Chicken While You Work

I also love whole chickens as you cook them once and then make so many things from the leftovers. I had lunch with a friend the other day and, as always, the lunch conversation turned to food and recipes. My friend had just gotten a slow cooker for Christmas and the conversation turned to “what have you made?”. He mentioned that he had tried cooking a whole chicken in the slow cooker, which of course made me think: “What a great idea and why haven’t I tried this?”.

So, for Doris and her busy life and time constraints, I thought I’d give this time-saver a try.

Prep time: 10 minutes; Cook time: 8 hours; Serves: 4 (or 2 with lots of leftovers)

What you need:

• 1 whole chicken, giblets etc. removed, rinsed inside and out and patted dry (mine was 1.25 kg)
• 2 ribs celery, roughly chopped
• 2 medium sized carrots, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled, whole
• 1 small onion, peeled and ends cut off
• salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika (mix it up, also try lemon pepper or just plain old salt and pepper)

What you do:

• Place celery, garlic and carrots in the bottom of your slow cooker

• Sprinkle salt, pepper, onion powder and paprika over chicken, all sides and inside the cavity

• Take the onion and insert it into the chicken’s cavity (mix it up, try a lemon in the cavity instead of an onion)

• Tie legs together

• Place on top of celery, carrot, garlic base

• Turn slow cooker on low and cook chicken for 8 hours until juices run clear
• To get the skin crispy, place under the broiler for 5 minutes

Chicken stock for your soul (well, actually your freezer):

When you have removed your chicken and are browning the skin, don’t throw out all the stuff in your slow cooker, use it to make chicken stock. It is super easy and you can use the stock for so many things. If you can’t/don’t want to use it now, freeze it for later.

What you do:

• Scrape all bits off the bottom of the slow cooker
• Add 6 cups of water
• Add 2 – 3 bay leaves
• Add the onion from the chicken’s cavity
• Add the unloved vegetables that will have to be thrown out in a few days anyway (I used sad leftover fennel and some parsley)

• Strip the meat from the bones and throw the bones, neck parts, etc. into the slow cooker (avoid adding skin, it doesn’t add much flavour but adds oils)
• Turn on high for 2 hours and then low for 2 hours
• Strain and throw out veggies

• Pour into containers and place in fridge overnight
• The next morning you can easily remove the chilled fat from the top of the stock
• If you are not going to use the stock within a few days (up to a week), put in the freezer
• This made slightly less than 6 cups of stock