This Slow Cooker Roast Chicken is the juiciest, most forgiving and easiest whole chicken recipe I know. It’s such a great way to cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker that’s incredibly quick to prepare with beautiful flavours reminiscent of Greek food!
This roast chicken recipe can be slow cooked OR pressure cooked then popped under the grill/broiler for 5 minutes to crisp the skin. You can serve up a Sunday Roast Chicken dinner any day of the week!
Slow Cooker Roast Chicken – A Gold Nugget Recipe
If you’re new to making a whole chicken in a slow cooker, this is going to be life changing.
No false promises! This crock pot whole chicken recipe is truly one of my gold nugget recipes. That elusive combination of quick and easy, incredibly forgiving, but in no way a compromise of a great classic Roast Chicken. Here’s why:
✅ The flesh of this chicken (even the breast) is so juicy, you’d swear it’s been brined;
✅ Ultra forgiving – Even if you go 2 hours over the cook time, it’s still juicy. The magic of slow cookers!
✅ It looks and tastes like a traditional oven roasted chicken – albeit (I kid you not) the breast meat is more tender and juicier;
✅ Various cooking options with exactly the same outcome. Slow cook on low (5 hours), high (3 hours), or pressure cook for 24 minutes.
✅ It takes less than 10 minutes to prepare to get it in the slow cooker, and you can prep ahead. Plus, the Lemon Sauce is effortless – just add cornflour/cornstarch into the slow cooker juices.
Crock pot whole chicken recipe ingredients
This is all you need for this recipe:
How to Cook a Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker
This Lemon Garlic slow cooker whole chicken starts with an olive oil paste that’s made with lemon, garlic, salt, pepper and dried herbs of choice (I use thyme, oregano and parsley).
For maximum flavour, I put most of the paste under the skin of the chicken. This is not hard to do – and doesn’t need to be “perfect”!!! Watch the video. 🙂
Just loosen the skin using a dessert spoon (hugs the curves, avoids piercing skin), spoon the paste under, then spread it roughly using your hands or the spoon from the outside. Doesn’t need to be perfect, the paste will slide and naturally spread as it cooks.
Pop the used lemon inside the chicken, then place the chicken on a rack in the slow cooker (or use balls or a ring of scrunched up foil), and slow cook for 5 hours on low.
When the chicken comes out of the slow cooker, it will smell gorgeous but will look thoroughly unappetising – pale and colourless. Just a quick 5 to 10 minute broil/grill fixes that – you will be amazed how quickly the skin goes from bland to crispy golden brown!!!
How long does a whole chicken take in the slow cooker?
A 2kg/4lb whole chicken will take 5 hours on low, or 3 hours on high. This will be a juicy and carvable, chicken like a traditional oven Roast Chicken.
If you want one where the meat is more tender and can basically be pulled off the bone with little effort, slow cook for 7 to 8 hours on low.
Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot Option!
This Lemon Garlic Roast Chicken can also be made in a pressure cooker. It comes out exactly the same – just a heck of a lot faster! 😂 Just add 1/2 cup of water and pressure cook for 24 minutes on high. Let it depressurise naturally for 10 minutes then release the valve.
Lemon Sauce
I used to call this a gravy, but it somehow seemed odd to have a lemon flavoured gravy. So I reverted to just Lemon Sauce!
You’ll love how straight forward this is compared to usual gravies. No messing around with oily pans and cooking flour and straining. Just add cornstarch / cornflour then simmer until thickened. That’s it!
Oh the possibilities!!!
The beauty of recipes like this is that it’s easy to adapt this cooking method to make it your own. I’ve kept it straightforward because it’s an everyday roast chicken recipe.
Here are some ideas for variations:
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Other dried herbs – or use fresh instead;
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Add spices – or skip the herbs and use a rub instead;
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Add a quartered onion and halved head of garlic (or smashed garlic cloves) under the chicken (it will make the gravy even tastier! Strain out of sauce)
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Add fresh herbs and a halved head of garlic inside the chicken (you need lots of garlic to be able to taste it)
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Use butter instead of oil (use more!)
OK, so that’s it from me! Longer than usual post, but I have a lot to say when it comes to this Slow Cooker Roast Chicken. 🙂 Hope you enjoy. And I’d really love to hear what you think if you try it – or how you make it your own! – Nagi x
More Whole Chicken Recipes
-
Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk (seriously delish!)
-
Chicken Noodle Soup – from scratch!
