Rosemary Lemon Chicken

It's been my goal as of late to make meals that are:

1) Nutrious

2) Fast/able to cook while I'm at work

3) Something both Rob and his dad will eat (this is not easy)

In the past I've put chicken in the crock pot before, and I knew it would turn out well.  So that was my morning project: Rosemary Lemon Chicken...in the crock pot.

The first thing to do when preparing this dish is to wad up four sheets of aluminum foil into loose balls.  In the picture you can see the approximate size I used. 

The chicken rests on these foil balls in order to keep it out of the juices while it's cooking.  And it's a very good idea.  Make sure the balls aren't so big that they will prop the chicken up too much to close the lid, though! You can probably flatten them out a bit if this is the case.

As I've learned the hard way: Crock pot without a lid? Not so good.

Remove the giblets and rinse the chicken off.  Place it on the foil and pat it dry with paper towels.

Then drizzle on some delicious, wonderful, fragrant olive oil.

And do a lovely little massage.  Make the chicken feel loved and relaxed so it can do its job.  Because you do love it.  And you'll love it more later for all it will give to you.

And don't forget to wear your wedding rings while you're doing this, so they get all oily and chickeny.  It's a good idea.

Then you can get creative about your herbs and spices.  For the sake of this recipe, of course, I used rosemary along with salt and pepper and parsley (which I use with almost everything so don't feel like you have to, certainly).

Once the seasoning was over, I poured a cup of water around the chicken to keep it moist (you could probably use white wine) while cooking, and then I used some of this stuff...

Don't be hating.  If I had a lemon I'd have been using it, thankyouverymuch.  And I probably would have squeezed the juice of half into the water, slicing the rest and laying the slices over the chicken.  But here I am, using what I have.  So several healthy squirts went into the water, and then I drizzled it over the chicken.

Here's how it looked when I was finished.

And after 10 hours of cooking on low, and an hour of sitting on warm, here's what I was left with.

It smelled ridiculous.  Ridiculous.  I cannot possibly overstate this.

When the time came, I attempted to lift the chicken out of the crock.  This was not going to happen as the chicken was totally falling apart.  Of course I knew this would happen since I had, after all, made this in the past.  So I had to settle for pulling it out in pieces and trying to arrange it on a platter in a semi-attractive manner.

And it was delicious - tender, juicy and flavorful.

Enjoy!

UPDATE! I have since tried this chicken another way - I used vegetable oil instead of olive, and half a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Rach Dressing mix sprinkled all over.  And can I just tell you...it's the most chickeny chicken you will ever make in your LIFE.  I'm serious.  Something about it just makes the chicken taste that much more like chicken.  I've made it twice and both times I found myself picking at the platter long after my plate was empty because I just couldn't get enough! So give it a whirl.  You'll thank me later, I promise!!!!

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