Slow-Cooker Whole Chicken

when in Baltimore two years ago I bought some ingredients called Old bay seasonings. I use that instead of salt and paprika. it works like a treat, whether slow cooking or air frying.

Whenever I slow cook a chicken I take the meat off the bones, put the bones back in the cooker, and fill about 3/4 full with water to make broth. It already has the onion, garlic, carrots in so I add a few whole cloves and a few dried peppers and set it for 18 hours on low. Strain it, chill it, skim the fat, and you have 4-5 quarts of broth ready for the freezer.

Cooking a turkey breast in the crock pot with a generous Old Bay spice blanket is a sure fire win. No broth, water, veg. Just the bone in turkey breast and Old Bay. Good call!!

The bottom of the slow-cooker is also the part that will be hottest, so you're best keeping the dark meat down there. Because the chicken is cooking in a moist environment, orientation matters little to keeping the breast juicy in any case.

I bought a used, giant slow cooker from the thrift store for a project. Then decided against the project. Didn't know what I was going to ever use the cooker for since I live alone, until I thought of using it for chicken. I cooked the chicken upside-down with some onion, celery, garlic, salt, pepper and bottled barbecue sauce. It came out perfect. All the years I cooked for my family I wish I had known about this easy & successful alternative to roasting.

Did everything as directed (including dry brining bird overnight) and it turned out delicious

Today I remembered that Diamond Crystal kosher salt needs 2x as much as other brands, so I did this with a 4 lb chicken, using 1 Tbsp WF kosher salt, everything else as listed. To my surprise, salt was perfect and smoked paprika did not overwhelm. Chicken was yummy! 2 issues: after 7 hours on slow cook in my Instant Pot, chicken was not done. I turned it to "poultry" setting for 10 minutes: perfect. Next time will crush garlic - chopped cloves were soft, whole cloves were still kinda raw.

Try 200 degrees for 5 hours with 1/2 inch of white wine in the bottom !

I cooked this the day after I read the recipe, pretty much as written. My spouse and I always thought of the slow-cooker as the place where liquids reigned supreme and everything comes out poached. Not this chicken: it was a wonder-mine of flavor and texture. Definitely in my favorites box!

I did this tonight coincidentally, and then happened upon this recipe in the Times. Cooking a whole chicken in the slow cooker is not my favorite way of doing it, but it sure has its benefits: feeding hungry teenagers when you have to work late; or a way to create some healthy lunches in one batch!

I have an old crockpot, and that remains my favorite. I put my 5 lb chicken in at 9am, and when I got home late from work at 9pm, it was just perfect. I'm sure I could have eaten it at 6pm, but the old crockpot never overcooks. I have a newer crockpot and I think you can only use it for 3-5 hour intervals. Disappointing.

This was delicious. Skin could not be eaten because it tasted odd, but that is OK. I thickened the juice into a gravy, and served with popcorn rice. Next time I would use another carrot or two.

I made this for dinner tonight and it came out moist and juicy with the chicken falling off the bone. It barely needed carving. I didn’t have carrots so I cut some potatoes and onions in large cubes and let the chicken rest on top of that delicious vegetable raft: Perfect Sunday supper.

Then you should roast your chicken and you'll have crispy skin. This is just another way of cooking a chicken for different effects. Like boiling, frying, coddling an egg...all different treatments.

This did nothing for me in terms of flavor, etc except for the slight convenience of slow cooking vs. roasting in oven.