Slow-Cooker Roast Chicken with Soy & Garlic

My slow cooker rocks.

The laziest meals are the best ones. The easiest recipes rock my kitchen.
This dinner I made based on a friend's description of how to use your slow cooker to roast chicken, and it's our new family favourite.

Aside from being so darn easy to make, it is also a delicious crowd-pleaser and good enough for a special occasion...

Mmmmm... smells so goooood!

Here's what you need:

• 1 thawed whole chicken
• soy sauce (I use gluten free tamari soy sauce)
• golden syrup or runny honey
• garlic (a handful of dried flakes or two crushed cloves)
• 1 packet of roast chicken gravy (I use the Maggi gluten free one)
• 1-2 cups of water
• 1/3 bottle of white wine

Here's what you do:

In the morning turn on your slow cooker. Set it on high.
Plonk the chicken in the pot.
Squirt a good measure of soy sauce and golden syrup (or honey) over the chicken (sorry I am not a precise scientific cook).
Sprinkle in the garlic.
Mix the packet gravy with the water and pour over top of chicken.
Upend the wine bottle and let the wine slosh over the whole thing.
Get a soup ladle and roughly mix together the liquidy stuff.
Put the lid on and walk away for the rest of the day.

Look how the chicken is falling apart!

When the scent of roasting garlicky chicken lures you back to the kitchen, feel free to lift the lid and breathe in deep. While you are there spoon the liquid over the chicken. Some may call this "basting".

Mid afternoon turn the slow cooker to "low". Spoon the liquid again, if you like.

It may not be pretty but it sure is yummy!

About an hour before you want to eat, turn on your oven to 190oC (375oF)
Get a roasting dish and line with baking paper. Peel and chop some potatoes, pumpkin, kumara*... or whatever veges you love roasted (carrot? turnip? yams? capsicum?)

Arrange the veges in a single layer on the baking paper. Plop some olive oil all over (or even better use a sprayer - less fatty). Pop into the oven and roast for about 40 minutes.

Serve to your grateful and admiring family...
You won't need to carve the chicken. It is so tender all you need is a large spoon, it will simply fall off the bone. Heap up on plates with veges and ladle the sauce over top.
If you need some greenery, microwave some frozen peas.

Then sit back and watch those plates be emptied and licked clean (my kids get their manners off their daddy).

Bask in the praise of your husband as he toasts your brilliant chefery.
Revel in the shouts of "Oh yum!" from your fussy children.

And rejoice in the fact that this fine repast took all of twenty minutes to prepare.

Yum. Yum. Yum. The best kind of dinner.

*kumara = sweet potato