If you love your crockpot like I do, this is a perfect way use it to its full potential. On this MOLO Monday, I’m showing you two meals made in the crockpot using one whole chicken. This is actually from a post that I wrote back in 2010, but it remains one of my most popular posts, thanks to Pinterest. I think it deserves to be in the spotlight here, since it’s such a great example of making over leftovers to stretch your food further, saving you time and money.
For the first meal, just place a chicken in a crockpot, sprinkle with seasonings and cook it until it’s fall-apart tender. Serve with PW’s Crash Hot Potatoes (or just plain baby potatoes, if you’re short on time), and cooked carrots.
Use your crockpot again to make chicken stock out of the bones, and make a hearty chicken soup the next day.
Ingredients
- 1 small whole chicken
- 1 small onion
- paprika, seasoning salt, and garlic powder for seasoning
- 1 tsp vinegar
Instructions
- Peel onion and place the whole thing inside the cavity of the whole chicken. If it doesn’t fit you can cut the onion in half.
- Place the chicken into a crockpot.
- Sprinkle the chicken all over with paprika, seasoning salt and garlic powder.
- You don’t need to put any liquid in the pot, just cover it, turn it on low and let it cook for 6-8 hours. As it cooks you’ll see that it creates it’s own juices.
- Cut all the meat from the bones (don’t throw out the bones, onion, or liquid in the crockpot- we’ll get to that soon). Put some of the chicken aside for soup the next day, and have the rest for dinner.
- Now, put the bones and onion back in the crockpot with the chicken juices. Break up some of the bones if you can. Add enough water to cover the bones, then 1 tsp of vinegar and cook on low heat overnight.
- In the morning, pour the broth through a strainer to remove the bones. Place broth in the fridge. By the end of the day the fat should have congealed on top so you can remove it easliy with a slotted spoon. Now you have a tasty chicken broth for your soup.
Chicken Soup
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp basil
- 1/2 salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 5-6 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup of your favourite pasta OR 1 cup of chopped baby potatoes
- 1 cup (more or less) of cooked chopped chicken
Directions:
Heat oil on medium heat in a dutch oven or soup pot. Add onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add oregano, basil, poultry seasoning, pepper and salt. Stir and cook for another minute. Pour in your homemade chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook for about 10 minutes, until pasta is soft. Add chicken and reduce heat. Simmer covered for 20 minutes. Taste and add more salt if desired.
I’ve made up a shopping list with all the ingredients you’ll need to create these two meals. I’ve organized the ingredients into categories so it’s easier to find them when you’re a the grocery store. It’s in Word format, so you can add or delete ingredients from the list, and make it your own.
And if soup’s not your thing, there are so many ways you can use leftover chicken. Use it to make chicken sandwiches for lunches, or try these other tasty recipes using cooked chicken:
Food and Whine 