Slow Cooker Roast Chicken
Recipe video above. This is a quick and easy yet amazing way to cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker - it's a slow cooker "roast chicken"! It's so moist and juicy inside, like it’s been brined or marinated. VERY forgiving recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 kg / 4 lb whole chicken, patted dry (Note 1)
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2.5 tbsp olive oil (or melted butter), plus extra for drizzling
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large lemon, all zest + all juice
- 1 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water
- 1 extra lemon, just in case
Directions
- 1
- 2
Rub – Mix Rub ingredients. should be fairly thick and sludgy. Adjust with extra oil if too thick.
- 3
Loosen Skin: Use upside spoon to loosen skin of chicken (see video). Spoon most of the Rub under the skin, leaving about 1 tbsp mostly oil for the skin. Use hands or spoon on skin to spread the paste – doesn’t need to be perfect.
- 4
Stuff used lemon inside the chicken.
- 5
Put rack inside slow cooker (Note 3), place chicken on top. Spread with remaining sludge, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- 6
Slow cook 5 hours on low or 3 hours on high, or until juices run clear or internal temperature is 75C / 165F using a meat thermometer. (Note 4 for other cook methods)
- 7
Brown skin: Remove chicken from slow cooker, drizzle with a bit of extra oil. Grill/broil on medium high for 5 to 10 minutes to brown the skin (~25cm /10″ from heat source). Or oven 240C/450F for 10 min.
- 8
Spoon over pan juices, then serve with Lemon Sauce! (No need to rest chicken)
- 9
Lemon Sauce:
- 10
Pour all slow cooker liquid into a saucepan, add cornflour / water mixture. Mix.
- 11
Bring to simmer over medium high and cook until liquid thickens to thin syrup (depends how much liquid you have, usually 3 min or so). Adjust salt and pepper to taste, add more lemon if desired (the extra lemon). Pour into jug.