Baking a Chicken…in a slow cooker (Lemony Greek Chicken in a Slow Cooker)

I’m still fairly new to crockpot cooking.  I bought my current crockpot on a clearance sale at Meijer 2 years ago for $7 and didn’t actually begin using it until a year ago (when our oven died & it was a couple days for the part to come in).  I still do not rely on it heavily for cooking, but I do enjoy using a slow cooker on nights when I know that I’m going to have limited prep time for dinner.

When I first bought my slow cooker, I was a little surprised when the instructions told me not to cook a whole chicken in it.  To me, that didn’t make sense.  I also saw other information online that suggested not to bake a whole chicken in a slow cooker.  Again…I couldn’t comprehend why.

So, one time when whole chickens were on a super price, I decided to experiment.  It was a success.

With cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot, you have to put aside the expectation that the chicken is going to stay whole.  The chicken will naturally split into pieces due to the softening of the cartilage that holds it together.  But you can lift the chicken out of the crockpot by pieces, line them up on a cookie sheet, throw them under the broiler for a bit…and you are left with super juicy, super tender, & crispy skinned chicken.  It will taste like slow-baked, rotisserie chicken…without the effort.

You are also left with richly flavored chicken broth, & great chicken pieces from along the back to recycle for other meals like chicken & dumplings. Just check the “scraps” in the slow cooker for bones.  I will be posting a recipe soon that uses the leftover broth & chicken from this meal. 

You might be asking—“Um, there is no liquid added in this recipe?”  No—I don’t add any liquid when I cook whole chickens in the crockpot.  Most chickens are injected with water/broth, and when you combine that with a skin layer on the bottom that begins rendering early…you end up with PLENTY of liquid in the crock pot. 

Ok…enough rambling.  Here’s a recipe for a Greek-inspired baked chicken that you can prep in the crockpot. You can use whatever seasoning for baked-type chicken that you want to use (feel free to check out my prior poultry listings for ideas).

Lemony Greek Chicken in a Slow Cooker

Prep time: 15 min. Cooktime: 6-9 hours. Servings: Vary

Ingredients

Ingredient Lineup

• 1 whole roaster or fryer chicken
• 2 t. dried thyme
• 2 t. dried oregano
• 2 t. garlic powder
• 0.5 t. dried minced garlic (or fresh equivalent)
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1 T. olive oil (+ extra for greasing slow cooker)
• 0.5 t. salt
• 0.5 t. ground pepper

Directions

1.  Add thyme, oregano, garlic, minced garlic, salt, & pepper to a small bowl.  Stir ingredients. Add the 1 T. of olive oil and 2 T. lemon juice. Stir until ingredients are paste-like & well mixed.  Set aside.

Spice Palette

Spice Paste--not pretty looking, but smells AMAZING

2.  Remove chicken from wrapper.  Remove neck, giblets, gravy packet, or any other goop that is in the cavity of the bird (NOTE—always do a cavity search on poultry—gross stuff hides in there…stuff that tastes especially gross if you cook it inside the bird…like plastic gravy packets.) Rinse bird under cool water, & pat dry with paper towels.  Prop up & let it drain for a bit.

Birdy draining on a plate, ready to catch a tan...this one had
leprosy or some other skin disorder on its breast...

3.  Cover the top of your bird with the seasoning paste.  Feel free to slip some of the herb paste under the skin so that it more intensely flavors the meat (especially if you are going to remove the skin prior to consuming).

Slipping seasonings under poultry skin = intense flavor

4.  Lightly grease the sides & bottom of a large slow cooker with olive oil.  Place your seasoned bird, breast side up into the slow cooker.  Cover & cook on low for 6-9 hours until tender & juices run clear.

What it looked like when I left for work...

What it looked like when I got home from work...

5. Using kitchen tongs gently remove the pieces of the bird & place skin-side-up on a large cookie sheet.  Place cookie sheet under a low broiler until skin crisps.  Serve & Enjoy!

Chicken pieces on the cookie sheet pre-crisping.  I should
have arranged these more artfully...it was a long day. :-P

Crispy, lemony, herby & delicious

What is left in the crockpot.  Remove the bones. Save the meat.
Save the broth...

Strained broth.  Put a lid on it & put it in the fridge
overnight.  Skim the hardened fat off of the top &
use it as chicken broth in a recipe like chicken &
dumplings.  

Guinness Pot Roast

Confession—growing up I hated pot roast.  My mom makes EXCELLENT pot roast, so I know it was not her cooking.  I’ve just never been too keen on things all cooked in one container (still fighting issues with food touching…).  Over the past couple of years, I have begun to LOVE pot roast.  Occasionally, I begin craving pot roast.  I had such a craving this past week.

