The Best Aga Roast Chicken

The best Aga roast chicken! Crispy skin, juicy meat & stuffed with garlic, lemon & herbs for ultimate flavour. Serve this as part of a roast dinner or for an easy mid week meal.

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A well roasted chicken will have the crispiest skin & the juiciest meat! This is a classic dish for a reason & cooked properly it really is hard to beat. Best served as the centre piece of a Sunday roast or as an easy mid week dinner.

I’ve been cooking with an Aga for a while now & this is by far the best way, that I’ve found, to cook a roast chicken. We’re going to be using both the baking & roasting oven for this recipe.

A longer, low temperature cook keeps the meat juicy and dries the skin out slightly (which helps with crisping up the skin) & a quick blast of high heat at the very end, makes the skin super crispy. If you’re cooking on a two oven Aga, there’s instructions for this as well.

What Type Of Chicken You’ll Need

For this recipe, you’ll need an untrussed chicken that weighs 1.5kg. Any giblets, neck, liver, etc. should be removed.

A chicken of this size will comfortably serve 4 people & using this method, can be cooked in an hour & a half, or less. If you’d prefer to cook a larger chicken, keep in mind that the cooking time will slightly longer. We’re cooking based on internal temperature so there’s no worry about overcooking the meat.

How To Know When Your Roast Chicken Is Cooked

The easiest & safest way to check that your roast chicken is cooked, is with a digital food probe. This is one of the best pieces of equipment to invest in for your kitchen & can be picked up relatively cheaply online.

The internal temperature of a fully cooked chicken is 75°c/165°f. But to avoid overcooking the meat, we take the chicken out of the oven at 73°c/163°f then let it rest for a good half an hour. During this time, the internal temperature will rise several degrees & will have gone past 75°c/165°f.

If you’re worried about undercooking meat, take the chicken to 75°c/165°f in the oven, it will still be pretty juicy!

To check that your chicken is cooked, take a temperature reading in the thickest part of a breast & thigh.

How To Roast A Chicken In An Aga

Step 1 – Leave Chicken At Room Temperature For 30 Minutes

The first step is to take the chicken out of the fridge, remove any string/packaging then sit it in a roasting tray, on a rack. Next, we dry the skin well with kitchen paper & leave the chicken at room temperature for 30 minutes. This is called tempering the meat & means that it will cook quicker & won’t dry out.

Step 2 – Season & Stuff The Chicken

Before the chicken goes into the Aga, we’re going to be stuffing the cavity with fresh herbs (rosemary & thyme), lemon slices & a bulb of garlic, cut in half. Then we coat the chicken in some veg oil & season generously with Maldon sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper.

Step 3 – Cook In The Baking Oven

The first section of cooking happens in the baking oven, on the bottom set of runners. A slower cook, keeps the meat moist whilst drying out the skin, so that it is ready to be crisped up.

We cook the chicken in the baking oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 65°c/150°f & we turn the tray round halfway through to ensure an even cook.

If you’re cooking in a two oven Aga, cook the chicken on the bottom set of runners in the roasting oven & place a cold plain shelf three runners above.

Step 4 – Crisp The Skin Up In The Roasting Oven

Next, we transfer the chicken to the centre of the roasting oven & cook for a further 10-15 minutes, at which point the skin will be golden brown & super crispy all over. The internal temperature of the chicken will be 73°c/163°f.

If you’re cooking in a two oven Aga, remove the cold plain shelf & move the chicken up 1 set of runners.

Step 5 – Resting

Once the chicken is cooked, it needs to rest for 30 minutes, loosely covered in foil. During this time, the internal temperature will rise a few degrees, taking it past 75°c/165°f & the meat will have had a chance to relax, redistributing the juices. This is the secret to super juicy chicken!

Step 6 – Carving

The final step is carving the chicken. To do this, cut the legs off, through the thigh joint, remove the wings & cut off the breasts (either cut these off the bone as whole breasts or in thin slices). A sharp carving knife & a carving fork will make carving a lot easier!

What To Serve With Roast Chicken

A roasted chicken is one of those meats that can be served with a whole load of things! Classically, it would be served as part of a roast dinner but you could also serve it in a sandwich, with chips, in pasta or even as part of a pie. The possibilities are almost endless!

If you’ve got a leftover chicken recipe that you’d like to see on the blog, let us know in the comments below!

Tips & Tricks For Cooking An Aga Roast Chicken

• Let the raw chicken sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking.
• Roast the chicken untrussed.
• Take the chicken out of the oven just before it is fully cooked, for the juiciest meat.
• Let the chicken rest for 30 minutes before carving.

Equipment Used

Please note that these are affiliate links & I may make a small commission if you make a purchase using these links, at no extra cost to you. For more information, click here.

• Digital Food Probe

Some Of Our Favourite Aga Recipes

• Step By Step Sourdough
• Overnight Focaccia
• Guinness Braised Short Rib Stew With Dumplings
• Toad In The Hole With Caramelised Onion Gravy
• Duck Fat Oven Chips
• The Best Yorkshire Puddings

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