own meal planning. You can use this same process with a small turkey, or a split chicken or turkey breast. If you aren’t going to be making stock from the skin and bones, you can even follow this recipe with boneless breast meat for an even quicker meal prep.

Before we get to the poultry, let’s talk about the pan to bake it in. If you are cooking a large whole bird, chicken or turkey, a roasting pan with a rack to keep the bird from sitting in its own juices is important. If you don’t have a rack, you can layer the bottom of the pan with halved onions and potatoes to create a layer for the bird to sit on. If you are using just a split breast, and especially if you are using boneless meat, you can skip the roasting pan altogether and lay the meat right into a glass baking dish that fits the meat with a little bit of room for the juice to collect. 

If you’re looking for the tastiest, crispiest skin on your chicken, and you aren’t worried about the fat content in your dish, go ahead and rub butter on and under (yes, under!) the skin of your bird. My mother never did this when I was growing up, so the first time I saw a friend do this to her chicken I thought she was crazy. Though I have to admit, it was delicious! I definitely do this now on Thanksgiving, but on a regular Sunday, especially if time is a factor in your cooking plan, you can go ahead and skip the butter and simply pour a healthy amount of olive oil to cover the surface of your bird. Generously season the meat with at least salt, pepper, and dried oregano. You also can add rosemary or thyme if you like and have those dried (or fresh) herbs on hand. 

Around the pan itself as well as in the cavity of the bird, add large chunks (think halves or quarters) of onion and carrots, as well as a few cloves of garlic. You can also add a quartered apple for sweetness or even a lemon for a citrus flair. I added a lemon to the pan when I recently baked a turkey breast, and the gravy from the drippings had an awesome lemony twist to it that was unusual, but delicious! If you do use a lemon and you also make a stock, don’t include the lemon in the stock pot. The rind becomes bitter and that’s not a flavor you want to encourage in your broth. 

Now we are ready to bake! Timing is dependent entirely on the size of the bird. Some recipes call for you to start the oven at a higher temperature of 450 to seal in the juices and then drop the temperature to 350 to finish the bake, but for smaller birds and especially split breasts or boneless, I leave the oven simply at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the entire cook time. Sometimes your poultry comes with a self timer embedded in the meat, and this is great, but they are known to be unreliable so you want to know how to check if your chicken or turkey is done on your own: it should reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit with a trusty meat thermometer. Without a thermometer you can tell that the chicken is done when you cut into a thick part of the meat and the juices run clear, not bloody, and the meat inside is not pink. Keep in mind that while you do not want to eat raw poultry, when you are meal prepping, you do not want to overcook your meat either. You will most likely be reheating (which is a little extra cooking) or actually continuing to cook the meat in your next recipe, so you want to be mindful of checking for doneness and not letting this cook time get away from you. This website lists a variety of cooking times depending on if you are baking a whole chicken, turkey, or turkey breast. 

The next sometimes debatable question is to baste or not to baste. If you are cooking boneless chicken breast or a small split chicken or turkey breast and the cook time is under an hour, you probably don’t need to baste to keep the meat moist. I personally like to baste anything that has a bone in it, but not very often, because it does let the heat out of the oven. You can use a turkey baster, but a large spoon works just fine. Every 30 minutes or so, take the bird out of the oven and spoon the liquid from the bottom of the pan over the entire surface of the bird a few times. If there is not enough liquid the first time it is time to baste, you can add a little hot water to the bottom of the pan to mix with the drippings. This will help keep everything moist from top to bottom!

Once the meat is fully cooked, transfer your bird to a plate or dish that has enough depth to collect some of the juices that will run out of it, and cover it with foil for ten to fifteen minutes to let the meat “rest.” But you won’t be resting. This is your time to scrape that baking pan for all of the delicious goodness to either make a gravy or add to the stock pot. Even if you are doing neither of those things, this also helps with cleanup! Simply add a little boiling water to the bottom of the pan and use a wooden spoon to scrape up all of the stuck-on bits of delicious goodness. (Seriously – making a gravy is not scary – you can make a quick one without even using a fat separator. And it is such a treat with a smashed red potato.) 

After the bird takes its nap, separate the meat from the bone. When I’m making a stock after, I’m not too picky about how much meat is left on the bone because it won’t be going to waste, it will be adding to the flavor. It takes time to master how to beautifully carve a turkey or chicken. Here’s a great video that shows you how to separate the breast from the bone, whether you have a split breast or a whole bird. Add the bones, skin, and soggy vegetables from the pan to the stock pot, and pack up the meat not going straight to the table to be stored in the fridge or freezer for another meal. 

And there you have it! Winner, winner, chicken (or turkey) dinner – with leftovers for your meal prep!