Roasting a Chicken in the Slow Cooker

As everyone already knows, I love having chicken broth around to cook with.  Well, this requires cooking a chicken from time to time (at least once a month). Sometimes, it’s too hot to roast a chicken in the oven, especially when your oven heats up the whole house even when your AC is working, which it isn’t, which isn’t fun.  I have my hot face on.

I also bought a fresh chicken, which needs to be cooked basically right away.  Fresh chicken is chicken that was just slau… um… harvested (to put it nicely) and hasn’t been frozen at all yet.  I’ve only ever had frozen chicken, just because it’s easier to buy, tick in the freezer and thaw when I know I’m going to have time to cook it.  Since I hadn’t had a fresh one before, when the opportunity came about, I had to take it.

I’ve cooked pork shoulder and beef roast in the crock pot before and don’t get me wrong, I’ve cooked plenty of chicken pieces in

Whole Bird in the Crock Pot

liquid in the crock pot, but did you know that you can roast it in the crock pot?

The skin doesn’t get quite as crispy as it would in the oven, but I’m ok with that since it made dinner without having to turn the oven on.  If it was a problem, I could have put it in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up without having to heat the whole house. Hello, Salad and Chicken.

Basically, you just put 1/4 of liquid in the crock pot, season the chicken however you like, put the lid on and cook for 5 hours on low (or until it’s cooked through).  Luckily, my crock pot has a timer to switch to “Keep Warm,” so I was able to come home to a coolish house and a cooked dinner.   This time, I seasoned it with Dijon mustard, garlic, salt, pepper and tarragon.  Mix all that together and rub all over the chicken before putting it in the crock pot.  The recipe is based on a Rachel Ray recipe, but I can’t find the link right now – I like to give credit when it’s due, so if you know the link, let me know!

The chicken creates it’s own gravy while it cooks and you really only have to reduce it down a bit to make it the right consistency.  Or you could do like me and make a gravy by cooking the drippings with roux, cook up some squash, green peppers and onions with rice, gravy and chicken.  Your Mom and Sister will really appreciate having dinner delivered, promise. 😉  It’s also why I don’t have any pictures post cooking, it was all gone by the time I thought of taking one.  You can bet that the bones are already in the crock pot again simmering away for some broth.
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