I love roasted chicken – it reminds me of my childhood. It doesn’t hurt that chicken is also such a great source of lean protein. Unfortunately with work and life I usually don’t have the time to roast a chicken in the oven on weeknights (it wouldn’t be ready until like 9pm) so I do the next best thing: crockpot whole roasted chicken! With lemons and garlic stuffed under the skin and a tasty spice rub, it’s a delicious and super easy replacement for the traditional oven-roasted chicken. I also love that the chicken generally lasts us through a few dinners – I like to use the leftovers to make chicken tacos. Yum.
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken (I prefer to use an organic, free-range and antibiotic-free chicken from Trader Joe’s)
- 2 lemons
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 4 teaspoons salt (per recipe reviews, 2 tsp is better)
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
How to do it:
- Clean and rinse the chicken, remove the bag of giblets if it’s in the carcass
- Remove some of the skin from the chicken (this is optional). I like to leave on enough skin to stuff the lemons underneath but I don’t want excess fat while the chicken is cooking so I generally remove it from breast area, which is the side I place down in the crockpot
- Slice lemons into thin slices and stuff under the skin – you may have to use a knife to separate the skin from the meat so that you can get the lemons into all parts of the chicken
- Chop garlic cloves and stuff under skin with the lemons – I generally put some whole cloves and lemon slices in the chicken carcass as well
- Combine spices and salt in a bowl, mix together well, and then rub all over the chicken. Don’t be shy – you can not overdo it!
- Set your crockpot to 8 hours on low and let everything cook. You don’t need any added liquid, the natural juices from the chicken will provide plenty of liquid
- Serve and enjoy!