I like making pot roast in my crockpot.  It’s low-maintenance and the results are usually tender & delicious.  This is currently my favorite prep method.  I love the depth of flavor this recipe has. I experimented with this a lot before settling on the ingredient list/amounts.  When making pot roast in the slow cooker, I will slow cook the meat with a few of the vegetables all day.  When I get home from work, I blend or mash the vegetables that are in the crockpot (super mushy by that point) to get a good gravy base to develop.  I then add the vegetables I will be serving, so that they still have texture when it comes to dinner time. 

If anything is not clear in this recipe, please let me know.  It’s 11pm when I’m typing this…and there are bound to be “huh?” moments (like the double bullet points--no clue what's going on, I'll check out the HTML tomorrow)…Also, please forgive the lack of “finished product” photos. I actually made this for dinner when my mother-in-law was visiting last weekend, and I totally forgot to take a “it’s done” photo. 

Guinness Pot Roast

Prep time: 15 min. Cook time: 7-9 hours. Servings Vary

Ingredients

Ingredient Lineup.  Biggest Roast I've cooked...ever.

• 1 beef roast (cut of choice, enough meat to serve the # of people)
• ·         2-3 T. vegetable oil
• ·         2-4 T. flour
• ·         1 t. ground black pepper
• ·         1 bottle of Guinness (resist urge to drink)
• ·         1 package of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix (or 2 cans of beef broth reduced in half by simmering on the stovetop)
• ·         2 cups pearl onions or 2 medium, wedged onions (add an extra cup of onion if not using soup mix)
• ·         2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
• ·         2 bay leaves
• ·         2-3 cloves minced fresh garlic (or dried equivalent)
• ·         Potatoes (based on # of people serving)
• ·         Baby Carrots (based on # of people serving)
• ·         [optional] 0.5 t. dried thyme
• ·         [optional] Salt, as needed
• ·         [optional] Corn starch slurry or potato buds to thicken gravy

Directions

1.  Heat oil in a large skillet.  Coat roast in flour & black pepper. Brown roast on all sides in the oil.  Remove roast from pan & place in the bottom of a large slow cooker.  Surround the roast with some of the vegetables.  I typically peel & cut up 1 potato.  I then add a handful of baby carrots, 1-2 cups of pearl onions, the garlic & the celery.  Sprinkle the onion soup mix over the vegetables & roast.  Pour the Guinness over the contents in the pan.  Add the bay leaves & thyme.  Cover & refrigerate overnight, or immediately begin cooking the roast.

Brown roast in pan

Layer in some veg.

Add some more veg & the powdered soup mix.

Pour in beer, add herbs & prep for deliciousness

2.  Cook roast in the slow cooker on low for 5-7 hours.

3. [Optional] Remove roast & bay leaves from the broth.  Transfer the broth & vegetables to a blender, or using an immersion blender, blend the vegetables & broth until smooth.

Roast after 5 hours.

Using one of my favorite kitchen weapons...

Roast back in the broth, ready to get a heaping mound of onions,
potatoes & carrots added to it...and finished off for a delicious dinner.
Imagine that there are more photos... :-/  

4. Return roast to the broth & add remaining vegetables.  Cook on low for an additional 1-2 hours.

5.  Remove roast & vegetables from the slow cooker.  Serve gravy, or use a corn starch slurry or potato buds to thicken gravy to desired consistency.  

Slow Cooker "Hawaiian" Ribs

This is a recipe I found when I was on a gluten-free experiment last year from the blog crockpot365.blogspot.com.  If you use gluten-free soy sauce—the recipe is gluten-free.  I loved the flavor that this recipe creates (once it is modified a bit.)  The super-great thing about this recipe is that the sauce & cooking method can be used for So Many items.  For this round of the recipe, I used some beef ribs I had picked up on sale.  I usually use pork spareribs for this recipe.  Both style of ribs have their pros/cons.  

Beef ribs:  pro—the ribs stay solid when being slow cooked for so long, con-- I don’t think the meat picks up the flavor of this sauce as well.

Pork spareribs: pro—these get incredibly tender & the meat soaks up the flavor,  con—The cartilage’y bones in spareribs basically disintegrate & turn into soft rubber pieces, making eating these a little trickier, and a little more difficult to consume in front of company.  

You could also use pork babyback ribs. Pork loin or shoulder substituted in this recipe could make some delicious ‘Hawaiian” flavored pulled pork.  Perhaps serve it on the Hawaiian mini sweet rolls with some coleslaw, pickles, or grilled pineapple pieces?  Just a thought…not something I have actually tried yet. 

The night last week that I made this I served it with pineapple fried rice & sautéed green beans. The meat gets a lovely dark caramelized appearance during cooking & is ridiculously tender.

 

Hawaiian Slow-Cooker Ribs

Prep time: 5 minutes, Cook time: 7-9 hours in a slow cooker. Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Ingredient Lineup.  I used a snack pack of pineapple for this
because it was midnight on a workday when I was assembling this...
and I got lazy.  A can of pineapple is more economical...

