Slow Cooker Caribbean Jerk Chicken

In one of my new book reviews, I wrote that the author recommended http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/ so I went and checked it out.  I found a bunch of recipes for a whole chicken to do in a crockpot!!!  Good news since I have a freezer full of whole chickens from the great $0.77 per lb sale at Harris Teeter weeks back.  I was determined to try a few recipes and I saved a bunch on my computer so that I found figure out what I had the ingredients for when it was time to cook.  Caribbean Jerk Chicken happened to be the first one because I found a bag of 16 limes on sale at Harris Teeter for $2. 

I was trying to figure out the basic costs with this recipe to see if it worked out to a cost effective solution too.  The whole chicken was on sale for $3.63.  I used 6 limes so that makes it a $0.75 cost in limes.  My parents bought me the chili powder and cinnamon for Christmas so they didn't really cost me anything.  I got the salt and brown sugar for free at the store.  Then the rice was a big bag that I have been using for awhile and I really don't know how many cups were in it and how much I paid but I would say it was less than $0.20.  If I would count the cost of the spices together, I might put them at $0.40???  So my total was $4.58 (counting spices was $4.98).  Three of us ate it tonight and there is a ton of chicken and rice leftover.   I think that I am going to freeze the extra rice and try to figure out another recipe for the chicken that I have leftover. 

Hint:  I was being a cheapskate so I zested the limes and put a little on the outside and I jammed the juiced lime halves in the cavity of the chicken for extra yummy.  I froze the extra zest to use in another recipe.

Slow Cooker Caribbean Jerk Chicken
Before Cooking in crockpot:

After cooking:

4-5 pound whole chicken

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon all spice (not a typo, it is a whole tablespoon!)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used chili powder)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 limes, juiced (about 1/3 cup)- my limes were small so we did 6

Instructions:

Use a 6-quart slow cooker (Mine is 3 ½ and it worked fine). Make sure all the giblets, neck, etc. are out!  Skin the bird as much as you can (optional).  In a small mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar and dry spices. Rub this spice and sugar mixture all over the bird, inside and out. Cook the chicken upside down, to keep the breast meat as juicy as possible. Pour on the lime juice. 

Cover, and cook on low for 6-7 hours, or on high for 4. Check doneness with a meat thermometer, or cut in to make sure the meat is no longer pink. Usually the bird falls completely apart when it is done.  Remove chicken from crock pot and reserve juices to make rice. 

You can serve with lime wedges for a bit of extra citrus flavor, if you'd like.

Please note, if you don’t have all spice (like me) use the following instead:

  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  1 teaspoon nutmeg

  ½ teaspoon ground ginger

  ½ teaspoon ground cloves

Lime Rice

1 cup white rice
2 cups of reserved liquid (add water if you don't have enough)

Boil for 20 minutes in a covered sauce pan.  Fluff with fork when done and serve with chicken.

Shared at Posed Perfection