Chicken - It's What's for Dinner

Greetings friends!
True to my word, I've been an inconsistent blogger. Hopefully though, you'll find this delicious dinner idea worth waiting for.

 I was talking with a friend before Thanksgiving and she mentioned that she often cooks a chicken in her Crockpot and it makes for a delicious, and almost effortless, meal. The idea intrigued me, but with preparation for the holidays, I sort of put it on the back burner.

Thanksgiving is over, and I'm finally getting back into my regular menu planning. On the menu tonight:  Crockpot Whole Chicken and homemade mashed potatoes.

A few things I am LOVING about this meal:

• Cheap! - Thanks again to my favorite grocery, Aldi, I was able to purchase a 5 lb whole chicken for under $5. Fortunately, I already have some potatoes on hand, so I didn't have to purchase those either. So for my family of 4, we're eating well for just $1.25 per person. 
• Easy - I adore my crock pot. There is not much quite as satisfying as taking a small amount of time to prep a meal then leave it alone until it's ready to eat. It took me all of 10 minutes to prep the chicken for the crockpot. The potatoes will be a bit more work with the cutting and boiling, but still, pretty easy work. 
• Great leftover potential - Ok...maybe it's a little weird to get excited about leftovers. But let's be honest. This is a whole chicken, and there are so many ways to stretch it into more than one meal. (Hello, more money saving!) I'm thinking soup, a pot pie, or a chicken lo mein recipe our family really enjoys. Whatever this chicken goes to, I'm sure I can get a minimum of 2 meals out of it, if not 3. 

Are you ready for the recipe? It's so simple that I can hardly call it a recipe. It's really more like I'm giving you a dinner idea. You can mix it up however you want! 

First, I quickly got the vegetables ready. I cut up 4 stalks of celery, 4 carrots, and one small onion and tossed them in the bottom of the crock pot.

Next, I prepared a dry rub. This is for another post perhaps, but I have come to love dry rubs for preparing poultry. Anyway...

I mixed rosemary, thyme, paprika, white and black pepper, ground cayenne pepper, sage, and garlic powder. Sorry for those of you who like measurements....I just kind of add things to taste. If you don't like much spice, you can take out the cayenne pepper. Whatever your favorite spices though, feel free to use them. A more simple mix that I love is salt, pepper, rosemary, and garlic powder. Mix it up though. Get crazy! (Well, not too crazy.)
Before I put the rub on the chicken, I scored the chicken (made small holes all over, just in case you need some help with kitchen lingo) so all the spices would  get in there and get flavor to the whole chicken. I then smashed a clove of garlic and rubbed over the chicken. I then put the clove in the cavity along with a few carrot and celery sticks.
Next, I put on the rub. Make sure to get in any crevices between the wings and legs. To finish, I squirted some lemon juice over the chicken for a nice zesty kick. 

I turned the crockpot to low for 7.5 hours. I don't know that it will take that long to cook, so I'll keep tabs on it. I read that some people do as little as 4 hours and others as much as 8. It depends on your crockpot and the size of your chicken. Just be sure that when you insert a thermometer into the leg it reads 160 degrees.

My chicken has been going for just over 2 hours. I can't wait to eat this chicken, y'all. My whole house smells divine! I know I haven't eaten it yet, but I'm pretty sure this will be a repeat recipe at the Klein Casa.

Stay tuned for other meals that come from the leftover chicken. I'm really leaning toward a pot pie. *Yum*

Thanks for visiting again. I hope you find as much benefit and satisfaction from this meal idea as I do. 

*Update - after 4 hours and 10 minutes, my chicken was finished cooking. And it's fall off the bone tender. Can't wait to eat it!