Whole 30 Day 11 – Moroccan Roast Chicken

Hooray for Thursday! That means it’s almost Friday, which means it’s almost the weekend!

And to celebrate, I made you a chicken.

A Moroccan spiced roast chicken, to be exact.

You’re welcome.

Trust me, it looks a lot better in real life than it does via these pictures.

This is what it looked like last night:

Remember all that prep work I talked about? Well, this is part of it. I chopped up a bunch of carrots, celery, and onion and tossed them in the bottom of the crockpot and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and ras el hanout, or morrocan seasoning. Ras el hanout is a glorious combination of Moroccan spices that often include cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, chili powder, and cumin, to name a few. I’m sure you could make your own blend, but I found an awesome one at Giant that I use ALL. the time.

Anyway. After the vegetables are in the pot – prepare your bird. Remove the neck and giblets (I HATE that part. If the Significant Other is in town, I make him do it.) and rinse the chicken thoroughly. Pat him dry, and season him inside and out with salt, cracked pepper, and Moroccan seasoning. I also shove an apple (any variety) inside the cavity, just for some extra flavor.

When I finished, I popped the entire crockpot in my fridge overnight, so in the morning before work I just had to pop it back in the crockpot and turn it on low while I was at work all day! Bam!

It’s as easy as that.

Just an FYI: this chicken is fall-off-the-bone delicious. Literally. When you try to take it out of the crockpot, have your pan or plate nearby, ’cause it will come out in pieces.

Heaven.

One of my favorite ways of eating roast chicken is as lettuce wraps. All you need is some butter lettuce or leaf lettuce and whatever additions you want. My favorites are guacamole, salsa, and aged balsamic vinegar. LOVE aged balsamic vinegar.

Top a lettuce leaf with the guacamole, salsa, and balsamic and YOU have one fabulous dinner, my friends.