{Easy} Slow Cooker Rotisserie-Style Chicken

The coming of fall usually means the end of the more laid back schedule of the summer. It means school schedules, sports schedules, extra curricular schedules, and fun fall events like pumpkin patches and hayrides. It’s a fun time, but sometimes hard for a busy mom to plan for frugal, healthy, meals around all the craziness.

Today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite meals. It’s easy, frugal, and delicious. It’s also incredibly versatile. And, it will make your house smell amazing!

{Easy} Slow Cooker Rotisserie-Style Chicken

Ingredients
-1 whole chicken, 3-4 lbs.
-1 recipe herb-butter rub (I have included a choice of recipes below)

Easy Herb-Butter
1/2 packet lipton’s recipe secrets, Savory Herb with Garlic*
4 tbsp. butter, softened

Combine all ingredients.

*I have also used Grill Mates garlic, herb, wine dry marinade mix, and Weber Garlic & Herb dry marinade mix.

Fresh Herb-Butter
4 tbsp. butter, softened
1 tbsp. fresh rosemary
1 tbsp. fresh parsley
1 tbsp. fresh basil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper.

Combine all ingredients.

Instructions:

1. In the bottom of slow cooker, place balled up aluminum foil. (This will keep chicken elevated above juices. If you’d like to make more of a one-pot meal, you can cover the bottom with carrots and potatoes for the same purpose).

2. Rinse chicken and pat dry, placing it on top of the aluminum foil balls. DO NOT ADD WATER. This is very important in giving your chicken that rotisserie-style taste and texture. The chicken releases plenty of juices.

3. Cover chicken liberally with herb-butter rub.

4. For best results, cook on high for 3-4 hours, until chicken is cooked thoroughly, exact time will vary based on size of chicken. You can also cook on low 6-8 hours.

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine does!

More Tips

Reserve chicken drippings and juice to make your own chicken stock for basically free, and much better than storebought! Β All you need to do is remove all chicken from bones. Replace all bones and any extra skin back into slow-cooker with the drippings and juice. Add water to fill slow-cooker, and cook on low overnight. Β If desired, you can add more spices for flavoring, and more vegetables like carrots, peppers, onions, celery, etc. for nutrients and flavor. Β Allow to cool and then store in freezer-safe containers in the freezer until needed.

Leftover Ideas

One of the things I love most about this meal is that it’s so versatile for leftovers. I love it when I can cook one thing and use it for different meals that my family loves, so that it’s easy on me without feeling like we’re eating leftovers all week. This meal is perfect for that.

-Add some chicken together with pasta, california vegetable blend, and alfredo sauce for a baked chicken alfredo.
-Chicken & dumplings using your leftover chicken and homemade chicken stock
-Chicken pot-pie casserole
-Chicken salad sandwiches

You can even freeze the extra chicken for a quick meal any time.

What are some of your favorite ways to use up leftover chicken?

 

35 thoughts on “{Easy} Slow Cooker Rotisserie-Style Chicken

  1. Angela

    This sounds delicious! I love using my crockpot but my recipe book is minimal in this area lol. Thanks for the tip of using a foil ball at the bottom.

    Reply
  2. Jennifer DeBerry Evans

    I have been cooking whole chickens in my crock-pot for years. I normally debone it to use in other meals.

    I also make my chicken stock from the bones/skin and meat that I leave on some pieces (I mean, there isn’t much worth getting off the wing and back). I do put celery, onion, and carrots in it to get the extra flavor as well. I just fill the crock to the top with water and set it on low for 8-10 hrs (usually do this overnight, so then it’s ready when I get up). I prefer using cheesecloth when straining the broth, but do not always have it on hand. If not, my regular strainer keeps the big pieces out-and the small stuff, well, it’s just extra flavor. I never made home-made broth until I started cooking the whole chicken in my crock-pot. It is so easy.

