Am I missing something? whole chicken in the slow cooker

[meriad]

I've never done a whole chicken in a slow cooker so just checking I've got what I need. I want to keep it fairly simple flavour wise so what I bought was

1 large chicken
2 carrots (not sure that's enough though)
1 leek
bag of shallots
1x red and 1x green pepper
mushrooms

I was going to chop up all the veg and then put the chicken onto the veg; breast side down

I can easily pop by the local farm shop tomorrow to get anything additional if needed. Do I need to add any water / stock do you know? And also how long would you cook it - I read somewhere that it will take about 8 hours?

[debih]

I've only done a whole chicken in a sweet and sour sauce in the slow cooker.

It was nice but I found it very greasy.

I'll be interested to see how it turns out Ria.

[Rodo]

The slow cooker retains all the fat so you must remove as much as possible from whatever meat you are going to cook. You will need some water or stock, with some thickening added. Most large meats need 8 hours, probably on high for a large part of that time.

[Workingman]

Ria, I do whole chickens (medium) and they take about 6 hours on low (high for the first hour) - 8 hours for a large sounds OK. The meat falls off the bone and is so tasty. You certainly have enough veg.

Personally I would do the meal in stages as the chicken will release quite a lot of fat as it cooks. Turn on the cooker and place a coffee mug of hot stock in the crock-pot to help it warm up on a the high setting. When it is hot place the chicken breast down in the pot and cook on high for an hour then turn to low and cook for another hour before turning the chicken over - not turning the chicken breast side up will do no harm I just find it more 'roasted' if you do so. At about the 6 hour mark prepare your veg and blanch it all in a small amount of water. Take the chicken from the pot and pour out the stock into a jug and set aside to cool. Replace the stock with the blanched veg and the water it was cooked in and place the chicken on top; continue to cook till the veg is soft and tender.

Remove as much fat as you can from the stock in the jug and place it and the veg and veg water, now a gravy, from the pot into a pan to heat through. At this stage you can adjust the stock seasoning and add thickener to create a rich gravy.

Job done.

[meriad]

Thanks everyone

Looking forward to giving this a try tomorrow and I'll be reporting back

[debih]

I don't think I could be bothered with the faffing. Not when it's so quick and easy to roast a bird.

Let me know if it was all worth it Ria.

[meriad]

Debih, in all honesty one of the main reasons I like using my slow cooker is because it is just so much more economical when it comes to electricity. I know it sounds daft, but I hardly ever put the oven on if I'm cooking anything for just myself - it just seems such a waste of energy. If I do want to cook something smaller I use the convection option of my microwave which heats up in 5 mins compared to the 15 - 30 mins or so the oven needs to get to temperature.

If there were more of us for lunch or dinner then I'd be doing roast veg and spuds etc with the chicken in the oven so it would be more worth it, but just the one chicken for me I just don't bother. Esp as I'll be making various different dishes once the chicken is cooked so I can freeze them and have them for lunch at work

[Rodo]

I certainly don't do all that faffing! Once it has got going it stays like it until we eat the food at night! I do tend to soften the onions before putting those in in the morning, and brown the meat if it is beef though. I put in everything that it needs at the beginning, whatever herbs or spices or other additions it needs, plus any thickening too and just put the lid on and leave it. If I had to keep opening it up and messing, it would ruin the whole principle of fuss-free cooking I think.

[meriad]

Oh, and to add that I changed my mind overnight about what to do ... the chicken will be left as it is, to cook on it's own, so no worries about any faffing LOL. The leaks will become creamed leaks to accompany some of the mushrooms sautéed with garlic and butter to be served tonight with some of the chicken.

The rest of the 'shrooms will be kept for chicken / mushroom stroganoff (or I may even try and make a pie - never done that before) and if there's chicken left over then he shallots and carrots will be used to make a chicken stew....

Roll on 7pm and dinner time!

[Workingman]

Faffing, people? Where's the faffing?

If Ria had put the veg in at the beginning and cooked it for eight hours it would have turned to mush. Putting them in later is no more faffing than putting the veg in to roast some time after the meat went in.... unless carbon flavoured veg crisps are what you like.

Having said that, doing the veg totally separately, as Ria has chosen to do is a great idea and is more versatile than doing everything the "one-pot" way.