Slow Cooker Whole Chicken Recipe

This slow cooker whole chicken is super easy to make and is great for meal prep on a keto or low carb diet. Using the easy keto chicken dry rub you can create a super tasty whole chicken for dinner, use the leftover meat for meal prep and then make broth with the bones.

You might also like this keto rotisserie chicken in the air fryer.

I seem to make a lot of bone broth in the winter to have on hand for delicious soup recipes as well as to make chicken soup when we have colds. Today I set off to make some starting with this slow cooker whole chicken recipe.

I used my low carb dry chicken rub and then just set it in the slow cooker for 3 hours. It was the best roasted chicken we have ever had. The slow cooker seems to work much better than the oven for me. 

We ate it for dinner, then I used the bones to make overnight bone broth. The leftover meat was frozen for meal prepping recipes. So this ended up as a very economical recipe when you consider all the bone broth you can make too.

Plus it is a good healthy dish to eat whether you are on a low carb diet or not. And it was done in just 3 hours in the slow cooker!

How to make the keto chicken rub.

This is my go to rotisserie flavored rub. The ingredients are salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, Italian seasoning and black pepper. 

Below you can see I had an almost 6lb chicken and the plate shows the spices for my rub.

Sometimes I like to add a little Swerve brown sugar to give it a bit of sweetness but today I just used the above spices. This spice blend or dry rub is good for wings or even ribs.

How to roast a whole chicken in the slow cooker.

You will be surprised at how easy it is to roast a whole chicken in a crock pot!

Step 1: Spray the crock of your slow cooker with cooking spray. Then measure and mix the the seasonings for the chicken rub in a small dish.

Step 2: Take out the giblets and rinse the whole chicken. Dab dry with some paper towels and place in the slow cooker. I placed mine chicken breast side down for juicier breast meat. However if you are more concerned about how it will look you will want to place it breast side up.

Also you can place a rack in the crock or make a ring out of foil to keep the roast from touching the bottom of the crock. I didn’t bother with that and it came out fine.

Step 3: Take the spice mixture and rub it over the entire chicken. Doing this in the slow cooker keeps you from making too much of a mess.

Step 4: Place the lid on the crock pot and cook for about 3 hours on high. Cook until the juices run clear and the internal temperature of the chicken is 165°F when using a meat thermometer. Cooking time may vary.

Note: If you want crispy skin you can set the chicken on a rimmed baking sheet and place under the oven broiler for 5-10 minutes.  Make sure to watch it so it doesn’t burn. My really didn’t need it but it’s an option for you.

Step 5: Let the chicken rest for about 10-15 minutes before carving to keep the juices in. (Please scroll down for the printable recipe card.)

When carving the chicken make sure to keep all the bones and the carcass for bone broth. Store leftover meat in an airtight container in the refrigerator for soup or in the freezer for meal prep recipes.

NOTE: I didn’t use any vegetables with this recipe because I wanted it more for meal prepping and to make the bone broth later.

You could add some vegetables like celery, carrots, potatoes, etc in the slow cooker as well. They should be cooked by the time the roast is done.

Keto recipes to make with leftover chicken.

I used to by a rotisserie chicken every time I went to Costco just to cut up all the meat and freeze for my keto recipes. Now with this easy and inexpensive recipe I can do it more easily.

Here are some of my favorite low carb recipes that you can easily make with leftover chicken.

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I hope you give this crockpot whole chicken recipe a try. It’s a delicious and healthy meal for anyone whether or not you are on a keto diet.

And there is so much you can do with the leftovers as well as making broth with the bones. Enjoy!