This slow cooked chicken is on our weekly rotation for food prep just about every single week. With minimal effort, I can put it on to cook early in the day and have an incredible juicy chicken packed full of flavour by dinner time. We love it during the week to cut up for use in wraps, on salads, in pasta, or just for picking at after school.

You can prepare the chicken the same way you would your favourite roast chicken, but we tend to keep it simple: I just coat the chicken with a wet rub and let it cook. Yep, it’s that easy. Nothing else. Just chicken and whatever seasoning(s) you like.

A wet rub is basically just a dry rub mixed with a little oil, and thankfully, there are a lot of spice rubs on the market that make the job easy for you.

So here it is…

• Put the whole chicken in your slow cooker.
• Pick your favourite dry rub and place a few tablespoons into a small bowl or ramekin.
• Add enough olive oil to make it a wet paste and combine.
• Apply the rub under the chicken skin, all over the outside of the chicken, and drizzle some inside.
• Put the lid on your slow cooker, set to low, and wait 6-8 hours, or until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees F.

Don’t be tempted to cook the chicken on high setting. I’ve found low and slow gives you the best results, and a whole lot of juices to use after for gravy or for use in making broth/soup.

Since we make this dish fairly often, I switch up the seasonings to suit our intended purpose each time. Our favourites are Hawaiian Woodfire BBQ, Greek, and Montreal Chicken.

Whether you cook the chicken for an easy weeknight dinner, or use it up through the week as we do, meal prep just doesn’t get any easier. This week we turned some of the leftover chicken into chicken salad sandwiches as part of a Valentine’s tea party luncheon my girls put together for their grandparents.

Get creative with your leftovers and be sure to share your ideas here.

Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!