As many of you know, I LOVE MY CROCK POT! I love being able to throw a meal together in the morning, and a few hours later, or even better, at the end of the day, we have our main meal finished and ready to eat. I also love that in the summer I don’t have to heat up the whole house using the oven. I found a similar post about using the crock pot to cook a whole chicken. But to be honest, I had a hard time getting the chicken to come out the way I wanted it. I found that it was too dry or the meat stuck to the bottom of the crock. So after doing several trial runs, I have figured out the best way for our household. Here is how I cook a whole chicken in the crock pot.
The first thing I do is bust out the foil. Weird, right? I take 5 small pieces of foil and make 5 balls. Place them in the bottom of the crock pot. These are going to be your “baking rack” for your chicken.
Next I take my thawed chicken and rinse the chicken off and pat it dry. I place the chicken on top of the foil balls inside the crock pot. Then I take about 4 tablespoons of butter and place them on top of the chicken. You can also fill the cavity of the bird with onions and herbs if you want to add a little more flavor. Then season the bird. I usually just use salt and pepper, but if you have a seasoning you like to use, go ahead and use it. Now add your fluid. I use 1 cup of chicken stock and 1/2 cup of water. This is what I have found the best way to make the chicken nice and moist. The down side is that the skin does not crisp up. So if you are a die hard chicken skin lover, this may not be the recipe for you. Our family would rather moist chicken rather than crispy skin. (They also like their skin fried… ) I turn my crock pot on high and the chicken will be ready in about 4 hours. You can cook it on low for 7-8 hours. (depending on the size of your chicken) I have cooked the chicken longer in the crock pot and because of the moisture, the chicken has never been dry. Use a thermometer to make sure the chicken is cooked all the way. The internal temp. should be between 165-180 degrees.
Be careful removing the chicken. We always have issues with it trying to fall apart as we remove it. The meat is so moist and tender. You can enjoy the chicken just as it is, or you can make several meals out of it. That is what we usually do. I can usually get about 3 meals out of one chicken. (family of 4) The key to making a meat stretch over several meals is to have plenty of sides! Please excuse the picture. Tomithy started carving the bird before I realized that I didn’t take a picture yet. I hope you enjoy the recipe.
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