Buying a whole chicken is inexpensive, but it can be hard to figure out what to do with the darn thing once you’ve got it. We had a whole chicken we’d bought from Angel Food and I needed to find an inexpensive and easy way to prepare it. We’d been preparing whole chickens with lemons and fresh rosemary, but it’s expensive and requires a fair amount of prep work that I didn’t have time to deal with that day. I’d heard people say that they cooked whole chickens in the crock pot and so I decided to google it and see what I came up with.
This is the first recipe I found. First I had to verify that we had all of the ingredients on hand…all I lacked was the thyme, so I figured I could leave it out with all of the different peppers and it would still taste good. I mixed up the spices while my husband chopped an onion. (We skipped the marinating step.) We had to cut the chicken in half because my big crock pot was in the dishwasher and my little one wasn’t quite large enough to hold it. We threw the onions in the bottom, added the spice rubbed chicken, and left it on high for about 6 hours. I did double check the temp with a meat thermometer because I’m a little paranoid, but it was well above the minimum temp necessary for chicken.
We scooped it out and it was so tender…it just fell off the bone! The boys liked it, we thought it was delicious (it had a nice kick, but wasn’t too spicy) and it was so easy! My only changes would be to add some more veggies. Carrots, celery, and potatoes would probably be good. We also saved the broth, but I’m not entirely sure what I’ll use it in because it’s pretty spicy. We’ve been making chicken sandwiches with the leftovers, too. A lot of food for a little money. I’ll definitely be using this one again.
Susannah
August 4, 2009 at 11:44 am
Freeze the broth in ice cube trays and then put them all in a ziploc bag. Pull one out to mix in with the water anytime you make rice or want to add a little kick to some soup, Trust me, homemade stock ALWAYS comes in handy. And if you freeze it in small portions, the spiciness won’t be too overwhelming!
And if you want to make this recipe SUPER delicious? Soak the chicken overnight in some salt water with a half cup of brown sugar and a few crushed garlic cloves before putting it into the crock pot.
I am the Mama » Blog Archive » Thrifty Thursday — Whole Chickens
August 13, 2009 at 1:17 pm
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