How to Cook a Stuffed Whole Chicken

How to cook a stuffed whole chicken in Instant Pot with vegetables, chicken baked in the oven at 350 in a Dutch Oven or smoked to tender and delicious is here. A healthy dinner we love.

How Long to Cook a Whole Stuffed Chicken per Pound

If you are baking in the oven at 350 degrees F. you are looking at approximately 20-25 minutes per pound. In a pressure cooker it is about half that time. The difference between the two is that you won’t get crispy skin with the faster cook time (but it is insanely tender).

Recently we shared how long to cook a whole chicken in a variety of ways here. Those didn’t have anything inside the cavity but that doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t change the temperature or timing needed no matter what your baking method of choice is. There are those that work best though depending on what you have inside.

I will say that I am not a huge fan of stuffing inside a whole chicken, it’s a texture thing. I will discuss that option below though because I know many of you are like that is the way to go. 😉 To each their own friends, no judgement here. I’ll say that we cook poultry whole quite a bit. It’s cheaper and once you get the hang of it the moisture is so much better left whole.

Stuffed Whole Chicken Temperature

We will go over how to cook a whole chicken in the oven and Instant Pot. The first you could call it the “old fashioned way” as that is how your Grandmother did it and likely your Mom too, in a roasting pan. I know that is the only way I was shown growing up and had to figure out the others as I had my own kids. It doesn’t matter which you choose it should be 165F. when done, no less.

How to Cook a Stuffed Whole Chicken in the Oven

At 350 you’re looking at 1 hour and 20 minutes or so this way. Whether soak in whole chicken brine, add stuffing or add head of garlic, rosemary, thyme and slices of lemon it is the same timing. The biggest difference in whether it takes longer would be how large it is. All will be bone-in of course but I don’t like anything larger than about 4 lbs.

How to Cook Instant Pot Stuffed Whole Chicken

Especially if you are using a pressure cooker there will be size constraints. Organic, cage free typically comes smaller and is our preference overall. The birds may be smaller but there is less fat so the overall meat content remains the same, believe me there is a difference. If you want to make Instant Pot whole chicken you stuff, set on the trivet and let the YUM cook in just about 1 hour this way!

What to Stuff Whole Chicken With

Ok so let’s think about your favorite flavors when it comes to savory dishes for a minute. For us roasted garlic is #1 on the top of the list no matter what we make. If that is a no go for y’all maybe you prefer citrus and might say lemons or oranges. Go from there and then consider what herbs would pair well with that.

Another thing to consider is how you are cooking it. For Dutch Oven whole chicken they are going to brown so it isn’t just something that will flavor the meat but you could eat them after too. You can see here that in this case onions, carrots and celery work well with our garlic head. Let’s talk about a few other options;

And then we can talk about wrapping the outside in YUM too with our Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken, oh yes we did!!

Stuffed Roast Chicken Recipe with Vegetables

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, mix spices, herbs, salt and pepper, and a bit of olive oil to make a sort of paste out of it. Rinse inside and out, dry with napkins so skin is nice and dry.
• Rub with of oil and spice paste on the skin.
• Stuff inside cavity with a head of garlic with top cut off, a lemon cut into 4ths, onion quartered.
• Leave on pan covered, for half an hour or an hour to marinate it in the fridge to marinate for a bit (if desired)
• Transfer coated chicken to a room temp. baking dish and cover the top with foil.
• Roast the chicken for 40 minutes covered.
• Then remove the foil and bake the chicken for another 40 minutes cook time uncovered to brown.
• Check the temperature inside the breast or thigh
  • The finished roasted stuffed chicken should register 165 degrees F with a meat thermometer in the thickest part to be safe to eat. Remove and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing

Whole Chicken Stuffed with Stuffing

Ok so if you are a must when it comes to adding Thanksgiving stuffing into your smaller bird I get it, my Mom was too. I would only do this and bake in the oven or it will get super mushy any other way. If you do have extras you could surround it as well so that when you take the foil off it can brown and soak up the broth in the pan.

Stuffed Chicken Recipes

Like I said you cannot add anything if you are making a frozen whole chicken in air fryer or cooked another way yet still rock hard. I will say there are other ways to get this done though. We have gone over stovetop, baked and pressure cooked. Here are a few others you can try once it is prepped and filled;

• You could easily follow our air fryer whole chicken instructions if you love really crispy skin like we do. This would be thawed beforehand and works well stuffed.
• Same goes for whole chicken in a Crockpot, but that won’t get the skin crunchy at all.
• If you had a way to keep the chicken upside down with the cavity facing upward you could make our fried whole chicken directions too.

We have done a baked stuffed chicken breast recipe but honestly that takes a whole lot more prep work with cream cheese and herbs inside. And not as healthy either…..

Instant Pot Stuffed Whole Chicken

We do love pressure cooking though so those are the directions in the recipe card below. If you want the outsides crispy you can use your Foodi lid to air crisp, or put it in the oven sprayed with olive oil on top, on broil setting for a few minutes.

• Mix spices and olive oil in a bowl. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the it on the inside and out with olive oil and spice marinade. Wash the lemons and cut into quarters. Cut the head of garlic in half crosswise.
• Put the lemons and garlic inside the chicken. Tie off the chicken drumsticks with a cooking string. Put the chicken top of a trivet in your pot or on top of 2 halved potatoes to keep it off the bottom. Pour the broth into the pot as well.
• Close the lid and set the pressure cooker to 25 minutes (or about 6 minutes per lb). After the beep, leave the chicken inside the instant pot for another 15 minutes.
• Then gently release the pressure and remove. Put it in a preheated oven on the broil setting for a few minutes so it browns on top