I used to be intimidated by cooking a whole chicken. To be quite honest, I'm not a big fan of birds. I don't have a phobia, per se, but I really don't like pet birds, but then to actually deal with a whole bird...well, it took me many years of cooking to deal with a whole chicken. But then, I realized you could cook a whole bird in the crockpot and it made everything better. Five to ten minutes of prep work in the morning for a juicy bird in the evening? Sign me up. I've made a rotisserie chicken in the crockpot, and it is awesome. But recently, I wanted something different. Something with a more Asian vibe. So I started with some ginger and some cardamom...and went from there. The next thing I knew I had a 9 spice rub and it smelled amazing. It has an Indian taste to me. Smoky and a little sweet (with no sugar involved!) it took our chicken dinner to the next level. My kids and husband loved it--although it took the little ones a little convincing (they equate "spice" with "heat" in their young minds so I had to tell them this was "cool" spice!).

Here's what you need for the rub:



1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon whole coriander, crushed well (or 2 1/2 tsp  ground coriander)