Thursday, January 21, 2016

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

We don't eat much meat around here, partly because it can be really expensive for anything that's decent quality. A couple of times recently I've roasted a whole chicken, since, pound for pound, it's a good deal and we can use it in meals for days. Today I'm trying it in the crock pot. There are hundreds of crock pot chicken recipes online, but I don't think you even really need one. All you do is wash and pat dry the chicken (be sure to remove the giblets!), place herbs, onions, a lemon or anything else you like inside the chicken, season inside and out however you like (definitely salt and pepper, along with anything else that sounds good to you),  add a little liquid to the pot (I used chicken broth, since we have a ton from the last chicken), then finally the chicken. Mine is five pounds, so I'm cooking for five hours on the high setting. I'm also trying a tip I saw on several sites, which involved making a "rack" for the chicken out of balls of foil - just wad up pieces of foil into balls, place in the bottom of the pot and set the chicken on them. It's supposed to keep it from burning on the bottom.

I also made a "gravy" I'm very happy with, since it tastes great and I absolutely cheated while making it. Most gravy recipes involve about 37 steps and they don't result in a better gravy than mine. I've named it Cheating Gravy and I plan to make it often!

Cheating Gravy

The giblets from one chicken
About 2 TBSP bourbon
About 1/2 cup chicken broth
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and red pepper flakes to taste
About 2 TBSP flour

Combine all ingredients except the flour and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove the giblets and chop, then add back the liver and heart if you like (it's fine if you leave them out). Return to a simmer. Combine flour with enough cold water to make a paste, add to the pot and stir until it thickens (this happens quickly). Voila - cheating gravy!


No comments:

Post a Comment