Need Multiple Recipes? It's a Crock!

It's hard to declutter when you're sick. I managed to catch my hubby's cold.  He slept through the first 48 hours and then went back to work. He likely shouldn't have, but he's the conscientious type. He's on the mend now, but I'm just getting worse each day.

I decided that if I put a little chicken in the crock pot, we would at least have some decent food over then next couple of days.  I checked out my chicken recipe file and found three for whole chickens in the slow cooker.  Two of them were ones I have never tried, so, because I'm supposed to be weeding them out, I tried to pick one of them.  The first just had a prep time of 15 minutes. I figured I could handle that.

Slow Cooker Chicken Provencal

Cooking time: 6 to 7 hours on Low

Yield:  4 servings

4 medium potatoes
3 carrots
1 whole head fresh garlic
1 chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
2 medium onions
20 cherry tomatoes
20 white button mushrooms
1 cup pitted ripe olives, drained
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup olive oil
1 tbsp dried thyme

Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices.
Cut the carrots diagonally into 1/4 inch thick slices.
Peel all the garlic cloves and thinly slice them.
Cut the chicken into pieces
Cut the onions into quarters
Lightly spray a 6 quart slow cooker with vegetable oil cooking spray.
Layer the potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker.
Scatter half the garlic slices over the vegetables.
Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
Salt and pepper the chicken pieces.
Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.
Scatter the remaining garlic, the onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and olives around the chicken.

This all sounded wonderful to me, but I quickly realized that my hubby might not like it because of the mushrooms and olives. That also sounded like a lot of garlic to me.  I decided against it. I didn't have the mushrooms anyway and there was a bit too much work involved, considering how I was feeling. I wanted to cook a whole chicken, not cut it into pieces.

The second recipe sounded much easier and I had all the ingredients.

Whole Crockpot Chicken

Cooking time: 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on high
Yield: 4 servings

1 (3 pound) whole chicken
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp minced garlic

Remove skin from chicken, and empty inner cavity, if there's anything in there.
Pat chicken dry with paper towel, and place inside slow cooker.

In a bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients and pour the mixture over the chicken.
Cover and cook chicken on low setting for 8 hours on high heat, or 4 hours on low.

Wait a minute.  I really wasn't feeling like skinning a chicken.  I just wanted to stick the thing in the pot, and turn on the heat and go back to bed. I gave up on and resorted to my tried and true recipe. 

Lemony Roasted Chicken

1 fryer or roasting chicken (3 to 4 pounds)

1/2 cup chopped onion (I don't bother to chop it)

2 tbsp butter

juice of one lemon

1 tbsp fresh parley (optional)

2 tsp grated lemon peel

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves

Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels.

Remove and discard any excess fat.

Place onion in chicken cavity and rub skin with butter.

Place chicken in the slow cooker.

Squeeze juice of lemon over chicken, and sprinkle with parsley, grated lemon peel, salt and thyme.

Cover and cook on Low 6 to 8 hours.

We had mashed potatoes, corn and a salad with that, and it was great.

As my rule now is to throw out any of the stored recipes I don't seem willing to make, I've done that, but at least they are now on here if I happen to change my mind.  The rest of you can test these recipes out and let me know what you liked, and what you didn't, and why. I'll look forward to hearing from you.