Real Food Friday Feast - Slow cooked Whole Chicken

Today's real food feast is a WINNER according to GLM. She told me numerous times while she was carving up the deliciously tender chicken, all the while stealing little pieces from the dish;)

This started because I had a whole chicken in my freezer and I wasn't sure what to do with it aside from the usual, rather boring, roast chicken. Don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for it and it's yummy, but surely there must be other options for a whole chicken? Then I had an idea to try it in my slow cooker...

It was a big experiment but what a TASTY experiment and we will most definitely be doing it again, and again, and again;)

SLOW COOKED WHOLE CHICKEN

Rub Ingredients:

3 tsp salt (make sure it's either pure sea salt or himalayan rock salt otherwise it's better to skip it but that will definitely affect the taste!)

(Stick to organic spices wherever possible)

1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

(Feel free to add more of your favourite spices here!)

1-1/2kg chicken
1 chopped leek (or onion if you prefer)
4-5 carrots, scrubbed, no need to peel, chopped

2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed, no need to peel, chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed (or one large one)
1 lemon quartered

• Combine rub ingredients in a small bowl
• Remove chicken from packaging and remove neck and pouch with organs if your chicken has them. Rinse chicken and pat dry with carlton roll
• Rub garlic all over the outside of the chicken and then put the garlic inside the chicken. 
• Rub the "rub" all over the outside of the chicken
• Add quartered lemon to the inside of the chicken
• Place leeks and carrots inside the slow cooker
• Place chicken on top of the vegetables
• Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook chicken on low for 4-8 hours. (The cooking time will depend on the size of your chicken. Mine was about 1.5kgs and took about 8hrs)
• Remove chicken from slow cooker once it's done and place in a glass baking dish. 
• Place baking dish in the oven under the grill for about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it. This step is to make the skin nice and crispy.
• Remove chicken from oven and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes.
• Serve!

Words cannot describe how delicious the chicken is. It is soft and tender on the inside. It literally falls off the bone, and the crunchy skin on the outside is irresistable! There will be loads of yummy juice left at the bottom of your slow cooker mixed in with the carrots and sweet potatoes. You can use some as gravy but, if you have some left over, put it into a container and freeze it until you make soup or stew and use it as stock. It will add a delicious, healthy flavour to your food.

Have a wonderful weekend!