The secret to a hands-free, nourishing meal?
Crockpot Roasted Chicken!
They say you can choose two out of three things in many life situations: quality, speed, and affordability. For example, the auto shop may promise to have your brakes fixed by tomorrow following strict quality measures, but then they charge an arm and a leg. The contractor who promises a floor installed with quality and affordability cannot complete the project on time.
I proudly wish to present a recipe which breaks this two out of three rule: Crockpot Roasted Chicken! Every Sunday, I prepare a whole, organic chicken in my slow cooker. I end up with moist and tender meat, about 2 quarts of nutrient-rich broth, and fresh organ meats to use throughout the week. And all for only $12 and less than 10 minutes of hands-on time.
Fast, Cheap, and Easy: Whole Chicken + Broth in a Slow Cooker
1. Get a whole organic chicken. It must be certified organic–no exceptions (“natural” and “free-range” do not mean organic). Non-organic chicken bones contain to much toxins to make broth. I buy my organic chicken at Trader Joe’s, and it costs about $12.
2. Remove the little bag containing the neck and organs from inside the body cavity, and set aside. Rinse the chicken and place it into your slow cooker. Cook the chicken in the crockpot on Low for about 4 1/2 hours. Flip the chicken over occasionally, so the meat self-bastes in the pool of fat which will form at the bottom of the slow cooker. Try not to pierce the skin–it will bubble with liquid, which traps moisture in the meat.
3. Place the organs in plastic zip-top baggies, label with a date, and freeze. When you are making meatloaf, hamburgers, or meat sauce, pureé the selected organ in a food processor and add it to the raw ground beef. No one will be the wiser–just keep your kids (and spouse) out of the kitchen when you stealthily stir the ground organ meat into the meal. Keep the neck in the fridge to add to the broth.
4. Make sure the chicken reaches 160 degrees. Let the chicken sit for 5 minutes to let the juices settle. Then, pick the meat and skin off the chicken. The skin will be soggy and not pleasant to eat. You now have a full plate of moist chicken to add to casseroles, sandwiches, egg dishes, and more!
Make Crockpot Chicken Broth
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You may discard any skin from the carcass, but I keep it on for extra nourishing fats. Place the chicken carcass, loose bones, and the neck into the slow cooker with the leftover juices and fat.
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Cover with filtered water and a tablespoon of vinegar. The vinegar helps to leach important minerals from the bones. Cook on low heat for at least 24 hours, adding water as necessary. I cook my broth from Sunday night to Wednesday afternoon, ladling out hot broth to on Monday and Tuesday. I just add more water as I take out broth. Strain broth, pressing juice from the bones. Refrigerate for up to 4 days, or freeze for a few months.
Eat well and heal!™
shared at: Fat Tuesday, Traditional Tuesday, Allergy Free Wednesday, Whole Food Wednesday, Healthy 2day, Real Food Wednesday, Keep It Real Thursday, Rural Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Fill Those Jars Friday
Sounds so yummy! I’ll have to go to Trader Joe’s soon!
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Ha, I’ve got a chicken in the crockpot right now!
Sounds fantastic and easy. I’m going to be giving this a try!
Great! I hope you enjoy!
It’s been too long since we had a roasted chicken — will need to try this.
Do you have suggestions for slow cookers that have lead-free glaze?
Well, I learn something everyday… I didn’t know lead was an issue in slow cookers. What a bummer! I can’t answer your question now, but I’m certainly going to research this issue. Thanks for alerting me about this.
Great post! I have never done this before so I have a question. Do you add water with the chicken initally or just cook it alone in the crock pot? Thanks so much. Looking foward to doing this this weekend!
Hi Amy! There is no need to add water–the slow cooker captures the steam and melting chicken fat and keeps everything moist. Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks so much!
Great article! Thank you for your suggestion on how to use the organ meats! I have a question for you. Do you add any of the soggy skin back to the crockpot, or just the fat that clings to the carcass?
~ Carolyn
Hi Carolyn! No, I don’t put the skin back into the crockpot for the broth, just whatever fat and bits of meat are stuck to the carcass. You could certainly put the skin in the broth if you wanted a richer broth for, say, gravy or something. But I usually just drink my broth and don’t like it to greasy.
I love this recipe for its simplicity, wholesomeness and versatility!
I would add one comment, though, regarding your recommendation to use only certified organic chickens. These are certainly a huge step up from conventional CAFO chickens. But unfortunately the national organic standards for meat production are not what they should be, and the “organic” model for chickens often means that they are raised in crowded indoor conditions (with “access” to the outside, which could be a small door that is rarely if ever used) and they can still be fed species-inappropriate feed like soybeans (which many people react to in both the meat and eggs from soy-fed hens).
Plus, there’s the high cost to the farmer of getting certified Organic. In terms of meat, organic basically only means that the animals aren’t given antibiotics or added hormones or injected with things to plump up the meat.
What’s really ideal and wonderful is to find chickens that are truly pasture-raised, out in the sunshine foraging for bugs in the grass which greatly increases the nutrient content, and fed soy-free and GMO-free chicken feed. It sounds like a tall order, but in many places it is possible to find local farmers who do this — you just have to ask around and get to know them. Local Weston Price chapter leaders can help people find such farmers, as can eatwild.com. The more consumers who ask for this, the better because good demand creates a good supply.
Yes!!! Yes, yes, yes! Thank you for taking the time to write this, I really should have covered it in the post but I just ran out of energy. It is so important to get connected to the people who provide one’s family with food. It supports the local economy, supports sustainable agriculture, and means nutrient-dense food! I love EatWild.com. I also love going to farmers markets and just chatting and getting to know the vendors and how they raise their animals/produce/etc.
Oh, and if you’re using pasture-raised chickens, the skin is where many of the nutrients are concentrated, so I might finely chop the skin and mix it back in with the meat for various recipes, soups, etc.
I just recently purchased two pounds of pastured chicken wings. Do you think I could cook them in a similar way here? Or if not, would you have a suggestion on how to use them for making broth?
Also, I was wondering if you added any seasonings to your chicken or the broth when it is simmering.. Thanks!
I don’t know how this would work for cooking the chicken wings. But however you cook them, just save the bones for broth (you can keep the bones in a bag in the freezer if you don’t want to use them immediately). Then make the broth according to this recipe. And I don’t add seasoning to the broth, I just salt it liberally to taste when I drink it.
Hi Lauren, I wonder if you put the chicken in the crock pot on low to start with, would it not just increase bacteria rather than start cooking? Would you not have to start on high to get it cooking first and then turn it down?
Patricia, I’ve always read that it’s necessary to do 1 hour on high and then go to low. I’d rather err on the side of caution, doing that, until such time as we learn it’s safe to do meat in the crock pot on low the entire time. I believe it needs the high temp in order to kill certain pathogens.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, and provide sources!
I tried making roasted chicken in my crock pot twice before. The first time turned out amazing! The second time, my crock pot cracked. :/ It was a really really small chicken I put in a big crockpot, so it may not have produced the juice needed for a moist environment, but now I’m afraid to try it again in my new crockpot! Has this happened to anyone else? Anyone know what I can do to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future? Thanks! I want to make crockpot roasted chicken regularily because I love how delicious and easy it is, but I first need to know what precautions to take so I don’t crack my crockpot again!
Just use some broth or water. Crock pot cooking is supposed to have moisture, so if you’re not sure, it’s better if things are a little waterlogged rather than ending up with a broken machine.
To figure out just what your pot needs, do it on a weekend and experiment with water levels. Look through the glass lid every so often to make sure there’s enough water. Contact the crock pot maker asking what is the minimum amount of liquid you can use for a whole chicken.