Simple Slow Cooker Chicken Two Ways

Have you ever cooked a chicken in your slow cooker? It is really easy, and the meat is always tender, all with no attention from you. Take a few minutes to get your chicken started, then leave it to get ready while you go about your day. Either make it like a roasted chicken, or follow the instructions for ending up with chicken and healing meat stock.

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In years past, I started slow cooking chicken with a recipe I have lost. It was supposed to mimic Boston Market rotisserie chicken, but in the slow cooker. My family loved Boston Market chicken, and we didn’t have it often. Since then, I have slow cooked hundreds of chickens, and don’t use a recipe as such. It is that easy! This Simple Slow Cooker Chicken Two Ways is an adaptation of that elusive recipe of yesteryear, which my family re-dubbed “Mommy Market Chicken”. It isn’t the same as Boston Market chicken, but they like it anyway. They haven’t called me Mommy for quite awhile, either…

It is a little embarrassing to call this a recipe. As simple as it is, “recipe” seems a bit too formal. However, a simple and quick cooking technique is worthwhile for busy people, and that includes most of us. At first, I made this on days I had sick kids, or was sick myself, or both. Now, they can start it cooking, or I make it when the day is busy, or I want a batch of chicken stock, or I just need to cook a chicken. Everyone likes it, it falls off the bone, and it works either to eat plain, perhaps with gravy made from the juices, or to have plain cooked chicken for other uses.

I used to remove all the chicken for eating, then put the bones and everything back in the pot with the giblets (if any) and a bit of apple cider vinegar, then fill with water and let it cook all night. No need to clean the pot until the next day. Generally, the resulting broth would gel and go into whatever soup, sauce, or sick family member needed it most.

Nowadays, most often I add the water and giblets while the chicken cooks so that we get a nice batch of meat stock at the same time as the chicken. That way, the result is a healing and nourishing GAPS style meat stock, not a bone broth. Meat stock trumps bone broth when it comes to healing! Both are good, though.

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What to Do

Having removed all packaging and the giblet package, set the chicken in the cooker. I use a 4 quart slow cooker for chicken alone, or a 6 quart if I want stock and chicken together.

Mix together all the seasonings in a little bowl. Plan on 2 tablespoons total, starting with 1 teaspoon EACH salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. all together, those 3 comprise the first tablespoon. For your next tablespoon, you get to be creative. I teaspoon EACH of three more spices could be whatever you like and have on hand– rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, Italian seasoning, paprika, chili powder, pepper, parsley, curry, other blends you enjoy… anything you want! (If you want something sort of Boston Market-like, maybe rosemary, sage, and thyme or pepper.)

Rub your mixture around on the chicken, including inside the cavity. It is even better if you work some of it under the skin, but you don’t have to. First washing your hands, cover the slow cooker and turn to low for about 8 hours. Or, if it is already lunchtime, set it to high and it will be done by dinner time.

When the cooking is done, carefully remove the whole chicken to a good sized plate of shallow bowl. There will be a lot of juices in the slow cooker, and you can use them to make gravy if you want. The meat will be falling off the bones, so it won’t slice nicely. On the bright side, you will get all the meat with very little effort. If you want to make broth, you can set your discarded bits, like bones, cartilage, skin, etc., back in the pot, add water (and the giblets), and cook on low until morning or even later.

Pointers:

1. The flavor will be more intense if you work the seasonings underneath the skin, especially if you do the second version yielding meat stock. I don’t always take the time to do that, and it is all right not to.
2. Even though there is no water added in the first version, you will end up with lots of juices. They will have plenty of flavor, so you can thicken them to make gravy. There will be plenty, so you might need to make mashed potatoes if you aren’t on GAPS! If you are, mashed cauliflower can be a pretty good receptacle for gravy.
3. If I know a day is going to be very busy, and especially if I will be gone all day and want a meal ready when we walk in, I load up a second slow cooker with sweet potatoes, white potatoes, or a mixture of both. Most of the meal is ready when we get home, and we just add a salad, fruit, or both. This won’t work for GAPS, sadly.
4. I have actually cooked two chickens at once in a larger slow cooker. I worked fine in the same amount of time.

You can see why Simple Slow Cooker Chicken Two Ways hardly counts as a recipe! I measure only when teaching someone to make this– you can just eyeball the amounts and do just fine. What spices would you combine for your chicken?