Lemon Garlic Slow Cooker Roast Chicken
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Lemon Garlic Slow Cooker Roast Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 kg / 4 lb whole chicken , patted dry (Note 1)
Rub (Note 2):
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2.5 tbsp olive oil (or melted butter), plus extra for drizzling
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 large lemon , all zest + all juice
Lemon Sauce:
- 1 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water
- 1 extra lemon , just in case
Instructions
- 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.
Recipe Notes:
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 Information:
Originally published August 2014. Updated January 2019 – recipe improved, everything completely rewritten, new photos, new video. Most importantly, Life of Dozer section added! 😂 Just in case anyone is after the original recipe, here it is.
Life of Dozer
He was captivated by the video for this slow cooker chicken…. 😂😂😂
Hey Nagi,
Can I throw potatoes, carrots, etc in the pot as well to make this an all in one meal?
You could Julie, I would throw them in at about the 3 hour mark and let them cook for about 2 hours – otherwise you may find they go a little mushy. N x
No rack No Problem. I just got pressure cooker. made a rack of celery carrot onion cut onion in half no need to remove skin garlic cloves cracked skin on FLAVOR TOWN ,, great recipe “Good Eating”
Wow! Turned out perfect. Delish. Thx so much.
Trying for first time today. Tip: rather than bunching up foil to keep meat high, use Mason jar rings.
Oh wow! This was so amazing. I cooked it in the pressure cooker on a bed of halved potatoes and it took only 20 mins. I’m a cook for a busy family. Tonight they will come home and find this all ready to go into a hot oven to be browned. Thanks for the inspiration. X
Hi Nagi, this is my go to roast chicken and last night I decided to experiment – used lime zest rather than lemon plus 4-5 torn lime leaves, 1/2 a star anise and the cinnamon and garlic and it was absolutely amazing (even if I do say so myself!) – gives a really lovely asian/Thai sensation to the sauce.
Do you need the rack on the bottom?
Hi Matt, you do – but if you don’t have one, see the alternatives listed in my notes 🙂 N x
Hi! Can I put a layer of chopped potatoes underneath instead of the rack or will this not work well?
Hello, I was wondering how this would taste without garlic, or with a substitute (maybe a small bit of horseradish?) I’ll be cooking for someone who can’t have garlic.
Hi Elizabeth, it will be great without – can they have onion/garlic powder? N x
Hi Nagi this looks great but how do you think it would if i brushed soy sauce or maggi seasoning on the skin either before it goes in slow cooker or just before putting under the grill?
Hi Tanz,Ii don’t find it needs it – it may make it a little too salty so go sparingly if you do 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi! May I know how many litre is your slow cooker, please? I am deciding on which slow cooker to buy to make this recipe. Thanks!
Hi Jennifer! This is the exact one I have – https://www.bigw.com.au/product/breville-the-flavour-maker/p/8210896/?store=145&gclid=CjwKCAiAudD_BRBXEiwAudakX77LD6UbZ2EloAnIX-_4KFUMLkYwGA5D1nRNon75s_cZCJgoMJG7OBoCYdoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
5L basic slow cooker. I just have never needed all the fancy extras 🙂 N x
Thank you! 😊
I made this for Christmas lunch and it was SUPERB. Followed your recipe exactly. Low maintenance with exceptional results. Gonna always roast chicken this way. Thanks Nagi, this is a real keeper.
Made this today for family Christmas dinner. I had a 6-8am support shift, so I simply spent half an hour prepping everything on the same day. I didn’t realise I could have prepped ahead! It worked so beautifully. Needed to use sturdy rubber gloves to transfer it from pot to oven tray to brown the skin. The sauce/gravy was just beautiful, and the whole thing was super well received. Drumsticks dry out a touch in the oven, but the rest was so juicy and so tasty. Will defs make again.
Hi Nagi, this roast looks scrumptious. Going to try it. But I’ve a question. I didn’t see you adding any water into the slow cooker. Do I just start the slow cooker without water?
Nope, you don’t need to add water. The slow cooker essentially steams the meat using its own moisture. If you’re a little worried about lack of moisture, use onions sliced about 2cm thick (I cutthe top and bottom off, then cut in half, that’s it) as the rack instead of foil. This will stop the chicken sticking, will create plenty of pan juice and will flavour the sauce/gravy. You can also cut the top off a whole head of garlic and put that under the chook with the onions. It will give a great flavour to the gravy. Simply take/strain out the onions and garlic before adding the juice to a pan to reduce into gravy. We ate the onions (i forgot to use garlic today but would have eaten it too).