Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (ours was about 5 pounds)

Non-stick cooking spray

Paprika

Garlic

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Spray a large crock pot with non-stick cooking spray. Take chicken out of its packaging and remove the innards from the inside of the chicken (these are usually conveniently packaged in a bag, but my chicken today just had them floating around inside the cavity...). Rinse the chicken well, both inside and out. Place the chicken in the crock pot and season with any combination of spices/herbs you want. I used paprika, garlic, salt, and pepper. You can also use the herb combination from this roasted chicken recipe. Put the lid on the crock pot, turn it on low, and leave it in there for about 7 hours. Make sure your chicken reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees F to ensure that it is fully cooked. Once the chicken is done, remove it from the crock pot, cut up, and serve.

Notes from Brittany: I loved how easy and practically effortless this meal was. As I removed the chicken from the crock pot, the drumsticks and wings just fell off and the meat was really tender. The skin doesn't get crispy like it does in the oven, but I liked cooking the chicken this way, since I don't have a roasting pan and like to have all the drippings and liquid leftover for my own chicken stock. I got the idea for this meal from my visiting teacher and did a little research online. I followed the Happy Housewife's directions. I suggest reading her post and the comments for some great tips and ideas. After dinner tonight, I removed all the meat from the bones and place the bones back in the crock pot with all the juices that were left from cooking the chicken. I added some carrots, celery, and onions and enough water to cover the bones and veggies, then turned the crock pot on low and will leave it overnight to cook my own chicken stock. The Happy Housewife goes into more details about this on her blog.