Don’t bother with your store’s deli version. Make your own rotisserie chicken cheaper at home in your crock pot! And the surprise is a side dish cooks right along with the chicken and helps it get crispy too.
Rotisserie chicken has been a hot topic of conversation in my Crazy For Crockpots group on Facebook all summer. Many members and bloggers posted their recipes and they all looked delicious.
I’ve experimented with roasting in my slow cooker a while ago, and I was pleased with the results I got for my roasted drumsticks, so since roasters were on sale this week at one of my local supermarkets, I decided to give a whole chicken a go.
Another tip I picked up from one of our wonderful members on the crock pot group was that when she roasted a chicken, she’d place potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil on the bottom. That served 2 purposes she said. One that you got baked potatoes in the same pot along with the chicken, but more importantly, it formed a rack so the chicken didn’t sit in any liquid or grease. And that’s the key to roasting in a slow cooker–either you have to drain the accumulated liquid at intervals or you can use a rack. In this case the “rack” is actually part of the meal. This is a tip I absolutely loved!
There’s all different ways to flavor this. I chose to use some fresh herbs from my garden. Nothing exotic, just ones I like, such as thyme and parsley. There are also commercially produced rubs especially for this–and it’s called “Rotisserie Chicken.” In fact I have it and it’s quite good.
This tasted exactly like the store-bought kind. It was moist inside, the skin even got slightly crispy and it was totally delicious! The potatoes were flavored nicely too, although due to the way they are cooked, they don’t have crispy skins like you get from the oven, but they tasted very nice. Since you really can’t make a waterproof seal with the foil, some accumulated juice infused into the potatoes, but I found that very pleasant!
- 1 whole roasting chicken (about 5 lbs)
- 4 medium potatoes, wrapped in foil
- Rub:
- 1 tbs garlic powder
- 1 tbs onion powder
- 1 tsp dried thyme -or- 1 tbs chopped fresh
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tbs paprika
- Rinse chicken and pat dry inside and out.
- Place the potatoes in the bottom of a 6-7 quart slow cooker
- Combine all rub ingredients in a small bowl
- Rub the rub mixture all over the chicken
- Place chicken on top of potatoes in the slow cooker
- Cook on high 4-5 hours, low 6-8 hours or until chicken tests done (juices run clear or 175 degrees F on a meat thermometer)
- NOTE: I cooked this on high as I think it produces a better end product with roasting
Yum
As always Judy – great recipe! Such a clever idea to use the potatoes as the ‘rack’ at the bottom of the slow cooker!
Martha @ A Family Feast recently posted…Apple-Stuffed Acorn Squash
<3 Martha. Can't take credit for the potato thingy. A member of the crock pot group gave it to us, and I just LOVE it.
This recipe sounds wonderful and easy. I was thinking, what if you did not wrap the potatoes in foil and just cook them so the juice could permeate into the potatoes?? By the way, I love your blog and the recipes always work and taste delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the lovely compliment!! <3
If the potatoes are left unwrapped, they will infuse with the juices, and would be perfect to make mashed potatoes with. Actually wrapping them in foil doesn't stop the juice getting in--I wrapped and the juices still found a way in. Maybe I didn't wrap all that well LOL.