If you want to know how to cook a whole chicken in the crockpot, you will be pleased to know it is a very easy process. Of course you will need a large enough slow cooker to hold your chicken, not one of the tiny ones you use to warm up your spinach cheese dip!
First you will need to unwrap your raw bird from the plastic container and then remove the giblet packet from the cavity. Keep it for another use or discard it. There might be two packages inside or just one.
Preparing the Slow Cooker
Spray nonstick cooking spray inside your crockpot. Give the bird a rinse and put it in the slow cooker. You do not need to add any liquid, just the bird. Sprinkle some garlic powder and paprika on the bird or your favorite herbs or spices. Cover the crockpot and set the heat to low. Let it cook for about seven hours (or less for a particularly small chicken or more for a larger one).
Take the chicken out of the crockpot and serve it. It will be juicy, delicious and cooked perfectly. You can remove the meat from the bones and use it in any recipe calling for cooked chicken, such as pot pie, pasta dishes, chicken salad, or casseroles.
How to Make Chicken Broth with the Leftover Chicken Juices
Put the bones back in the crockpot with the liquid, once you have picked all the meat off, and add five cups of water. You can also return the skin to the slow cooker. Set the crockpot on low and leave it overnight. In the morning you will have lovely chicken broth. All you need to do is strain out the bones, skin, and other solids using a fine sieve.
So if you wanted to know how to cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker, not only do you now know how to do so but you also know how to make a great homemade chicken broth. One chicken gives about fifty ounces of broth and you can cool this in the refrigerator and then skim off the fat which floats to the top. Use this broth within a day or two, or freeze it for up to six months.
