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One of my favorite ways to prepare chicken is to to slow cook a chicken in the Crock-Pot. If you haven’t roasted a chicken in your Crock-Pot yet… try it!
Not only is slow cooker chicken the easiest and least expensive way I’ve found to prepare it, but you get a couple quarts of chicken broth from it too! It is great on a busy day (every day) and an easy dinner meal.
Ingredients and Tools
- a whole chicken (usually available for a reasonable price for even organic)
- 1 TBSP butter
- favorite herbs and spices (I add 1 tsp garlic granules or powder, 1 tsp sea salt, and about ½ tsp each of basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary)
- Crock-Pot (here’s the one I have)
See below the recipe for instructions on making broth from the bones and a few slow cooker chicken variations
Slow Cook a Whole Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken and make sure innards are removed.
- Put the butter or coconut oil in the bottom of the Crock-Pot and turn it on low.
- Once butter melts, put chicken in Crock-Pot (putting breast-down will make it cook faster).
- Sprinkle with the spices.
- Put the lid on and cook on low for 7-8 hours or until completely cooked.
Notes
Nutrition
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The chicken goes great with roasted brussel sprouts!
How to Make Broth
- Remove the chicken and pull the meat off the bones, but leave all the juices in the Crock-Pot.
- Put the chicken bones back in the Crock-Pot and add 1 small chopped onion, 2 ribs of celery, 1 chopped carrot, and a little more sea salt.
- Add 2-3 quarts of water (depending on what your slow cooker will hold).
- Cook on low overnight.
- Strain bones and vegetables out.
- Use within 3 days or freeze for later use.
Note: This makes a thick broth which can be frozen in ice cube trays for “instant” chicken broth when needed in recipes. Also, view my in-depth broth tutorial here.
Some other ideas for using your whole roasted chicken:
- Put a small colander on top of the chicken when almost done cooking and fill with veggies. It will steam them so you have the whole meal ready to serve.
- For the last few hours, put some medium sized sweet potatoes on top of the chicken and put the lid back on. Both will be ready for dinner.
- After making the broth, remove the bones, add some chicken back in along with a few cups of favorite veggies and you have an easy chicken soup (with tons of nutrients)
How do you cook a chicken? Do you make broth too? What’s your secret? Share below!
Hello! Great post.
I’m new to slow cooking and I had a question about this- can you put a frozen chicken in there? Or should I thaw the chicken first and then slow cook?
Thanks!
meg
You could use a whole chicken, just will take a couple hours longer, and you’d definitely need it on the lowest setting…
Do you add water to the chicken while it is cooking?
You actually don’t need it but can if you aren’t comfortable using the crock pot with dry heat.
If I were to add water how much should I add? Should it be just enough to cover the bottom of the crock pot or more?
It’s really up to you. You’ll just have a more dilute stock. You could start with just enough to cover the bottom, and add more if you wish. Let us know how it turns out!
Can I do two chickens (I have 6 kids) on one large pot, or should I use two crock pots?
If you have it, I’d use two, but you might be able to fit both in a really big pot…
I am addicted to bone broth! I save all my bones, skin and meat scraps and veggie scraps (mostly onion,carrot and celery) in the freezer and when I have a crockpot full I throw it all together and let it cook on low for a day or so (depends on how big the bones are) This is really economical, since it’s all stuff that would have ended up in the trash anyway, not to mention it saves us (body and wallet!) from buying “chicken flavored soy water.”
Thanks for the tip. I have tried cooking the chicken in the crock pot but breast side up. It looked very white and not as pretty as the one in your photo. Is that because yours is breast side down? I am currently making chicken stock in the crock pot as I am writing this in the usual fashion. But I do follow the Nourishing Traditions recipe also of adding 1/2 cup of vinegar and letting that sit for an hour to help extract as much calcium from the bones.
thanks for sharing. I love your recipes. I am going on a grain free trial. It has been day 3 and amazingly, I have had a burst of energy today. I sure hope it continues.
Ester
when the chicken is done pop it under the grill for 10mins each side. I do this to mine and it looks like the one in the photo!
H’mm . I will have to try that.
I do it much the way you do, except in Nourishing Traditions fashion I add a splash of vinegar (to help leach calcium out of the bones) and cook the stock for at least 2 days.
Cathy I am trying to do the same receipe as you are talking about I could not afford the book Nourishing Traditions and was wondering if you could help me on how to make this broth. I have been sick for 34 years and I have read to heal my leaky gut I need to have lots of chicken soup and chicken stock. My name is also Kathy. God bless and thanks again.
As much as I have used my crock pot, I have never cooked a whole chicken in it. You give me a reason to try it now. Great pictures and I really like your extra bits of advice that you throw in for free too.
Thank you SO MUCH for this! I will probably be trying all the variations that you suggested!
This is perfect timing! I just bought ten whole chickens for my freezer from a local farmer, and I kept one out to fix this week. I can’t wait to have some slow-cooked chicken for dinner!