Our Dinner Obsession: Pesto Whole Chicken in the Crockpot

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August 17, 2025

Pesto Whole Chicken in the Crockpot

Sometimes the best meals are the simplest. This pesto whole chicken in the crockpot is one of those set-it-and-forget-it dinners that makes the house smell incredible and gives you tender, flavorful chicken with almost no effort. It’s perfect for busy weeknights, meal prep, or anytime you want a wholesome farm-to-table meal without spending hours in the kitchen.

Why We Love This Recipe

Whole chickens are one of our favorite cuts to keep on hand. They’re economical, versatile, and feed a family (with leftovers to spare). Adding pesto takes the flavor to the next level—herby, garlicky, and rich with olive oil and parmesan. The slow cooker does all the work, so dinner is ready when you are.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (4–5 lbs), giblets removed
½ cup prepared pesto (store-bought or homemade)
1 lemon, sliced
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 small onion, quartered
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Prep the chicken: Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season generously with salt and pepper, inside and out.
Add flavor: Rub the pesto all over the chicken, making sure to get under the skin where possible.
Layer the aromatics: Place the onion, garlic, and lemon slices in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Cook low and slow: Set the chicken breast-side up on top of the aromatics. Cover and cook on low for 6–7 hours or on high for 3–4 hours, until the chicken reaches 165°F in the thickest part.
Optional crisping: For golden, crispy skin, transfer the cooked chicken to a baking sheet and broil in the oven for 3–5 minutes.
Serve: Carve and enjoy with your favorite sides—roasted veggies, fresh bread, or a simple green salad.

Tips & Variations

Homemade Pesto: If you have a bumper crop of basil, whip up a fresh batch for even brighter flavor.
Leftovers: Shred leftover chicken into pasta, grain bowls, or sandwiches. The pesto flavor only gets better the next day!
Make It a Meal: Toss baby potatoes or carrots in the crockpot with the chicken for a one-pot dinner.

From Our Farm to Your Table

When you start with a farm-raised chicken, you don’t need much else to make a meal special. This recipe is proof that a few simple ingredients and a little time can turn into something truly delicious.

Recipes

High Quality, Humanely Raised Berkshire Pork

Our Pig Story, from the BeginningFor Shae, you could say that raising pigs is in her blood. Her Dad grew up raising farrow-to-finish hogs alongside his step-father up until 1990s, when they sold the hogs and began focusing just on cattle. This is a very common story for many Iowa farms. We are lucky that he saved some of the hog equipment from those days and we’ve been able to repurpose much of it for our current production + the experience and stories are invaluable. Throughout her life, Shae’s family would often raise a hog or two for their own personal consumption.As Over the Moon, we raised our first pigs to sell for meat in 2019. It was just a few and we sold them as “whole/half” hogs taking them to a “custom exempt” processor. Since that point, we have continuously had pigs back on the farm.In 2021 we decided we wanted to expand the ways we were selling pork and took our first animals to a “state inspected” processor, which allows farmers to sell the meat by individual cuts. Selling pork this way really expanded the accessibility of our products and made us feel excitement about expanding production!Around that time we started to feel the constraints of purchasing feeder pigs in. As the pork industry in Iowa has become more and more consolidated, there are less and less people farrowing heritage breed hogs that can be sold to smaller farmers like ourselves. We had also struggled with finding a consist supply of the breed(s) we felt gave us the best quality meat.In 2022, we decided we needed to begin producing pork that was farrow to finish, in a closed herd on our farm. We purchased bred gilts (female pigs that hadn’t had babies yet) in 2022 and since have grown to have 10 successful, purebred Berkshire sows and a boar on the farm. With those animals alone we are able to produce somewhere around 180 pigs a year.About Our Herd & PracticesPurebred Berkshire PigsWe decided to focus on just this one heritage breed because we LOVE the meat quality, they are great mothers, and the pigs have docile personalities. They fit really well into our system on the farm.Farrow (birth) to FinishThis allows us to ensure our sows are raised humanely. They farrow (give birth) in open, deep bedded pens, instead of farrowing crates.Seasonally and age appropriate housingWe have pigs in a variety of places, based on their age and the weather. This ranges from a barn where the sows farrow + the younger pigs stay, to an outside area with access to a barn where we keep the sows when they aren’t farrowing and the larger feeder pigs throughout the year!Non-GMO Feed from a local supplierFinding the Right Butcher ShopFinding the best option for pork processing for our farm has been a journey the past few years. There’s a lot that a farm needs to consider including the inspection status of the processor, location, packaging, capacity/ availability, and more. We are currently using Nimrod Meats which is located in Iowa Falls. They have been a great fit for us because they are a new processor with state of the art, humane handling facilities which is a key priority for us. They are also family owned and wonderful to communicate with + we think they do a wonderful and thoughtful job with our products!