    Reply
  3. Crystal Brothers

    Jennifer, yes we make homemade stock with this as well. So much better than anything storebought, and more frugal, and you know exactly what’s in it! A win all the way around πŸ™‚

    Reply
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  5. Shanna

    I use my leftover chicken for enchiladas. Mix with salsa, roll in tortillas, cover with enchilada sauce and cheese and bake till melty. Yum!

    Reply
  6. Chanyn

    I just wanted to le you know that my email for this blog was incorrect in the subject. It was labeled, “In the Presence of God.” I almost didn’t open it because I thought it was accidentally sent twice. πŸ™‚ just wanted to let you know!
    Love the recipe, by the way. I have done chicken in my slow cooker but will have to try your seasonings!

    Reply
  7. Kelley

    Can’t wait to try this! How many would you say this feeds? I have been wanting to buy a whole chicken, and was hoping to stretch it over a couple meals, but with 6 of us eating, I’m just not sure there would be much left for anything more than broth…at $10 for a whole chicken (what they run at our store) and what our budget is like right now, I’d really need to stretch that for at least 2 meals to make it worth it…do you think that would be possible? This sounds delicious though! I can’t wait to try the herbed butter! Yum!

    Reply
    1. Crystal @ Serving Joyfully

      Yikes! $10 for a chicken is pretty steep. Is that organic, or just an expensive area? Either way, I can understand the need for stretching that.

      We have a family of 4. We all eat the chicken, and then I pick everything else off the bone to use for other meals. I usually get enough chicken for 2-3 more meals (things like chicken & dumplings, chicken noodle soup, etc. –dishes where meat isn’t the main focus). If I were guessing, I would say that you could probably feed 6 and still have enough leftover for one of those type meals, but I might just be extra conservative with adding it to those other meals. Hope that helps πŸ™‚

      Reply
    1. Crystal @ Serving Joyfully

      Great idea, Kelley! I just made chicken & dumplings yesterday and there was a lot of the sauce/gravy from those left w/ chicken still mixed in (I hope that makes sense), and I thought it would be great served over mashed potates kind of like a roast beef manhattan except with chicken instead.

      Reply
  8. Rosann

    Oh my, that is too easy to make. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I love crockpot cooking, but I must admit I’ve never used balled up foil in the bottom of it. I didn’t even know you could do that, but I suppose if you can put foil in the oven, putting it in a crockpot is no different. I’m excited to try this! πŸ™‚

    Reply
  9. Cindy W.

    This sounds delicious. I have a daughter with dairy allergies, and she can’t have store bought rotisserie chicken. The fresh herb butter sounds great, but she can’t enjoy that either. Can I substitute olive oil for the butter?

    Reply
    1. Cindy W.

      I’m reporting back to say that I tried it with oil instead of butter. I also used potatoes and carrots instead of foil balls. It was delicious! Thanks for the recipe. My husband was going on and on about how good the leftovers were going to be, so tonight I plan on making a chicken and noodle casserole. Thanks again!

      Reply
  10. carrie long

    We are SORT OF trying this tonight. I completely misjudged the size of our chicken, so there were too many potatoes to fit everything in our large crockpot. SO, I took everything out and put it in the Pampered Chef covered baker, following what I could of the Easy Oven-Roasted Chicken recipe on the PC website. (I promise that I’ve never sold Pampered Chef, so I’m not trying to sell their stuff here). Really, really, really hoping this works out! But, the beautiful part is that our kids watched Mama have a dinner dilemma (again), so maybe they won’t freak when it happens to them as adults! πŸ™‚

    Reply
  11. Donna H.

    I’ve used your recipe twice now, and both times have been happy with the results! I made it with the Grill Mates seasonings, as that was all that was available this time. Also, I put potato & onion wedges under the chicken instead of the balls of foil. They cook up nicely in the broth that the chicken produces!! Next time I may add a little celery & carrots. Perfect flavors for a stock, with the leftovers!

    Reply

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