About 2 months ago I bought a 5 pound chicken on sale at the local grocery for $8.00. I remember thinking, surely I can find a good crock pot recipe and have a delicious meal. It took a lot of searching but I finally found one. And it is amazing. Once again, while perusing Pinterest (I think I’m obsessed), I came across a crock pot recipe that uses the whole chicken WITHOUT cutting it up beforehand.
Here is the recipe:
Rub Ingredients
4 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 1/2 to 5 lbs whole chicken
1 cup chopped onion, approx 1 medium or 1/2 large
4-5 carrots, scrubbed, no need to peel, chopped in halves or thirds
4 celery stalks, cut in thirds
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed or 1 tsp minced garlic
1 lemon quartered
directions:
Combine rub ingredients in a small bowl.
Remove chicken from packaging and remove neck and pouch with organs. Discard or reserve for later use in another recipe. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
Rub garlic powder all over outside of the chicken. Put minced/ smashed garlic inside the chicken. Sprinkle the rub all over the outside and inside the chicken. Add quartered lemon to the inside of the chicken.
Place onions, carrots and celery inside the slow cooker. Place chicken on top of the vegetables. Cover slow cooker and cook chicken on low for 4-8 hours. (When I used a 5 lb chicken, it took 6 hours. The time will depend on the size of the chicken and your slow cooker.) Cook until the internal temperature of the leg is at 160 degrees F or use a pop-up thermometer.
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The chicken was literally falling off the bones. It was so easy to cut. Actually I didn’t even have to cut. And it was kind of hard to serve because the pieces kept falling off the spoon!! It rivaled any roasted chicken I have ever purchased pre-cooked and it was SO easy!
I was worried before making it because the recipe didn’t call for any liquid to be added. I thought the chicken would be really dry. By the time the chicken was done, liquid filled the crock pot dish about half way. I guess between the chicken and the lemon… anyway I shouldn’t have worried because it turned out FABULOUS!
Everything had a fantastic lemony flavor and the veggies were soft and flavorful. This is one I will be making at least once if not twice a month. I can’t wait to break down the price and calories for you. Let’s do this!
Ingredients with average price:
5 lb whole uncooked chicken – $8.00 (I’ve seen sales for $1/ lb roaster chicken)
whole bag of baby carrots – $2
2 stalks of celery – $0.74 ($1.48 for 4 stalks)
1 medium or 1/2 large onion – $0.79
2 cloves of garlic – $0.25 (if that)
1 lemon – $0.44
Total cost for this meal – $12.22
It makes 6 servings so that comes out to $2.03 per serving! Another WOW!!! You could even use any leftovers in a different recipe!
Using http://www.myfitnesspal.com, I entered this recipe into the calorie counter and found that the whole meal is 3,073 calories. This makes each serving 512 calories. Pretty good considering this is your meat and veggies!
Whatever Happened to Predictability? 