This Crockpot Whole Chicken recipe is perfect for meal prep! It’s a fall off the bone recipe is one of the staples in my weekly meal plans because it takes very little effort to pull together and provides leftover chicken for several meals, depending on the size of your chicken.
I prefer making a whole chicken at home vs buying a rotisserie chicken from the store. I am always more inclined to enjoy a recipe that I make at home because I know exactly what is in my food.
Where’s the recipe?
Here at My Crazy Good Life, we write recipes that anyone can use. It doesn’t matter if this is the first time you’ve cooked in your kitchen or if you’ve been cooking for years, this is an easy recipe that you can follow. If you need more detailed instructions, recipe tips, and healthy eating plan information go ahead and start by reading the post below. If you feel comfortable following straight and to the point instructions, scroll straight down to the printable recipe for this Slow Cooker Whole Chicken recipe.
Ingredients needed:
- Whole Chicken
- Olive Oil
- Seasoning Vegetables: I love using celery, carrots, onions, and root vegetables like sweet potatoes
- Chicken broth or water
- Salt and Pepper
- Optional ingredients: Fresh rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder, or your other favorite fresh herbs and seasonings.
How to make this Whole Chicken Crock Pot Recipe:
You won’t believe how easy it is to make this tender chicken for meal prep. It’s as easy as adding everything to the slow cooker and walking away.
- Place all of your chopped vegetables on the bottom of the crockpot.
- Add broth on top of the vegetables. Adding extra liquid makes for a great (and easy) homemade chicken broth.
- Place the whole chicken on top of the vegetables and chicken stock, breast side up.
- Spread oil or butter over the chicken, then add salt and pepper on top to season the meat. If you’ve made a dry rub for the chicken, spread that spice mixture on now.
- Place the lid on your Crockpot and start to cooking! Cook for 4-6 hours on low, or 2-3 hours on high. Cooking this chicken on low will make for a more tender and juicy chicken, and make the chicken easier to shred.
Recipe tips:
- The cooking time is dependent on how large your chicken is and what temperature you’re cooking at. Larger chickens will require more cooking time. I used a 3 1/2 pound chicken and it was cooked after 5 1/2 hours on low.
- If you’d rather have your chicken sooner, cook on high temperature. If you’re content to wait all day, cook on low.
- Want crispy skin? If using a traditional slow cooker, you’ll want to pull the entire chicken out of the crockpot as soon as the internal temperature reaches 165º, and put it on a baking sheet or roasting pan. Place the chicken in the oven on the low broil setting for 3-7 minutes, standing at the oven door to make sure it doesn’t get burned.
- If you’d like other seasoning ideas for whole chicken, you can see more here:
- Lemon & Parsley: This method uses fresh ingredients stuffed inside of the cavity of the chicken
- Lemon & Garlic: This method uses fresh and dried seasonings.
How do I use my cooked Crockpot chicken in recipes?
You can use this cooked chicken in almost any recipe that calls for boneless skinless chicken breast, it’s just a matter of changing the cooking times. I use my best guess when substituting cooked chicken. Since the chicken is already cooked you don’t need to worry about raw chicken or bacteria being a concern.
In the case of recipes that have noodles or brown rice, follow the cooking times for those ingredients as your main focus. Again, we don’t have to worry about undercooking the chicken so you can basically take it out of the cooking equation altogether and just focus on the other ingredients like the vegetables, pasta, or rice, then add the cooked chicken at the end of the recipe.
My favorite Crockpot chicken recipes for meal prepping:
Making Crockpot chicken is a great way to get ahead for a variety of meals for the week! These are some of my favorite chicken recipes that utilize this slow cooker shredded chicken.
Crockpot Chicken Meal Prep
I use my Crockpot, Ninja Foodi, and my Instant Pot to do all of my meal prep. Once a week, I take some time and prep a variety of foods and meals so that my dinners, lunches, and snacks for the week can be ready to go.
Prepping chicken in the slow cooker is one of the easiest ways to make sure I have healthy protein on hand for dinners.
There are some acceptable options out there for store bought rotisserie chicken, and for certain they’re better than any fried option, but many rotisserie chickens have artificial sweeteners, gluten, and preservatives added to them.
Another reason to consider making this Crockpot chicken versus picking up a rotisserie style chicken from the grocery store is the bone broth. If you have ever considered making bone broth you can accomplish both tasks at once with no additional work.
Absolutely. Once you are done cooking the chicken in the slow cooker you can pull it off the bone and place pulled chicken in freezer bags.
Using cooked frozen chicken for recipes is a great way to cut back on meal prep times. It’s also a tasty gluten free, low carb, option for stocking the freezer. You can pull packages of this cooked chicken out of the freezer and thaw in the refrigerator.
Crock pot chicken is a great meal prep choice because you can use it in a variety of recipes, and it’s so easy to cook one! Check out the list below for ideas on how to use this easy chicken recipe. This is a wonderful slow cooker recipe that leaves you with plenty of healthy protein that you can use in some quick and easy 30 minute meals.
Healthy Eating Plans:
Crockpot chicken is a great recipe for both Weight Watchers and the 21 Day Fix. It’s a quick and healthy recipe that you can use for just about any healthy lifestyle program or meal plan. Having a low fat protein prepped and ready makes my life so much easier.
Each 3/4 cup serving is equal to 1 Red container. You can use this measurement to create your own recipes for 21 Day Fix and the Ultimate Portion Fix.
The recipes calls for chicken stock. I recommend using fat free chicken stock for WW. Calculate yourself using your exact ingredients to be sure you are getting accurate points.
I calculated these points with breast meat only. If you make 6 servings of white meat with skin removed and vegetables as a side, your counts are 3 Blue Plan Points | 5 Green Plan Points | 1 Purple Point.
Crockpot Chicken for Meal Prep
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp olive oil or butter
- 1 cup chicken broth (Use less if you don’t want any stock, 1/4 Cup will do)
- 2 sweet potatoes chopped
- 2 onions yellow, chopped
- 3 carrots chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
Instructions
- Place all chopped vegetables on the bottom of the Crockpot.
- Add broth, remember you don’t need to add much if you’re not making chicken stock to use for vegetable soup with the cooked veggies.
- Place chicken overtop of the vegetables and chicken stock.
- Spread oil or butter all over the chicken, then add salt and pepper on top to season.
- Place lid on the Crockpot and cook for 4-6 hours on low.
I’m confused. your comment is:
Making Crockpot chicken is a great way to get ahead for a variety of meals for the week! These are some of my favorite chicken recipes that you can use this chicken for.
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Healthy Buffalo Chicken Dip
Healthier Cracked Out Chicken
21 Day Fix Chicken Recipes
Spanish Rice with Chicken
But these recipes call for uncooked chicken breast or thighs etc….
Where are the recipes for THIS crockpot chicken?
She states in this article that she uses this chicken in those recipes to save some time.
Use those recipes exactly as written when you have time to cook with raw. When time is limited prep ahead and use this cooked chicken instead and adjust your time down.
I love making chicken in the crock pot. I usually will cube some and then shred the rest. I will freeze it for the week. I just toss it in to whatever I am cooking to help save time. Zap in the microwave to thaw or lay out in fridge the night before if needed.
Hi Kathryn,
The recipe for this chicken is right in the article above. You can always find my recipes at the end of the post in the printable recipe area.