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    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken is not quite a roast chicken and not quite a boiled chicken, but it's a quick way to cook a whole chicken with little effort, ready to eat when you get home.

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    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken on a flowered oval serving plate

    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

    One-step recipe

    This is a one-step slow cooker recipe, where you put the ingredients in the cooker in the morning and leave to cook all day. There is no browning or preparation - apart from a bit of cutting up.

    The beauty of cooking a whole chicken in the slow cooker is that it's so easy. An onion and a lemon, with as much garlic as you like, provide the flavour. Cutting slits in the chicken and tucking the garlic in, means that you get a mild garlicky flavour through the meat - and you can't really tell when you eat the pieces of garlic. They sort of melt into the meat.

    Slow Cooker liners

    Whole chicken in lined slow cooker with lemon pieces.
    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken.

    After my daughter told me that she'd bought a slow cooker I was browsing on Amazon, as you do, and saw some slow cooker liners. I thought they would be helpful - and probably time-saving - by reducing the washing up. Apparently not. Her cooker pot is so easy to clean that a liner is unnecessary.  Having borrowed her cooker, I agree. I guess it depends on your pot. My old ceramic one is much harder to clean than my new non-stick, metal pot.

    So the liners stayed in the cupboard until I made this Slow Cooker Whole Chicken. The chicken becomes so tender that it will fall apart when you try to lift it from the dish unless you put a couple of wide strips of foil in the pot so that you can lift it out.

    Or you can use a liner. How easy is that? You just put the liner in, then the chicken, with embedded garlic, then onion and lemon. Finally hot stock and seasoning.

    Make-ahead tips

    If you're going to be short of time in the morning, you could get the garlic into the chicken and cut up the onions the night before. In the morning you just put those into the pot, heat up the stock - or boil the kettle for a stock cube - cut and squeeze the lemon and you're done.

    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken can be served with vegetables. Again, I prepare them the night before and then put them in the steamer when I get home. You could put carrots and other root vegetables in the cooker with the chicken if you really don't want to do anything in the evening. Or you could strip the chicken from the bone and use it in a stir-fry or risottos, or a chicken salad, which is yummy in the summer.

    Helpful Tools

    Slow Cooker – obviously that’s pretty helpful here. I looked at slow cookers for ages before buying a digital Morphy Richards 3.5l version. If you're buying a slow cooker, read my tips for Buying a Slow Cooker.

    Slow Cooker Liner – not essential, but keeps the cooker clean.

    If you like this...

    ...Why don't you try:

    Slices of Slow Cooker Gammon on a board.

    Slow Cooker Gammon

    Slow Cooker gammon or bacon has to be the easiest way to cook these joints. It produces tender, succulent gammon
    Roast Spatchcock Chicken in the roasting tin

    Quick roast chicken for a midweek dinner

    Spatchcock the chicken for a shorter cooking time.
    Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken Casserole in the pot

    Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken Casserole

    Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken Casserole is a one-step recipe. Chuck the ingredients in and leave to cook all day for a tasty, aromatic chicken supper.

    Recipe

    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken in a white dish
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    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken. A one-step crockpot recipe.
    Prep Time10 minutes mins
    Cook Time8 hours hrs
    Total Time8 hours hrs 10 minutes mins
    Course: Dinner
    Cuisine: British
    Servings: 4 servings
    Author: Susie@Everyday Cooks

    Ingredients

    • 250 ml chicken or vegetable stock
    • 3-4 cloves garlic
    • 1.5 kg chicken
    • 1 medium onion
    • 1 lemon
    • Salt
    • Pepper
    • Bay leaf
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    Equipment

    3.5l slow cooker or crockpot
    Slow cooker liner or foil
    Butter paper or a piece of baking parchment or foil

    Instructions

    • Put the stock on to heat
    • Put the liner in the cooker or place a wide strip of foil in so that you will be able to lift the chicken out
    • Turn the cooker onto HIGH
    • Peel the cloves of garlic and cut each into 3-4 slivers
    • Pierce the chicken with a sharp knife and slide each piece of garlic in
    • Put the chicken in the cooker
    • Peel the onion and cut into 8 pieces. Place around the chicken
    • Cut the lemon into 8. Squeeze each piece over the chicken and put the pieces around the chicken
    • Pour the stock over the chicken
    • Season with salt and pepper and tuck the bay leaf in
    • Cover the chicken breast with a butter paper (or buttered baking parchment or  foil) to keep it moist
    • Put the lid on the cooker and turn to LOW for 8-10 hours, or leave on HIGH for 5-6 hours

    Notes

    EVERYDAY COOKS TIP:

    If you aren't so concerned about the look of the chicken, e.g. if you're going to strip the carcass, you can cook it upside down to keep it moister.

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    Hi, I'm Susie. Mostly I love cooking and baking, but combining work and home life often leaves me feeling that providing healthy, tasty food for my family is a chore. On those days I am decidedly an Everyday Cook...

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    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken in a white dish
    Slow Cooker Whole Chicken on a flowered oval serving plate

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