Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker

It really doesn't get much easier or more economical than making this chicken. All it takes is a little planning ahead to make really juicy chicken that you can cut up or shred to use in any recipe that calls for chicken. I NEVER buy these things full price, but lucky for us, they go on sale often. A good sale price for whole chickens is .99/lb. When I see them for this price, I buy a couple. If I see them for cheaper, I'll buy like four so I always have some in my freezer. It can be a little overwhelming at first dealing with whole chickens, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be paying so much less for poultry. I still do buy chicken breasts for certain recipes, but far less than I used to.

Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• Your favorite spices. My go-to spices are salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, and a touch of cayenne. Just a tip - like most everything I do, I have a method for seasoning things. I always season in this order: salt, garlic, cayenne, chili powder, cayenne, pepper. The reason for this is - I don't measure, I season by sight and so I need to see how much of each spice is going on. Salt and garlic first because if you add them after a darker spice, you won't be able to see it and you may add too much. Then I always do cayenne because it's the most potent and if I want to be able to see it to make sure not to add too much heat. Then chili powder and paprika because they're not very potent and last pepper because it's black I can see it over any color spice. I'm crazy, I know.

Directions:

• Put chicken in slow cooker breast-side down. That way, all of the dark meat juices will drip into the white mean making it super juicy:

• Season the chicken:

• Put in crock (nope, no liquid needed) put on cover, turn on low, and let cook for seven hours. After seven hours you will have this:

• At this point, the meat will be falling off the bone so trying to take the whole bird out in one piece is almost impossible and really messy, but you can try. I just take a fork and start pulling out whatever I can, put it on a cutting board, and separate the meat from the bones and skin which I just put back in the crock. After you've gotten all your meat, you can throw it in the fridge for later or use it in a recipe immediately. As for whatever is left in the crock, I will put the lid back on and cook overnight or for several more hours to make broth. The broth is amazing when used to replace any water called for in chicken recipes. Gives so much more flavor. If you don't care to make broth, the rest is trash.