Last week, I saw a "rotisserie" chicken recipe on Pinterest. The trick is that it's made in a slow cooker!
What I really like about it is that I can pull the skin off the chicken before adding the spices. When I get a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store, I always lose the wonderful seasonings that get rubbed on the skin before the chicken is cooked.
A few things that I learned while making this chicken:
- Place the chicken breast side down (the opposite of what you see in the picture)
- If you don't love spicy food, reduce the cayenne pepper to 1/2 tsp
- If you have a regular slow cooker (like you see above, not a Crock Pot), you need to add a bit of liquid to keep the pan from getting damaged. 1/2 Cup water was plenty.
When the chicken was done, I stuck two forks in it, and it practically fell apart. I pulled most of the white meat and the large pieces of dark meat out of the pan, then served a few pieces with potato chunks and some steamed vegetables. After the carcass and broth had cooled, I dumped it all into a container so I could make soup later!
Reruns
One of my favorite things about cold weather is that it's incredibly easy to make soup out of pretty much anything I have in the fridge and pantry.
I started by dumping the carcass and broth into a big soup pot. Add water to the pot. I used about twice as much water as chicken. (It's not an exact science, you can add more water if you like, just make sure the carcass is completely covered. If you add too much water, you can always use a little chicken bouillon to boost the chicken flavor before serving.) Bring it to a boil, then turn down to medium and simmer for an hour or so.
Ways to improve the broth:
- Add a couple Tbsps of white vinegar to the water before you start to cook it. The vinegar taste and smell will disappear, but it draws the calcium and minerals out of the bones. If you simmer the broth long enough (about 5 hours), the bones will be flexible when you pull them out. If you decide to do that, leave the lid slightly askew, turn the heat to low, and check the pot occasionally to make sure there is still enough liquid in the pot.
- You can save scraps of veggies that you won't eat--like potato peels, broccoli stems, or wilted lettuce--wash them, and add them to the broth. You'll get the extra flavor from them, but they'll be removed before you finish making the soup.
When you're happy with the broth, you'll need to separate the broth by filtering out all the good stuff. I used a fine mesh sieve placed over a large glass measuring cup. Don't throw the solids out yet!
Put the broth back in the pan, turn up the heat, and start adding things for the soup. My favorite things to throw in:
- leftover vegetables from previous meals
- chopped veggies, anything that's in the fridge. This usually includes carrots, celery, or bell peppers. I also like to chop up a whole onion to add to the soup. Usually I'll sauté the onion in 1 Tbsp olive oil before adding the broth.
- short pasta (my favorites are bow tie, rotini, or elbow macaroni.) or chunks of potato
- canned beans, cooked and crumbled bacon, or leftover cooked meat
While your soup is cooking, spread your solids out on a cutting board and pick through it, looking for bits of chicken meat. Make sure you pull out all the bones when you're sorting the chicken meat! Once it's sorted, chop up those chicken bits and throw them back in the pot. When the veggies and pasta are tender, dinner is served!
Coming Soon
Well, if you're the kind of person who prefers a solid recipe, check back later this week. I'll be posting the recipe for the Shepherd's Pie I made with the remaining chicken.
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