Lemon Roasted Chicken (Crock Pot)

I have to say that I am a huge fan of crock pot guru, Stephanie O'Dea. I own each of her cookbooks and had the pleasure to review the latest one, 365 Slow Cooker Suppers.This is a recipe from that book.

Lemon chicken is one of my favorite dishes and we thoroughly enjoyed this recipe. It was a nice blend of lemon, onion, seasonings and garlic. It produced a wonderful gravy that I ended up thickening with cornstarch. Now, Stephanie calls for skinning the chicken parts, but this is optional. Most times, I do leave the skin intact, but did skin it for this recipe.

Instead of using a head of garlic, I added 5 teaspoons of jarred garlic to the herb mixture. Other than that, I stayed pretty true to the original recipe.

So, here we go:

Ingredients:

2 onions cut into wedges
1 head garlic, peeled (about 10 cloves) I used 5 t. garlic
1 4 lb roaster chicken, cleaned (I used 4 lbs of chicken thighs)
2 lemons, juiced
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter, melted
1 T. dried oregano
1 T. dried parsley

Directions:

1) In a 6 qt crock pot, place garlic cloves (omit if using jarred garlic) and onions in bottom. Place chicken on top.

2) In a small bowl, add the remaining ingredients. If using jarred garlic, add to the sauce.  Pour over the chicken.

3) Cook for 7 hours on low or high for 5 hours. 

4) Remove chicken and onions from the crock pot and place in warm oven.

5) If desired, place 1 T. of cornstarch in a bowl and add 1/4 cup of the drippings. Stir until a smooth paste. Turn crock pot to high and add paste. Stir until well blended. Allow to thicken. This process should take about 20-30 minutes. Return chicken and onion to crock pot and cover with sauce.

6) Serve with white rice and veggies. Spoon sauce over rice.