You know when you have one of those moments of “well, like, duh!” because something you never considered before made perfect sense. Why didn’t I think of that moment. Well, that happened to me when I was hopping around on Julie of The Little Kitchen and I saw in her sidebar a recipe for ‘Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker‘. I kept going “that makes sense! Why haven’t I thought of this? It has to be so good! I have to make it!!”
This was one of the juiciest chickens I have ever had (other was beer can chicken- OMG!). It was so moist, flavorful, and cooked perfectly. Any rub on the chicken would work, even just salt and pepper with some lemons in the mix. This is more about technique, not about the ingredients. Don’t want sweet potatoes- fine… just throw some fingerlings in there. I think the biggest thing to consider is how long to cook it. I would not do this on a week day since I am away from home for 10 hours. This would just fall apart too much then. I suggest this on a nice weekend when you want to relax and do nothing or if you have errands up to your eyeballs and you have no time to cook and just have dinner (almost) appear in front of you.
Slow Cooker ‘Roast’ Chicken
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 onions
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 4-5 carrots
- 3 1/2 -4 1/2 pound whole roasting/frying chicken
- Preferred seasoning blend
Process
- Remove giblets bag from chicken to discard and rinse entirely. Pat chicken dry completely with paper towels.
- Cut all vegetables in large pieces, such as carrots in 2″ long pieces, and the onion in 8 large wedges.
- Rub the chicken with your selected rub to completely coat it.
- Place onions, carrots and sweet potatoes inside the slow cooker to create a layer on the bottom. Then put chicken on top of the vegetables.
- Set slow cooker for 6 hours. Check the internal temperature of the leg, if it is 160 degrees F then it is done. If you used a chicken with a pop up thermometer then remove the chicken when it has popped.
- If you crock pot is broiler safe (consult your product information) then put the entire crock pot into the oven for 4-5 minutes. If your crock pot is not broiler safe then carefully remove the chicken and place on a glass baking dish or a large baking sheet. Allow the chicken to rest for 5-10 minutes prior to cutting.