Dutch Oven Grecian Chicken

Dutch Oven Grecian Chicken is a simple, easy, and crazy good whole roasted greek chicken full of lemon, garlic, and oregano flavor!

While our brother in law was in town recently, he tried to make as many meals with the family as he could fit in.

Our husband's family loves to cook big family dinners together- and this recipe is a spin off a good Grecian Chicken recipe our brother in law made for us one night.

Grecian chicken was immensely popular with his greek friends in Chicago where he went to law school- but the recipe usually involves taking a separated whole chicken and cooking it in a casserole dish with more liquid.

We changed it up so that the chicken cooks in a dutch oven- giving it crispy, good skin- and it requires a lot less effort!

This dutch oven grecian chicken is our new favorite way to slow roast chicken!

Kitchen notes

The only real work here is stuffing some lemons and garlic into the chicken and seasoning the bird up.

After that, toss it in the pan and cook for about an hour and a half- and you're done!

The chicken also gives off a good cooking liquid that is gravy like, and lemony.

The garlic also turns a good golden brown and has an good caramel flavor. We like to add a little of this to cous cous for an insanely good flavor!

We prefer using a chicken under 3 1/2 pounds – we feel they provide more flavor. Look for free range organic chicken if possible.

While butter doesn't seem like the proper Greek way (hello, olive oil!), every family we've eaten this dish wish from Greece uses butter for the flavor. We realize this is Americanized, and you can use either – but the butter gives a lovely richness to the chicken skin that we don't quite get with olive oil. use oil if you prefer it though!

Ingredients

• whole chicken
• 2 lemons, sliced into thin rounds
• ¾ cup garlic, peeled
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper
• 1-2 pats of butter, optional

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees / 190 c
2. Stuff 1/2 of one lemon into the chicken's cavity with 5-8 garlic cloves.
3. Generously salt and pepper chicken.
4. Add to dutch oven and throw in rest of lemon and garlic.
5. Sprinkle chicken with oregano.
6. If you like extra crispy chicken skin, add a pat or two of butter to the top.
7. Add lid and cook 1 1/2 hours, checking temp every 20 minutes after an hour. You want the temp to get to 160, and then remove the lidded dutch oven, as it will keep cooking to reach the safe internal temperature of 165 degrees for a chicken.
8. Let dutch oven sit for 10 minutes after removing from oven to allow for carryover cooking, and so the juices have a chance to rest.
9. Remove from pan, and carve!