~Whole Chicken in the Crock Pot~

Cooking a whole chicken in the crock pot is a new favorite meal of mine. Mostly because it's so easy. I also like the fact that we can get a couple of meals out of it. Making it an extremely frugal recipe.

Easy and Frugal ~ what a perfect combination!

Last month, I bought 2 whole chickens at Costco for $8.00. I prepared one in the crock pot last month and just made the second one today.

For us, we can usually get 2 meals from one chicken, making the chicken for each meal cost only $2.00!

This is the recipe I based today's meal on. I altered it a bit according to the ingredients I had on hand. Also, I doubled it.

I found that when I prepared my chicken last month (using a different, but similar, recipe) the spices just slipped right off of the chicken. It was still tasty, but we suspected it could be better!

Doubling the amount of spices and drying the chicken after rinsing seemed to do the trick this time!

Here's what I used:
2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
3 tsp. dried minced onion
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 tsp. paprika
3 tsp. salt


Here's what I did:
1. Mixed spices together
2. Removed giblets from chicken,
3. Rinse & dry
4. Rubbed spice mixture inside & out & under skin
5. Placed chicken in crock pot
6. Cooked on low for 6 hours.

The original recipe suggested applying the dry rub and refrigerating overnight. I skipped that part. I also skipped the onion that the recipe called for, since we were out of onions.

I really like the way this turned out. It was much better this time. I cannot recall what recipe I used for the first chicken, although it was very similar. I definitely recommend patting the chicken dry with paper towels before adding the dry rub. It will stick better to the "dry" chicken. Any water left on the chicken will cause the spices to slide right off.

I served the chicken with leftover sliced potatoes (recipe for another post) and steamed veggies. Making this a very frugal meal.

We have about a 1/2 a chicken leftover for another meal. I just need to decide what I will create with the leftover meat.

Also, I saved the juices left in the bottom of the crock pot. It's probably too spicy to use alone as a broth or stock, but would probably work if added to a recipe for a little extra kick! I have it in the fridge now, so that I can separate the fat from the liquid. Once I do that, I will freeze in ice cube trays and then into a ziplock bag. Just enough to add a little zing to another recipe.

I discarded the carcass this time. I've heard that chicken stock can be made after the chicken has cooked in the crock pot. I plan to try this another time. Maybe with the next one...and there will be a next one!