Crockpot Chicken

Let's face it, sometimes you don't have a ton of time to make dinner. I have a secret weapon to help me face this problem. Cockpot + chicken + 8 hours = easy chicken. I buy one 5-6 pound chicken and cook the sucker to make enough chicken and broth (2 cups of stock/broth) for Chicken Broccoli Braid, Chicken Pot Pie, Buffalo Ranch Chicken, Spicy Chicken tacos, and just chicken to eat. That means this one chicken makes enough food for one work week of dinners. Score. If I don't want to use all at once, I freeze half and use it the next week.

Crockpot Chicken

Ingredients:

1 5-6 pound chicken

1/2 a medium onion, sliced

1 1/2 tablespoons garlic, diced

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

Slice onion and measure out garlic, salt, and pepper into a small bowl. Wash your chicken and remove all the giblets if there are any. Place chicken in a slow cooker. Put half the onion and garlic inside the chicken. This requires your hand to go where no hand should ever go. Just promise your hand that it's worth it. Place the rest of your onion around the chicken. Now it's time to massage your chicken all over with the salt, remaining garlic, and pepper.

At this point you can either start cooking your chicken or you can place your chicken in the fridge over night so that when you are on your way out the door you just pop the chicken in the slow cooker base and it cooks while you're at work. I don't think it makes the chicken taste any better if you leave it over night. Cooking times vary depending on high or low. If you set it on high then cooking time is four hours. If you want a slower cook time then put it on low for eight hours. I think that eight hours really makes for a more tender chicken.

When the chicken is finished, it will literally fall apart so you will have to separate bone, chicken meat, and broth. I find the easiest way is to place a strainer over a large bowl and pour the broth through it to strain out the fine bits and pieces. Next, I work on one area at a time to break down the chicken. I have a bowl for the chicken and a discard bowl or bag for the bones because whatever you take out of the crockpot, you don't want to put it back in because it makes the sorting more difficult than it has to be.

All in all, it is a more cost efficient to make this chicken than to buy chicken breasts just to cut them up to put into different foods. The only time I buy breasts is when I grill chicken or make Chicken Parmesan. Enjoy!

Source: Self