It’s Spring, but Winter has returned, and I am working a part-time job again. Time for a quick and easy weeknight comfort meal. Here’s one from my arsenal.
Prepare a whole chicken by removing the gizzards from the cavities (and do whatever you do with them, I throw them out), rinsing, and drying. Salt and pepper the inside and outside of the chicken.
Prepare your flavor base. In this case I used what I call a crock pot mirepoix.
Mirepoix is French for onions, carrots, and celery cooked slowly in butter to add flavor to a dish. Soffritto is the Italian word for the same thing except using olive oil instead of butter. Sounds fancy, huh?
You can use whatever you want to add flavor to your chicken. You can use leeks, lemons, peppers, mushrooms, or even apples. You don’t have to make a special trip to the store because you probably already have those items to create your favorite flavors already in your refrigerator.
I rough chopped my crockpot mirepoix ingredients – some onions, carrots, and celery.
Lay them in the bottom of the crock pot.
Put the chicken on top, cover, turn on low, and allow to cook for 6 hours or so until done.
Remove chicken from crock pot. It will be very tender and falling apart.
Serve with your favorite side dishes or use the cut up chicken in your favorite recipe calling for cooked chicken.
Our comfort meal included chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. Yummy.
Crock Pot Chicken Serves 2 to 4 One whole chicken Remove gizzards from chicken cavities, rinse and dry. Salt and pepper the inside and outside of the chicken. Clean and peel onion. Clean carrots and celery. Rough chop and dump in the bottom of the crock pot. Lay the chicken on the bed of vegetables. Cover and turn crock pot on low. Cook for 6 hours or until done. Remove chicken from crock pot. Discard vegetables. Juices may be used to make gravy. Serve chicken or use in recipes calling for cooked chicken.
3 stalks of celery
3 whole carrots
2 medium onions
Salt and pepper to taste
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