Whole Chicken in the Crockpot

I'm not sure what I should call this recipe yet since I threw pretty much everything but the chicken sink into the crockpot with the chicken this morning before I rushed out to work. In fact I wanted to add red potatoes to the mix but didn't have any and actually contemplated for a minute throwing sweet potatoes in. But then I thought about it and realized my husband probably would think that was just way too out there so I back away from the crockpot and shut the lid.

So back to the chicken, I bought a whole chicken on a whim the other day because I have never cooked a whole chicken before, I have made chicken breasts, legs, thighs, even wings but never the whole bird all at once. This morning I woke up really early and had a whole 20 minutes before I had to head off to work so I decided to crockpot the chicken. I tried finding a recipe online from some of my favorite food blogs but couldn't find something that was along the lines of what I was thinking so I decided to just make up a recipe and hope for the best. I'll change the title of this blog when I come up with a name but for now, we'll just call it Whole Chicken in the Crockpot.


Whole Chicken in the Crockpot
Yield: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 20 Minutes     I     Cook Time: 7 Hours on Low

Ingredients:

•  3lb whole chicken, skin on
• 6-8 cloves of peeled garlic
• 1 medium onion - sliced or chopped (any way is fine)
• 3 slices of thick bacon (I used center cut)
• 1/2 package of mushrooms roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup butter sliced
• Paprika
• Your favorite seasoning (I used Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning)

First remove the neck and giblets from the inside of the chicken, then rinse it and place into the crockpot right side up. Put one or two of the garlic cloves inside the chicken and just toss the remaining ones into the crockpot. You can use more or less garlic depending on your preference, I love garlic so I used about 8 cloves. After you slice the onions and mushrooms toss them into the crockpot as well, no fancy placement needed just toss 'em in. (You can also use more mushrooms and onions here as well, nothing is set in stone, especially if you use a bigger chicken just adjust accordingly.)

Next take the three slices of bacon and lay them across the top of the chicken. Then take the butter slices and place them on and around the chicken, I even put one inside the chicken as well. Finally generously shake paprika over the chicken and then the seasoning. I love the Everyday Seasoning from Trader Joe's because it has salt, pepper, coriander, onion, garlic and mustard seed among other things in it. It tastes awesome and we use it on everything from steak to shrimp in our house.

After all the ingredients are in the crockpot, shut the lid set the crockpot for 7 hours on low and voila! A delicious meal in under 20 minutes.

Unfortunately in my rush this morning I forgot to take a photo of what it looked like before I left for work, but here's what the finished product looks like....

Granted it's not the most beautiful picture, but taking it our of the crockpot to snap a photo was not an option because the chicken was so tender it just fell apart. My cousin had come over for a doggy play date and was very jealous of how delicious my house smelled and that she still had to go home to cook dinner. The chicken just melted in your mouth, it was a definite home run for my husband!