Chicken slow cooker

This is one of my favorite way of cooking a chicken!

I do usually like buying a whole free-range chicken; cheaper and you can get more than the single cuts. Probably the most challenging thing is avoiding the skin!! I place on the bottom of the slow cooker some vegetables (thick slices) for avoiding the chicken touching the bottom. I usually used onion, turnip, swede, celeriac, some time sweet potato. I like doing a mix.

Add a bit of salt and black pepper inside and outside the chicken, and massage it with a tablespoon of olive oil. Place on top of the vegetables, put the lid on and cook at low for about 6 hours (for a 1.5 kg chicken). What you will have at the end is plenty of meat! Good for a supper with few people or lot of leftovers ready for the following days for new recipes. Furthermore, vegetables at the bottom will be soft and cover in all the chicken juices. Let cool down, overnight: the fat will thicken, and you can remove it easily with a spoon. What’s left is a wonderful concentrate chicken stock. That’s wonderful for adding flavors to, for example, vegetables, warming up chicken leftovers. It is suitable also for freezing.

Another thing I love about whole chicken: I keep all the bones. Then, always in the slow cooker, I put the bones, pinch of salt, a carrot, an onion and a piece of celery, cover with plenty of water and let cook on slow overnight: a wonderful homemade stock. Wonderful way for starting a dinner during wintertime is a big bowl this nourishing stock!