This very easy slow-cooker recipe yields wonderfully tender and flavorful low-sodium roasted chicken.
After the chicken is cooked, you can save the broth from the slow cooker for soup, gravy, casseroles, or other recipes. See directions in the recipe below.
- Whole roasting or fryer chicken (the size depends on the size of your slow cooker. You want your slow cooker to be ½ to ¾ full when you place the whole chicken on top of ⅔ of the vegetables.
- Mrs Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning
- Mrs Dash Chicken Grilling Seasoning
- Optional: basil.
- 1 large onion, cut into chunks
- 4 celery stalks, cut in thirds
- Optional: lemon juice or dried lemon zest
- Optional: 1 can no-salt-added diced tomatoes or 1 can no-salt-added tomato sauce
- Remove chicken from packaging and remove neck and pouch with organs. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Pull most of the skin off the chicken.
- Sprinkle Mrs Dash Garlic Herb seasoning inside of chicken.
- Lightly sprinkle Mrs Dash Chicken Grilling seasoning (and optional basil) over the outside of the chicken.
- Optional: Rub lemon juice or ½ tsp dried lemon zest inside the chicken.
- Put some of the onions and celery inside the chicken. Place the remaining onions and celery in the slow cooker.
- Place chicken in the slow cooker on top of the vegetables.
- Optional: pour the tomatoes or tomato sauce on top of the chicken.
- Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 7-8 hours, until chicken is thoroughly cooked.
- Strain the vegetables, bones, meat, skin, etc from the broth and place the strained broth in a covered bowl or pan.
- After it cools a bit, put the broth in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (or overnight) to allow the fat to rise to the surface. (Don't stir the broth; just let it settle)
- After the broth is completely cooled, you can remove the fat by scraping it from the top with a spoon. Discard all of the fat.
- Divide the broth into useful portions (I like to save it in ½ cup or 1 cup portions.) Then put it into zip-lock bags and freeze it for later use in soups, casseroles, or other recipes.
- Note: this yields a very robust broth. To use the broth in a recipe, you will want to add approximately 1 part water for each 1 part broth. For example: 1 cup of this broth plus 2 cups water is appropriate for use in a recipe that calls for 1 cups of low-sodium chicken or turkey broth.
Our estimates assume the use of fresh chicken with only 3% sodium per serving (instead of chicken that has been infused with a high-sodium broth).
Note that sodium percentages depend on which daily reference you use. The estimated 60 mg of sodium per serving implies that one serving of this recipe provides:
– 2.5% of the U.S. FDA daily reference value for sodium for a 2,000-calorie diet that includes 2,400 mg sodium, or
– 4.0% of the American Heart Association recommendation of 1,500 mg sodium per day, or
– 6.0% of the Ménière’s diet recommendation of 1,000 mg sodium per day.
(As is the case with all of the recipes on this web site, the nutrition information provided in this recipe is only an estimate based on nutrition information provided on the packaging of each of the ingredients we used in this recipe and/or on a variety of sources on the web. This information should be regarded as an opinion only, with no guarantees that it is accurate. Obviously, the nutritional information will vary depending on the ingredients and quantities that you use.)
