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Melts Off the Bone and Flavor Packed
This is a super easy way to get a whole chicken cooked without thinking about it and have shredded meat to use in a couple of different meals. You also come away with a delicious and nutrient dense broth. I like to throw everything in the crockpot in the morning and have the meat cooked by dinner time to make some quick taquitos or chicken nachos.
The Mexican inspired aromatics and spices get infused into the meat, and when it’s high quality, organically raised pastured chicken like we offer at Delgado Homestead, the finished result is loaded up with flavor like you wouldn’t believe!
The chicken literally melts off the bone and shreds apart with the lightest touch after it has cooked in the slow cooker. Here on the homestead, it is a weekly Sunday ritual to make this and meal plan for a few days.
Slow Cooker Whole Pastured Chicken
Ingredients
- 4-6 lb whole pastured chicken, thawed
- 1/2 medium onion, quartered
- 4-6 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 3 whole cloves
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Place onions and garlic in the bottom of a slow cooker.
- Place chicken on top of onions and garlic.
- Fill to the top with water leaving 1/2″ space.
- Add the rest of the ingredients.
- Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
- Set to warm or off and let sit at room temp for 15-20 min.
- Take a slotted spoon and insert into the cavity of the chicken to lift the chicken out of the slow cooker and into a large bowl to cool. If it all falls apart while taking it out, that’s OK.
- When cool enough to handle, shred the meat by hand separating the white and dark meat.
- Use the meat for chicken taquitos or your favorite shredded chicken recipe.
- Strain the stock and use as a base for an incredibly tasty soup.
