Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

Every single time I cook a whole chicken in the oven, I never cook it long enough and end up having everything else ready but not the chicken. Annoying and irritating to say the least. So when I got a whole chicken on sale recently I decided that when the time came to cook it, I was going to do it in the slow cooker.

I found this recipe here: http://www.thelittlekitchen.net/whole-chicken-in-a-slow-cooker/ and I modified the ever living crap out of it. What I'm going to post is what I actually did. I can't say if the original recipe is good or not, but I can say that what I did is absolutely amazing and I will do it again.

1 whole chicken
1 onion, diced
4 carrots, peeled and cut into inch-long halves/quarters
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Put onion and carrots in the bottom of the slow cooker.

2. Rinse chicken in water (clean insides if necessary), pat dry with paper towel. Put the rub all over the outside of the chicken.

3. Place chicken on top of onions and carrots. Cover and cook on low for 4-8 hours (I cooked mine for 6 and the leg meat was falling off the bone).

4. Transfer chicken to a baking dish and broil in the oven for 5 minutes to crisp up the skin. Allow chicken to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Herb and Spice Chicken

We found this recipe in the December 2014 issue of Today's Parent magazine, decided to make it today and absolutely LOVED it.

2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 chicken legs (or 6 thighs)
1 500g bag baby red potatoes, scrubbed clean
4 large carrots, peeled and chopped.

1. Stir brown sugar with salt, oregano, paprika, garlic and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Rub mixture all over chicken, pressing gently so spices stick to skin.

2. Arrange potatoes and carrots in a single layer in slow cooker. Place chicken on top of vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Let chicken stand at room temp for 10 minutes before serving with vegetables.

NOTES: I don't have kosher salt, so I used regular table salt and only used maybe 1 tsp. I did not have baby red potatoes, so I used 3 regular potatoes, peeled and cut into baby-potato sized pieces. I also did not have 4 carrots left, so I used what I had, which was 2. And finally, we prefer a crispier skin on our chicken, so Alex took the tip in the book and put the chicken under the broiler for about 5 minutes after it was done in the slow cooker.