• 1 rack of beef ribs (can substitute 1 rack pork spareribs, 1 rack babyback ribs, 2-3 pounds boneless beef roast, or 2-3 pounds pork loin or pork roast)
• 2/3 cups soy sauce of choice (gluten-free, low-sodium, etc)
• 4 T. brown sugar
• 2 T. honey
• 1 t. Chinese 5-Spice powder* (see note below)
• 1/3 cup pineapple juice  
• 1/2 cup pineapple tidbits
• 8 cloves garlic, minced

1. In a small food processor or blender, pulse the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, 5-spice, pineapple, juice & garlic until well mixed. (This step can be omitted…I’ve done it both ways, I actually didn't blend it this time preparing the recipe…and the flavor is deeper if you mix it in advance instead of layering it in the slow cooker).

2.  Cut the rack of ribs into 2-4 smaller pieces.  Layer 1 layer of ribs in the bottom of a large slow cooker, with the bones on the bottom.  Spoon 2-3 large spoons of the sauce mixture over the first layer of ribs. Add the 2^nd layer of ribs & pour the remaining sauce over the top of the ribs.  

Assembled ribs.  I always get this ready the night before & let
it marinate in the fridge overnight.  Then I just pop it in the slow
cooker before I head into work.

3.  Cook on Low for 6-8 hours, or on High for 4-5 hours. If you are around home while these are cooking- move the top layer to the bottom & the bottom layer to the top about halfway through cooking.

Scene I came home to.  It's not pretty...but it's yummy.

4.  Be prepared for the meat to be SUPER tender & for it to fall off of the bone.  Have a slotted spoon on hand to remove stray chunks of meat from the cooking liquid.  Enjoy!

A brief note about Chinese 5-Spice powder.

What is it?  Chinese 5-Spice is a blend of 5 spices that are frequently used in Chinese-style cooking.  Personally, I buy mine at The Spice House (I love the freshness & quality of their spices).  You can find this in some grocery stores—if you do not find it in the regular spice/spice blend section, check the international food aisle in the Asian section.

If you can’t find it…you can always make your own.  Our friend Google will point you in the direction of a ton of different ratios for making up your own blend…but I will just copy over the one used on this recipe from Crockpot365.

Chinese 5-Spice Powder

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 t. crushed anise seed

¼ t. ground fennel

¼ t. ground black pepper, fine

1/8 t. ground cloves

Mix ingredients together. Store in an airtight container.

Korean BBQ Short Ribs

The Hubs made a trip to Saraga earlier this week & picked up some beautiful beef short ribs.  This is the recipe I used for this round of short ribs.  Overall I was pretty happy with the flavor, but next time I use this recipe I will be experimenting with it a little more. We had half of the ribs for dinner tonight with Asian slaw & a very tasty bottle of Malbec. The other half of the ribs are still hanging out in the cooking liquid in the fridge & will be grilled off for a very yummy lunch tomorrow.   


If you don't have access to these style of beef short ribs, you can also substitute thick-sliced beef chuck roast, rib eye (reduce the cooking time), or any other heavily marbled tough cut of beef that you normally need to cook long & slow.  Also, depending on the type of soy sauce you use, this recipe can be made as a gluten-free recipe.  

Korean BBQ Short Ribs (modified from Allrecipes.com submission from user funinthesun) 

Serves 3-4. Actual cooking time 4-6 hours.  8-30 hours including marinating time.

Ingredient Lineup

Ingredients

• 2-3 pounds short ribs
• 3/4 c soy sauce
• 3/4 c water
• 3 T white vinegar
• 1/4 c dark brown sugar
• 1 T ground black pepper
• 2 T sesame oil
• 1 garlic bulb- cloves peeled & minced
• 1 small/medium yellow or white onion, minced
• 1 t. garlic chili sauce [optional]
• 1 green onion, chopped [optional]

Directions

1.  Remove short ribs from packaging.  Rinse & rub the individual ribs under cool running water to remove any bone fragments from the butchering process.

Raw ribs, post rinsing.  Do not forget to rinse the short
ribs...otherwise you will end up chewing on bone fragments.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all other ingredients (minus the green onion).  Add the ribs to the marinade.  Cover & refrigerate ribs, marinating for 4-24 hours.  (I marinated them for around 14 hours)

Ribs bathing in the marinade, ready for a snooze in
the fridge.

3.  Remove ribs from the refrigerator.  Carefully layer the ribs into a large slow cooker & pour marinade over the ribs. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  [optional] Carefully turn ribs halfway through the cooking process.

Ribs post marinating overnight.

Ribs in the slow cooker. Halfway done.

4.  Carefully remove the ribs from the cooking liquid.  Some of the bones may fall out of the meat, that is fine.  [Optional] Transfer the ribs to a pre-warmed grill on Medium heat.  Grill for 2-3 minutes per side until meat has grill marks.

Ribs getting some grill marks & caramel'y flavor.

5. Remove ribs from heat.  Plate & garnish with chopped green onion.  

Delicious.