Budget recipe: whole chicken in crock pot, easy and versatile

November 7, 11:26 AMSan Diego Budget Meals ExaminerEllen Brenner

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Crock pot whole chicken with vegetables
Photo by author

We've sung the praises of supermarket rotisserie chickens, but that noble bird does have some drawbacks--it's often more highly seasoned than one would prefer, epecially in the salt department; and even when on sale, it's not as cheap as cooking that chicken from scratch. But who these days has time to mind a whole chicken while it cooks?

You do, if you have a crock pot. The resulting chicken will be simmered, not roasted, but with some simple clever seasoning tricks it can be as full of flavor as the rotisserie birds--with a much lower sodium hit. Best of all, if you watch your supermarket circulars and stock your freezer, you can wind up with birds that cost a third of the rotisserie chicks.

Now this is not so much a recipe as a very basic template, that you can vary as taste and mood strike you; several suggestions follow the main recipe.

Ingredients:

• One whole-body chicken, brought just up to room temperature: if you had it in the fridge, let it sit on the counter, covered loosely, for an hour. Yes, it will be safe--the danger zone is beyond two hours, and crock pots need foods put in them to be at room temperature for their thermostats to operate correctly. Remove the giblet packet and save for another use.
• Liquid, just enough to cover chicken. Plain water is perfectly fine; broth, canned or homemade, is even better.
• Aromatic vegetables. The classics here are an onion (peeled and quartered), a carrot (scrubbed and cut into 1-inch chunks), and a rib of celery with leaves (cut into 1-inch lengths); plus garlic (3 or 4 whole peeled cloves).
• Seasonings: About 5 or 6 whole peppercorns; the same number of cloves, stuck into one of the chunks of onion; a bay leaf; a tsp. or so of salt. Optionally, tsp. or so of your favorite poultry seasoning blend. Resist the urge to go heavier on the seasonings, especially the salt, at least at first--the long slow cooking intensifies flavors, and you can always correct seasonings up at the end.
• Optional additional vegetables, if there's still room in your crock pot: another carrot or two is always welcome, as well as such root vegetables as turnips, rutabagas, and parsnips, cut into 1-inch chunks. Potatoes are also great--pick a waxy variety like red potatoes that won't disintegrate from long simmering, and cut into slightly larger chunks than the others.

Special equipment notes: Make sure you have a crock pot big enough to hold the chicken, plus other ingredients, and still allow at least an inch of clearance. A large colander and bowl can be very helpful after your chicken is done.

Method:

Rinse the chicken thoroughly inside and out; pat it dry with paper towels inside and out. Rub the interior and exterior with the salt. Pack the cavity loosely with some of the aromatic vegetables.

Place the chicken in the crock pot. Surround it with the remaining vegetables and seasonings. Add liquid until the contents of the crock are just barely covered--you don't want or need to overfill it.

Then simply lid up your crock pot, switch it on, and let it go, following your unit's directions--preferably on low, in which case allow about 8 to 10 hours or overnight. Correct seasonings and serve.

When the chicken is done, it may well be fall-off-the-bone tender. This is no issue if you'll be serving dinner immediately--just serve right out of the crock. However, if you're cooking this chicken in advance for a future meal, the easiest way to get your chicken out in one piece is to stand a large colander in a large bowl, remove the crock from the crock pot, and then very gently pour the contents of the crock pot into the colander. It helps to have an assistant "guiding" the chicken from crock into colander with a large kitchen spoon.

One way or another, though, you do want to strain and save those cooking juices--this broth is great to use in other recipes, and freezes well. Chill it separately, covered, overnight, and you'll be able to easily skim the fat off the top.

Variations: There are so many directions you can take this basic recipe--

• The chicken: you can use any assortment of bone-in parts instead of a whole chicken (but do use bone-in parts, as the bones add flavor). You can include the chicken neck with the whole chicken, plus any of the giblets (except the liver, which does not take well to the long simmer).
• The cooking liquid--try any one of these additions: a can of tomatoes with their juices, either plain or seasoned; a can of your favorite broth-based soup; a cup of apple or orange juice; a cup of wine; 1/4 cup of soy sauce.
• The aromatic vegetables: if you're a real garlic fan try cutting a whole knob of garlic in half across its middle, exposing all the cloves, removing only those peels that come off easily from the outside, and putting one or both halves in.
• The seasonings: a couple of tsp. of a dried Italian herb blend would go great with the canned tomatoes and extra garlic. A star anise and a couple of slices of fresh ginger root would match nicely with the soy sauce option. If you like things hot, throw in a couple of dried red chilies.
• The vegetables: Don't feel you have to stick with root vegetables. Mushrooms (fresh or dried) add great flavor, as do bell peppers. Fennel is also great, though try it out sparingly at first as its flavor can take over.

Buy it locally: Whole-body Foster Farms chicken twinpacks are on sale this week at San Diego Food 4 Less stores at 67 cents/pound.