This Amish chicken recipe is a delicious and easy dish that brings the flavors of traditional Amish cooking right to your home! With basic ingredients and simple preparation, this recipe offers tender, juicy chicken that’s baked to golden perfection. Amish baked chicken is a great go-to dish for any occasion, offering a deeply nourishing and flavorful meal.
What is Amish Chicken?
This baked chicken recipe is inspired by Amish cuisine. Amish recipes are known to be hearty, simple, and made with wholesome ingredients that are rooted in traditional farming and preserving practices. Amish cuisine is abundant in healthy recipes made with homegrown ingredients!
Wholesome Ingredients Inspired by Amish Culture
This recipe is made with just a few simple ingredients that are commonly cooked with in Amish cuisine:
Pasture Raised Chicken
It is common in Amish country to raise chickens on your land. This means Amish cuisine is typically made with healthy, pasture raised chicken. Pasture raised chicken is healthier than conventionally raised, being higher in nutrients and lower in toxins. The chickens have the opportunity to eat bugs and plants, get fresh sunlight, and get plenty of exercise! When possible, try to purchase pasture raised chicken, or raise your own!
Onion and Garlic Powder
The Amish are known to be masters at preserving, which is an important skill for a homesteading lifestyle. Garlic and onion powder are ingredients commonly found in Amish kitchens, as dehydrating these crops is a great method of preservation. These spices can add great flavor to so many dishes! Learn how to easily make your own garlic and onion powder in the oven in this video!
Dried Rosemary and Thyme
Another commonly preserved food, dried herbs, enables a homesteader to enjoy the delicious tastes of herbs all year round! Dried herbs are a common ingredient in Amish cuisine, adding great taste and aromas to delicious dishes.
Grass Fed Butter
Butter is an important part of Amish cuisine, as cooking with butter and lard are common among these farming communities. Highly processed vegetable oil is not something used in the traditional cooking practices of the Amish. I believe processed oils are terrible for our health and that “butter makes everything better”! There is evidense that pasture raised butter is beneficial for our health in many ways. (Source)
Why You Will Love This Recipe
Easy
This easy Amish recipe is on repeat in our home. One of my favorite weeknight meals to make is baked chicken, because it is so simple! After thawing a whole chicken, I simply add my seasonings along with melted butter, then throw it in the oven. A little while later, dinner is ready!
Healthy
Chicken meat from healthy, pasture raised chicken is a very nourishing food. This high protein meat offers a healthier fat content and more vitamin A than conventional chicken. (Source)
Pasture raised butter is also nourishing food, being rich in vitamins A, E, and K2, as well as high in healthy fats. (Source)
Delicious
It doesn’t get much better than juicy chicken with a flavorful and crispy, golden brown skin. The butter helps cook the skin to perfection, and the spices and herbs add rich flavors.
What to Serve With This Amish-Inspired Chicken
This easy recipe is so versatile, it can be served with many different side dishes.
A cucumber side salad is a great option for a lighter meal, or if you want something a little more filling you could enjoy potato salad or mashed potatoes on the side.
Soup is a great side dish to serve with baked chicken, like a creamy potato leek soup, or winter squash soup!
For something easy and delicious, try a side of green beans or roasted veggies!
Why Baked Chicken?
Baked chicken is cooked at a lower temperature than roasted chicken, at around 350 degrees. I have made many whole chickens in the oven, and I always get the best results by cooking chicken whole at 350. It allows for a crisp skin while also maintaining a tender and juicy meat.
Why Spatchcock the Chicken?
My favorite way to prepare a whole chicken gor baking in the oven is to spatchcock it, because I find that the chicken gets cooked more evenly and you get more crisp skin!
Use the Bones to Make Soup!
Don’t just throw away the bones of this chicken! It can be used to make a delicious and nutritious bone broth that can be used in soup recipes. You could also use leftover chicken to make a delicious chicken soup! Simply add the bones, some celery salt or celery seeds, bay leaves, peppercorns, and any other spices you like to a large stock pot or slow cooker with filtered water. After cooking on low for a long time (around 12-24 hours) you will have a rich chicken stock!
How to Make Amish Baked Chicken with Butter and Herbs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (preferably set to convection)
Spatchcock the Chicken
After thawing and thoroughly cleaning a whole chicken, place the chicken breast-side down on a cutting board.
With kitchen scissors or a sharp chef knife, cut all the way through the chicken from the tail to the neck, cutting along the side of the spine
Repeat this same process on the other side of the backbone, cutting through any remaining bone or cartilage until the backbone is completely removed.
Flip the chicken skin side up, then press down firmly until you hear a crack. This will break the breastplate and allow the chicken to flatten more.
Place chicken in a large baking dish, skin side up, and arrange the chicken thighs and wings neatly, exposing as much skin as possible.
Season the Chicken
Evenly sprinkle garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper over the chicken skin.
Gently pour melted butter over chicken.
With a clean hand, gently rub chicken to evenly distribute butter in any missing areas.
Bake the Chicken
Place chicken in center rack of the oven and bake for about 1-2 hours ( recipe cooking times depend on the weight of the chicken), or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees with a meat thermometer.
Enjoy!
Easy Amish Baked Chicken with Butter and Herbs
Equipment
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 sharp knife or kitchen scissors
- 1 large baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 1.5 tsp garlic powder
- 1.5 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground peppercorn
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (preferably set to convection)
Spatchcock the Chicken
- After thawing and thoroughly cleaning a whole chicken, place the chicken breast-side down on a cutting board.
- With kitchen scissors or a sharp chef knife, cut all the way through the chicken from the tail to the neck, cutting along the side of the spine
- Repeat this same process on the other side of the backbone, cutting through any remaining bone or cartilage until the backbone is completely removed. (Or you can leave the backbone in if you want, but the chicken won’t be as neat.)
- Flip the chicken skin side up, then press down firmly until you hear a crack. This will break the breastplate and allow the chicken to flatten more.
- Place chicken in a large baking dish, skin side up, and arrange the chicken thighs and wings neatly, exposing as much skin as possible.
Season the Chicken
- Evenly sprinkle garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper over the chicken skin.
- Gently pour melted butter over chicken.
- With a clean hand, gently rub chicken to evenly distribute butter in any missing areas.
Bake the Chicken
- Place chicken in center rack of the oven and bake for about 1-2 hours ( recipe cooking times depend on the weight of the chicken), or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees
- Enjoy!
