Crock Pot Whole Chicken

I enjoy making a nice homemade dinner on Sundays. I like having homemade food most days actually, but Sunday is a great opportunity to make a meal that will last through the week as leftovers. Today was my nephew and godson's 5th birthday, so I was out of the house most of the day celebrating with my family. Quality family time is very important and cooking should never become a chore that impedes on that. By setting my food in the crock pot right before I went to the birthday party, I was able to have my whole chicken cooking for me while enjoying time out of the house.

When cooking a whole chicken, never forget to remove the pieces from the chicken cavity. I discarded these pieces, but now I regret it. I think I should have saved them to help make chicken broth later this week. Once I removed the neck (and whatever else was stuffed in there), I rinsed out the cavity and shoved an orange up there. I rolled the orange to release the juices, cut it in half, then stuffed it in the chicken. I put a layer of veggies at the bottom of the crock pot. I used one onion, some baby carrots, and one green pepper. Now the scraps from the onion and the core of the green pepper was added to my bag of frozen veggie scraps to use for broth.

I sat the chicken on top of the layer of veggies, then I sprinkled some seasonings over top. I used salt, pepper, rosemary, and Italian seasonings. I set the crock pot on low and went on my merry way to my nephew's party. I let this chicken cook for about 6 hours. To test if the chicken is done, stab it with a knife in the thigh area. If the juices run clear, it is done!

This was so simple and will provide at least two meals plus I will make some chicken broth. After pulling most of the chicken from the bones and saving it for another meal later in the week, I put the carcass in a Ziploc bag. This will be used later this week, along with some veggies from my frozen scrap bag, to make chicken broth.

I served this chicken tonight with the veggies it cooked with, my homemade applesauce, and green beans with tomatoes (recipe to follow soon).