Name: Slow Cooker Lemon Rosemary Chicken
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 180 min
Total time: 190 min
Yield: 6 Servings
Ingredients: 4 pound whole chicken; 3 large lemons; 8 sprigs fresh rosemary; 3 bulbs garlic; 1 Tablespoon lemon pepper

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A big thank you to Hamilton Beach for providing me with their Set & Forget® 6 Quart Programmable Slow Cooker to play with, and make this incredibly delicious Slow Cooker Lemon Rosemary Chicken. Okay, we need to discuss how delicious this Slow Cooker Lemon Rosemary Chicken is…and how easy it was to prepare…..

I am still rather new to slow cooking, it isn’t something that I grew up with. What I love most about this Set & Forget® 6 Quart Programmable Slow Cooker is the probe attachment! No more guessing if the chicken is done or not, the slow cooker will tell you when it reaches your desired temperature! How cool is that?

I knew that I wanted to make a whole chicken, but what flavors? The temperature dropped below freezing last week and I needed to bring my rosemary plant inside. That will be perfect…with lemons…and garlic! You know how much I love garlic. 😉

How to make Slow Cooker Lemon Rosemary Chicken:

Cut 3 bulbs of garlic in half, and placed them on the bottom of the insert, along with thick lemon slices and a sprig or two of rosemary…..

This is to keep the chicken from sitting in the juices on the bottom. I tried to cut the lemon slices about the same thickness as the garlic so it would make an even base. Then I stuffed the tops of the garlic bulbs, one lemon cut in half, and a few more sprigs of rosemary into the chicken cavity…..

The twine came with the chicken. 😉 Sprinkle with lemon pepper, add the remaining lemon slices and sprigs of rosemary and place the chicken into the slow cooker insert…..

Then turn the insert around because you just realized that the probe goes on the right hand side! Put the lid on, and insert the probe into the thickest part of the thigh…..

Don’t forget to plug the end of the probe into the bottom of the slow cooker. Search all over the kitchen for the cooking instruction pamphlet that came with your new slow cooker, then finally decide to just wing it. When you turn on the slow cooker, it will give you the current temperature of your protein {chicken, beef, pork}…..

Push the arrow buttons up to the desired final temperature…..

and go about your day. It listed HIGH as the temperature when I started pushing the buttons, so I just went with it. About 3 hours later the slow cooker beeped, and my chicken was done!

See how easy that was? I didn’t even have any instructions and I managed to make perfect Slow Cooker Lemon Rosemary Chicken!!

Now I am going to let you in on a little secret. I already had the oven on at 425 degrees to make Crispy Roast Potatoes, so I placed my chicken on a baking sheet, rubbed the top with olive oil {and sprinkled it with thyme}, and placed it in the oven to get brown and crispy, about 15 minutes…..

I suppose I need to let you in on another little secret, I used this same chicken for two different recipes…..but I can explain!! I made a Classic Roast Chicken with Roast Potatoes for my Harry Potter Halloween party, but the photos did not turn out…it was too dark! Rather than making two different roast chickens this week, I decided to make this one work for both…sneaky, sneaky. 😉

The flavor was ALL lemon, rosemary, and garlic. In fact, the thighs cooked on top of the garlic bulbs, so they were nice and garlicky!! I was most impressed with how moist the chicken was. I generally baste my roasted chickens {Greek Roasted Chicken, Peruvian Roasted Chicken} the entire time they are cooking. This chicken was actually more moist without any of the fuss. I could get used to this!;)

Some additional Slow Cooker recipes for you to try:

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Slow Cooker Barbecue Beef Sandwiches

Adobo Slow Cooker Chicken

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

Enjoy!!