Lemon Garlic Slow Cooker Roast Chicken

• servings: 5 servings
• active time: 10 minutes
• total time: 5 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 kg / 4 lb whole chicken (, patted dry (Note 1)

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp dried oregano

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 ½ tbsp olive oil (or melted butter), plus extra for drizzling)

3 garlic cloves (, minced)

1 large lemon (, all zest + all juice)

1 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water

1 extra lemon (, just in case)

Directions

Rub – Mix Rub ingredients. should be fairly thick and sludgy. Adjust with extra oil if too thick.

Loosen Skin: Use upside spoon to loosen skin of chicken (see video). Spoon most of the Rub under the skin, leaving about 1 tbsp mostly oil for the skin. Use hands or spoon on skin to spread the paste - doesn't need to be perfect.

Stuff used lemon inside the chicken.

Put rack inside slow cooker (Note 3), place chicken on top. Spread with remaining sludge, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Slow cook 5 hours on low or 3 hours on high, or until juices run clear or internal temperature is 75C / 165F using a meat thermometer. (Note 4 for other cook methods)

Brown skin: Remove chicken from slow cooker, drizzle with a bit of extra oil. Grill/broil on medium high for 5 to 10 minutes to brown the skin (~25cm /10" from heat source). Or oven 240C/450F for 10 min.

Spoon over pan juices, then serve with Lemon Sauce! (No need to rest chicken)

Lemon Sauce:

Pour all slow cooker liquid into a saucepan, add cornflour / water mixture. Mix.

Bring to simmer over medium high and cook until liquid thickens to thin syrup (depends how much liquid you have, usually 3 min or so). Adjust salt and pepper to taste, add more lemon if desired (the extra lemon). Pour into jug.

Notes

Recipe Notes:

1. Chicken – Remove giblets or anything else inside. If frozen, thaw completely. See below for cook times for different weights.

2. Herbs – can sub with other dried herbs of choice OR use finely chopped fresh but double quantity. Can also stuff a bunch of herbs inside!

3. Alternative to rack – use big sheet foil, scrunch into “rope” then form ring. Or 4 balls of foil. Aim is to elevate chicken out of liquids that it produces while cooking.

4. Other Cook Methods:

Pressure cook – Add ½ cup water and pressure cook for 24 minutes on high (depressure naturally 10 min before releasing valve).

Oven – Follow directions in this juicy Roast Chicken recipe.

5. Slow Cooker Cook Times:

1-1.5kg / 2-3 lb – 4.5 hrs on low

1.75-2.25kg / 3.5-4.5 lb – 5 hrs on low

2.5kg / 5lb – 6 hrs on low

For almost “all apart” meat, add 1 to 2 hours onto the cook times. Flesh is still juicy!

Pressure Cooker: 6 minutes per 500g/1lb of chicken.

5. Prep Ahead / Storage: Prepare chicken with rub under and on skin. Refrigerate up to 48 hours then slow cook per recipe. Cooked chicken keeps for 3 to 4 days in the fridge.

6. Nutrition per serving assumes all sauce is consumed

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 263 g
• Calories: 478 kcal
• Total Fat: 35 g
• Saturated Fat: 9 g
• Cholesterol: 144 mg
• Sodium: 484 mg
• Protein: 35 g