so just wanted to report back on the whole chicken in the crockpot...it was great! totally fall off the bone, tender & delicious.
but you know what I figured out? It can easily stretch into 3 meals!
so here's today tip: go buy a whole chicken today! or stock up when they are on sale for .99 cents a pound.
make sure chicken is thawed (can be semi-frozen) you just need to make sure to get the "goodie" bag out (you know the bag inside with giblets and other stuff in it) and that's hard to do if you have a frozen bird!
after removing the bag, I try to take some of the skin off - it helps the seasonings stick. I stuffed the bird with 1/2 lemon, onion wedge & a couple gloves of garlic.
chop up: 1 small onion, 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery. Place these in the bottom of your crockpot - you are going to let your crockpot make chicken stock while cooking dinner.
Then place stuffed bird on top of veggies. Take a cup of your favorite italian dressing (or you could use the dry packets) pour on top of the bird, sprinkle on black pepper & paprika.
cook on low for 8-10 hours. go about your day.
When you open the lid - you will find a delish roasted chicken & homemade chicken stock! Remove the bird and place on platter to rest. Strain the chicken stock into a bowl if you don't like chunks.
dinner: chicken wraps: shred some chicken and let the family make their own wraps. I usually have lettuce, cheese, bacon, dressing, tomatoes cut up all ready to go. Add some cut up fruit on the side and dinner's ready!
while cleaning up after dinner - you can start homemade chicken soup! while cleaning off the meat from the chicken - put a stock pot on the stove - add your strained chicken stock, a couple cups of water. I saved the white meat in another container and put the dark meat into the stock pot for soup.
also in the stock pot: I put leftover corn, bacon and some spinach I had in the refrigerator. I also added another carrot and left some "chunkies". Let this simmer while you continue to clean up, do the dishes, check email, do a load of laundry, put the kids to bed. To taste, you might want to add some salt, pepper, chicken bouillon, dill, bay leaf (don't forget to take this out before you put the soup away). I also added some little pasta noodles - you could add egg noodles also. Let the soup cool down before you put it away. You could also freeze some for later. Give some to a friend and still have some left for a quick and easy lunch.
and the white meat we put away? It will be tonight's dinner: chicken quesidillas. Using up the leftover wraps, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce. And hoping my avocado is ripe to make some guac or cut up in the quesidilla. And fruit smoothies with the leftover fruit.
Now this is just my take on 3 meals with one chicken, knowing what my boys will eat. And I know this isn't a new idea, but I was just so excited how it turned out and wanted to share. As a working, busy, mama of 2 and wife - I need all the help I can get. I hope if you try this you will share your results with me!
happy thursday!