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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!
Trying slow cooked chicken for the very first time. After tasting the one my sister in law made, I just had to try it for myself. So many fantastic variations I would love to try and most certainly will eventually. That’s extremely cheap for a chicken, here in Australia you’d be lucky to get a decent sized chook for under $15. Can I add the veggies and water while the chicken is cooking or is that more for the flavour of the broth.
Thanks in advance 🙂 x
Darlin I get cooked ones for $9 and to buy a whole chicken 2.5 kg I got mine for $6.50 at Coles not reduced to clear or anything that’s the everyday price chickens cheap as here, I’m in Thornton, nsw, Australia
I love making everything chicken in the slow cooker never dry always so yummy and moist
Keep the gorgeous recipes coming wellness Mama ????
Take care Melody
No water is needed? I’ve always assumed with a crockpot a chicken would need to be submerged, but shows my lack of understanding of proper use of a slow cooker. The main reason I’m making this is for bone soup. It may not sound tasty, but making it for my joints. Leftover chicken is a bonus by-product to be split between myself and my dog.
I just found this recipe and can’t wait to try it. We have a gas stove and I hate using it in the summer. So any recipe in the crock pot I love. Really looking forward to trying this today. Hope it turns out as good as yours.
Cool! Let us know how it turns out!
Just found your chicken crock pot recipe online. I’m eager to try it tomorrow.
I’ve read cooking chickens or turkeys in a slow cooker is unsafe as the low heat allows bacteria to grow I the cavity. Do you worry about that? One such site that makes this claim is https://www.thespruceeats.com/three-ingredient-crockpot-turkey-483414
I’ve never heard of that before. I’ve been cooking whole chicken in the crock pot for 20 years and never had any problems. I cook beef roasts, deer meat, chicken breasts, all kinds of stuff and everything is fine. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Wow, I can’t believe you can buy a whole organic chicken for that price!!!! Here in the UK a medium sized organic chicken (1.5kg-ish) cost about £15 which is roughly $24… So in my family roast chicken is a treat!
Should we remove the skin as I heard toxins are stored in fat and skin of the chicken
I forgot to fill my propane tank before it ran dry, so I’m on day 3 of having no heat other than a couple space heaters. I planned on roasting 2 chickens today but cannot use my gas oven, so I wondered if someone had a good recipe for a slow cooker chicken. Yours sounded the best so I tried it. I used herbs I had on hand- thyme, oregano, and rosemary, sprinkled salt and pepper on top, used a little coconut oil on the bottom of pot but ended up adding a half cup of chicken stock since there was some in the fridge. I chopped up some carrots and onions that I had, threw in 2 whole jalapenos, and stuffed the cavity with some onion, thyme and a half of a lemon. Cooked it on low for 8 hours. I decided just to turn it into a soup and it rocks!!! Thanks so much for this great recipe !
I am cooking my first chicken in the crock pot right now and my kitchen smells so wonderful!! I cant wait to make my first batch of bone broth tonight!! Thank yo so much for sharing this!!
Could you use a pressure cooker?
I haven’t tried honestly but I think there are recipes online for how to do it.
I cook chicken in the pressure pot often. It’s my favorite way, even if it is a lot of work. I do cut up the chicken first, though (and remove the skin except for the wings). I cook the chicken, de-bone it, and make chicken vegetable soup. Then I put it in freezer-safe, pint Ball wide mouth canning jars for healthy meals later. I’m single so this is a good way to have healthy food in the freezer for times I don’t want to really cook, which is a lot. I especially enjoy these if I get the flu or something and need some home made chicken soup.
I also make a home made soup with ground beef, but I don’t usually use the pressure cooker for that. I use the crock pot for that. I brown the meat in the skillet before making the soup in the crock pot. I try to always have a few of those in the freezer, too.