Seriously. I have been craving chicken ALL week. The past few days have been pretty hectic and it seemed like every other minute I was heading to a holiday party and gorging my face on cheese and Swedish meatballs.

That being said, I defrosted a whole chicken and I needed to cook it before it went bad, even if I was pressed for time. What do I like to do when I don’t have a lot of time? Use my slow cooker! Here’s how to get a perfect roast chicken by barely doing any work:

Cut a few carrots into large chunks and put them at the bottom of the slow cooker with a bit of salt and pepper. If you don’t have carrots you can use peeled sweet potatoes, parsnips or thick slices of onion.

Place the chicken on top and rub with butter, smoked paprika and salt. Try to get some of the butter mixture until the skin for added flavour and moisture. If you don’t have smoked paprika, dried thyme or rosemary would be nice too. Stuff the bird with half a lemon and 4 cloves of crushed garlic. Set it on high and cook for 4-5 hours, depending on the strength of your slow cooker.

When There was about 45 minutes left I started on my potatoes. Pre heat oven to 400 and cut potatoes into wedges and toss in olive oil and the herbs and spices of your choice. I used my favourite steak spice.

Put in the oven for 45 minutes, tossing once. When there is 15 minutes left on the potatoes transfer the chicken to a oven safe dish and roast in the oven for 15 minutes to crisp up the skin.

You can make gravy out of the drippings OR you can use a dirty powdered gravy where you just add water. That’s what I did! I was trying to re-create a Swiss Chalet or St. Hubert type meal and only salty fake gravy would do.

YUM! The chicken was so moist and the potatoes were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The carrots absorbed all that great chicken and smoked paprika flavour and added some much needed colour to this basically brown dish. A side salad or steamed broccoli would be a nice way to jazz it up but I couldn’t be bothered.

I have a ton of leftover chicken so I can’t wait to repurpose them and make a whole new, exciting meal tomorrow! Stay tuned for that!

Thanks for eating with me:)

Julia