Whole Chicken in a Crockpot

It really doesn't get much easier than this. Today, I cooked an entire chicken in a crockpot.



I got the recipe (really, a method) from The Happy Housewife.

Here are the steps I took:

1. Cut up a medium yellow onion into slices. Place in bottom of crock pot. (This step was an idea I saw on another website.)
2. Remove whole chicken from its bag. 
3. Throw away bag of innards from inside the chicken. 
4. Rinse chicken with water.
5. Put chicken in crock pot. 
6. Pat the top of chicken dry with a paper towel. 
7. Sprinkle generously with spices. I used Zehnder's chicken seasoning, Montreal chicken seasoning,  cayenne pepper, and minced garlic.
8. Turn crock pot on high, and let cook. I left it on high for about 5 hours, then turned it to low for 2 hours.

When the time was up, I moved the whole chicken from the crock pot into a bowl (this was kind of tricky, because the meat was falling right off of the bone!). I then took all of the meat off, using forks, and put it on a separate plate. Tonight, we ate the chicken plain, with a side of stuffing and steamed veggies. Tomorrow, I plan to make some chicken soup (to freeze for inevitable colds this winter) and maybe some quesadillas.

Once I removed as much meat as possible, I put all the bones and skin back into the crock pot, added two cups of water, and turned it back on low. I'm going to leave it simmering there overnight. Tomorrow, I will have homemade chicken stock! I will follow up with another post on how that turns out.

But tonight, this chicken turned out really great. Super tender and flavorful. And cheap! Our chicken cost about $8, and I had a $1 coupon. This will feed the two of us for at least 4 meals - probably 5 or 6. I will definitely be doing this again!