Crockpot Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

My husband and kids all love roast chicken. Like, love, love, love,loveloveloooove, roast chicken. Aiden can seriously eat a half a chicken by himself when he’s hungry. He’s 7 guys, so that’s saying something. It’s always the really skinny kids who can pack it alway.  

For a long time I never made the dish as often as everyone liked because I felt like I needed to be home at least half the day to supervise the chicken in the oven. Who has time to spend half a day watching the oven!? Not I. Or rarely anyhow.

Then I heard about crockpot roast chicken. I’ve gotta admit I was majorly sceptical at first. I love my crockpot as much as the next woman. In fact, it’s pretty much how I’ve survived the new school year so far. But crockpot roast chicken just sounded to me like one of those things where someone was just trying way too hard to make something ‘crockpot-able’ you know what I mean? There are certain things, like cakes for example that just don’t really work all that well in the crockpot. You can do it, but it’s not really good. (Please feel free to leave a comment with links to awesome crockpot cake recipes and prove me totally wrong.)

But, I was feeling bold so I gave the crockpot roast chicken recipe a try anyway. I knew one way or another to even give things a shot at working  I’d have to add one extra step that didn’t seem to be included in the recipes I found around on the internet: browning the chicken before putting it in the crockpot. I’m really not a fan that sickly pale color you get when meats have been crockpot only cooked. There are recipes you can get away with it, but even then I almost always end up browning my meat before crockpot cooking it. After all, not only does browning the meat make it look way more appealing, it adds a lot of flavor as well. So, pretty much totally worth it if you can possibly make the time. 

So, of course, the first thing I did was brown my chicken in a nice big skillet. From there I followed the instructions I found around the web; placing the chicken in the crockpot to rest on top of some potaotes, elevating it kind of like a roasting rack would do in the oven. And most interestingly, in all the recipes I checked out no liquid was added to the crockpot! So despite fearing discovering a scorched chicken at the end of my cooking time, I went with it. 

The method was a huge success, yielding tender moist chicken with a beautiful golden brown skin. (Admittedly it didn’t have as crisp a skin as it would have in the oven. Though by no means was it soggy and gross either.) Plus, as an added bonus, I ended up with potatoes cooked in the dripping juices of the chicken. I smashed them up and added some butter and served them right alongside the chicken. All I needed was vegetables and I had a complete meal. And with this roast chicken had secured a place in the weeknight dinner rotation! 

Crockpot Roasted Chicken and Potatoes– Yields one chicken and 4-8 potatoes depending on the size of your crockpot. 

• One whole roasting chicken
• 1/2 teaspoon sea Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Spray Oil
• Four to eight Yellow Potatoes, Washed (Number will depend on Crockpot Size) 

Additional:

• Butter and Sour Cream for serving the potatoes

1. Mix the sea salt, black pepper, and garlic powder together in a small bowl. Rub the seasoning mixture all over the outside and inside of the chicken. 

2. Heat a large skillet to medium high heat. When the pan is hot add the olive oil and the chicken to the pan. Allow each side of the chicken to sear, and brown well. Turn as needed to brown all the sides of the chicken. 

3.While the chicken is browning spray the inside of your crockpot with spray oil. Place the potatoes along the bottom of the crockpot, filling the bottom. A small crockpot will usually need 4-5 potatoes to cover the bottom. A large crockpot will usually need 6-8 potatoes to cover the bottom.

4. Use tongs to transfer the chicken to the crockpot placing it on top of the potatoes. The chicken should be completely elevated on top of the potatoes. Close the crockpot and cook for 6-8 hours on low, or 4-6 hours on high. The chicken will be very tender when done. Serve the chicken hot, with the potatoes topped with plenty of butter and sour cream!

Note: If you don’t want potatoes with your chicken, or don’t happen to have and on hand you can use a few large balls of foil to elevate the chicken instead.