Crock Pot Tuesday: Another Whole Chicken Recipe

Main Dishes, Recipes 3 Responses »
Apr 242012

I have a crock pot recipe again today! Sorry my Crock Pot Tuesdays haven’t been as frequent as I had originally planned, but I have one today!

When I saw this super-simple rotisserie style chicken recipe for the crock pot I knew I wanted to try it! All you have to do is:

  1. Rinse and pat dry a whole chicken.
  2. Rub chicken with a seasoning  salt (I used a combination of Creole seasoning and my own seasoning mix).
  3. Wrap the entire chicken in aluminum foil and place in your slow cooker
  4. Cook on high 5 hours until temperature reaches 175-180 Fahrenheit.
Results – I didn’t think it tasted exactly like the rotisserie chicken you get in the stores, especially the skin. BUT minus the skin I thought the chicken was still good. Compared to my other chicken in the crock pot recipe, this chicken was less wet and slimy, so it’s better in sandwiches. I think I’ll keep making this recipe for sandwiches.
I spent about $4 on the chicken (sometimes I can find them for even less if I hit a good sale) and it made 4-5 cups of chicken. That means about $1 a cup. A nice (preservative-free) alternative to sandwich meats. Plus this would freeze great and of course you could use it in all kinds of recipes!
Crock Pot Tip – I’ve always heard NOT to open the lid during crock pot cooking. Because of the heat loss it adds more cooking time, but if I’m honest….I do this way to often. :)
Posted by purposelyfrugal at 8:58 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

Crock Pot Tuesday: Whole Chicken and Broth

Main Dishes, Recipes 3 Responses »
Mar 272012

This isn’t really a recipe for a meal, but a recipe for shredded chicken and chicken broth that can then be used in lots of various meals and it’s super easy, frugal and healthy!!

Ingredients:

  • Whole Chicken
  • Veggie scraps (more on that later)
  • Water
  • Splash of vinegar
  • Salt and pepper
  • Bay leaf (optional)

Put the whole chicken in your crock pot (make sure you have one big enough for the whole bird). Then put in veggies. To be less wasteful, I’ve started saving veggie scraps for this. When cutting up veggies I save the tough outer skins of the onions, celery  leaves and limp celery, and carrot peelings (make sure to wash the carrots and celery). I just throw them in a bag in my freezer until I need them to make chicken broth.

Put enough water in to cover the chicken and veggies. Add a splash of vinegar, salt, pepper and a bay leaf.

Cover and cook on Low for 8-10 hours. When it’s no longer pink and the chicken easily falls off the bone, it’s ready. Let it cool until you can handle it, then take all the chicken off, discarding the bones and skin (unless you have a furry friend, who might like the skin). Strain the broth, and discard the veggies. If you want to make your broth lower in fat, put it in the fridge until a yellow skim forms on the top and take that off, it’s the fat.

Now you have chicken and broth all ready for future meals! If you’re not going to use them right away, they freeze easily.

9 cups of broth and 4 cups of chicken all for $3.60!

How much you get will depend on the size of your chicken, but with this chicken I got 9 cups of broth and 4 cups of shredded chicken. Since the chicken was on sale for 77 cents a pound I only paid $3.60 for it!

This shredded chicken works great in a lot of recipes my favorite are chicken tortilla soup, chicken quesadillas, chicken salad sandwiches, or chicken pasta salad.

The broth can be used in a lot of recipes too. I usually use it to make soups or cook rice in it to add flavor.

Crock Pot Tip from my Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook:

Don’t have enough time? A lot of dishes can be made in less time by increasing the temperature to High and cooking the dish for about half the time as is necessary on Low. -Jenny R. Unternahrer, Wayland, IA

This post is linked at Armstong Family Fare for Kitchen Tip Tuesday, who’s hosting it for Tammy’s Recipes today.

Posted by purposelyfrugal at 8:04 am Tagged with: , , , ,

Cooking A Whole Chicken

Main Dishes, Recipes 3 Responses »
Apr 042011

My Chicken is Ready to Be Cooked

Of course there’s many ways to use a whole chicken, oven roasting, cuting it up to use the various parts in different ways, but here’s how I have started cooking my chickens. I got the basic recipe (I varied it a little) from my Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. It’s easy and you get broth from it too. Around here whole chickens usually run at about 88 cents a pound, but my last 2 I got for 79 cents a pound at Sams Club (reduced for quick sale).

So here’s how I do it:

  1. Open the package and drain off any liquid. Then just plop the chicken in your crockpot. (note: depending on the size of your crockpot you may need to only buy smaller chickens, mine ususally just barely fit)
  2. Wash and cut up some onion, carrots and celery (don’t forget to throw the celery leaves in too). Add them to the crockpot along with any seasonings you think would be good. I usually just add salt pepper and maybe a bay leaf.
  3. Fill the remaineder of the crock pot with water. Turn it on high or low (low cook 8-10 hours, high 5-8).
  4. Once it has cooked long enough and looks cooked through, take it out and let it cool a few minutes on a plate, so you can handle it.
  5. Now you need to seperate the good chicken from the throw away  parts (skin, bones, etc…). It comes off the bone super easy!
  6. Your chicken is done and now all you have to do is strain out the brothand you have chicken broth. I like to freeze the chicken and broth in baggies until I need them.

    Straining My Broth

The last chicken I did made about 5 cups shredded chicken and honestly I can’t remember how much broth, I think 3-5 cups.

Here’s a few random tips:

  • To waste less, save the chicken skin for your cat or dog.
  • This is a great way to use those veggies that are too limp to be yummy raw.
  • You can cook the chicken in a pot on the stove, it will go faster.
  • To make the broth less fattening, let it cool in the fridge until a yellow layer forms on the top (that’s the fat) and remove it. But honestly I never do this, I think the fat adds flavor.
  • You can use this shredded chicken in so many ways, but my favorite are quesadillas, sandwhiches and chicken tortilla soup.
  • My favorite ways to use the broth are to cook rice in it to add flavor or in chicken tortilla soup (can you tell that’s my favorite soup?)

The Shredded Chicken

Sorry all the pictures are blurry! I didn’t notice the blurriness until I loaded them onto the computer today.

Posted by purposelyfrugal at 11:12 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,
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