I had never cooked a WHOLE chicken in the crock pot and decided to try it one day when I had a chicken to roast and no time to deal with it later in the day.
The process is so simple, just plop the chicken in the crock and, similar to making homemade chicken broth, add vegetables (1 celery, 1 carrot, 1 onion) and broth to cover. (I also added some white wine!) This recipe added lots of lovely herbs & spices (salt, 6 whole black peppercorns, parsley (1 Tbsp dried), thyme (1/2 tsp dried), 2 whole cloves, and a bay leaf) and even though I only had dry versions of the herbs on hand, the aroma was fantastic! I couldn't stop smelling the lid every time I passed the pot!
After 8-10 hours on low, the chicken is cooked and it's time to make the parsley sauce. You remove the chicken to rest on a plate, and discard the vegetables. In a seperate saucepan you make a paste of melted butter (1/4 cup) and flour (1/4 cup) and then add 2 cups of the reserved broth from the crock. Fresh parsley would be so much nicer, but even with dried (2 Tbsp) the sauce was a nice compliment to the chicken. I made some fresh biscuits for dipping and mopping!
The chicken is tender and flavourful (I really thought it was going to be a bit bland) and it was a wonderful, easy way to make a chicken dinner on a weeknight. I'll definitely be using this recipe again and there are a ton more in the book (America's Best Slow Cooker Recipes, by Donna-Marie Pye) that I want to try.
Love my crock pot and love making whole chickens. Must combine the two. The parsley sauce sounds divine!
Posted by: Chellie B | March 28, 2012 at 07:47 PM