Lemon & Rosemary Crockpot Chicken {with printable recipe card}

Before you balk at the fact that I'm using a whole chicken {I know who you are, balker!}...please know that a couple of years ago, they wildly intimidated me, too. But, it's so cheap to use the whole bird, that it's basically the only way I buy chickens anymore. They were on sale for $.77 a pound at the store this week, so I scooped a few up {it makes an entire meal for us for less than $4...plus a side dish or two}.

 

For this recipe, I used:

- 2 lemons {they were on the smallish side}, sliced

- several sprigs of Rosemary {it's going cRaZy in my herb garden right now}

- olive oil

- butter {I used about 1/4 cup, sliced into pats}

- sea salt

- 1 whole chicken

{For directions on prepping a whole chicken & disposing of its "contents", see this post I created on cooking a whole chicken in a slow cooker.}

Wow. What a flattering photo of this hen's, errr....cavity? Stuff a few lemon slices and some of your Rosemary in the cavity, before laying her breast side up {to see what breast side up looks like, again, see the post on the whole chicken cooking}, into a slow cooker that has been drizzled with olive oil {I do about two "whirls" around the crockpot with my bottle of olive oil}.

Tuck the rest of your Rosemary and lemon slices all around the chicken in the crockpot. Using your hand, work your way between the skin and body of the bird to separate the skin a bit. Tuck in several pats of butter. Season well...I personally, like to keep this recipe simple, so I only use my sea salt. But, feel free to add some fresh-cracked pepper, too {I have a five-year-old who has an aversion to seeing little black speckles on anything he eats, so I avoid the pepper currently}.

Turn your slow cooker on low and cook for 6-7 hours. Your house will smell amazing about hour number four! And when it's finished, the bird will practically fall apart and be so moist and tender.

This is super filling, too...we are low carbers and simply pair this with some garlic-sauteed spinach for a meal {I have to give my boys some fruit, too, because their grandmother has instructed them that a meal always consists of three items. What in the hee-haw is that all about?}

To download a printable recipe card {in both 4x6 and 5x7 sizes to fit your recipe files}, click on the image below:

{i linky party here}