I'm not a big fan of clutter, so even though I love to cook my kitchen gadgets are pretty minimal.
However, in my book a slow-cooker is an absolute must-have, especially if you have hungry kids to feed! My 51 pound nine-year old son is hands down the biggest eater I have ever seen for someone his size (he's always been a big eater, but now that he's getting older and getting bigger his appetite is growing in proportion).
Anyway, to keep the little rascal properly fed I find I've been turning to my slow cooker more and more frequently.
As long as I do a little advanced planning and have the ingredients on hand I can put together a huge meal with less than 15 minutes of hands-on prep.
Best of all, I can assemble the ingredients in the morning, go off and do my thing, and come back to a hot and healthy whole foods dinner at night.
The slow cooker also turns out the absolute moistest chicken ever and this recipe is no exception.
Tender and juicy, this crowd-pleasing chicken dinner is much healthier than most because the chicken is pastured and free-range (the spices I use also have anti-inflammatory and detoxifying properties).
I can't emphasize enough the importance of eating chickens that are free to range, pastured and fed the natural diet chickens are supposed to eat.
And of course for a chicken to be optimally healthy, it should be exposed to sunlight and be free to move and exercise.
This healthy chicken lifestyle is in sharp contrast to the typical factory-farmed chicken that is cooped up in a cage with no room to move around, fed a very deviant diet and exposed to artificial lights rather than natural sunlight.
By the way, unless you specifically go out of your way to eat free range pastured chicken then you can be assured the chicken you eat is unhealthily factory farmed.
The factory-farmed chickens not only have an inferior nutritional profile compared to the free-range pastured chickens, but because of their unhealthy living conditions they are highly susceptible to infections.
To combat rampant infections (such as salmonella) factory farmers give their chickens antibiotics and then bleach them with chlorine before sending them to market.
I find this to be disturbing.
The bottom line is factory-farmed chickens aren't even a fraction as healthy as their free-range pastured cousins.
And, since you can't separate the health of the animal from the health of the animal eater (you!) then it makes perfect sense to eat only the highest quality animals possible.
Ok, enough of the chicken lecture.
Here's the super simple whole foods recipe below.
Oh! and by the way, if you want to stretch the meal out try serving the chicken over quinoa (I cook big batches of this whole grain in my rice cooker) and thawed frozen petite peas.
Yum's the word =) Ingredients (Serves: 6) 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon paprika 1 tablespoons turmeric 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, plus more to taste 1 whole lemon One 3 1/2 pound free-range broiler/ fryer chicken, (such as US Wellness Meats) skinned and trimmed of excess fat, rinsed and patted dry 1 large onion, chopped 5 cloves garlic, chopped 1/2 cup chopped cilantro 1 pound carrots, chopped 2 red bell peppers, chopped 1 can (14 ounces) fire roasted crushed tomatoes 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (such as Leccino) 1.
In a small bowl, mix together the cumin, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt.
Add the juice from one whole lemon (reserving the lemon rind) and mix well.
2.
Using your hands, apply the spice mixture generously all over the inside and outside of the bird.
Stuff the cavity of the chicken with half of the onions, half of the garlic and half of the cilantro.
3.
Place the remaining onions, garlic and cilantro in the bottom of a 5 or 6-quart slow cooker.
Add the carrots, bell pepper and crushed tomatoes.
Stir in the extra virgin olive oil.
Season with salt to taste.
4.
Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.
Cover and cook on low for about 7 hours or on high for approximately 4 hours, or until the meat pulls easily away from the bones.
Serve warm.