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ACK! What in the world would I do with a whole chicken?
- Mike & Cindy Wheatley
- Oct 23, 2017
- 3 min read
You really want me to cook that? Why would I do that when I can grab a bag of nuggets and microwave dinner in 2 minutes?When you choose convenience you give up taste and nutrition. Think about it. . . . .can you cook a tastier and healthier hamburger than McDonalds? Every one of us can. So why do we eat McDonalds? It is convenient. There is one on every corner. If I have to wait longer than 3 minutes in the drive thru they are apologizing for the wait when I get to the window.
Cooking a whole chicken may seem intimidating but if you take the plunge I promise you will never be able to eat chicken any other way. Five years ago we were strictly a boneless, skinless chicken breast family. Once a year or so we might try frying a few wings but for the most part we drank heavily at the trough of convenience. After trying whole chicken, we quickly found the difference in taste alone was worth any extra planning.
It was only a generation ago that everyone ate chicken this way. There were no boneless, skinless, chicken breasts and no one had ever heard of a chicken nugget.
When we demand the convenience of a styrofoam plate of chicken parts or even worse-----a giant plastic bag of nuggets-------we lose out on taste and nutrition. We lose out on what our grandparents knew all too well-------the taste of whole chicken cannot be beat.
I have a few tips that will help you cook a whole chicken that will make it worth the time and trouble. You really can't capture the flavor and goodness in just boneless skinless chicken breast.
Here are a couple of my go to recipes that I use all the time and my family loves.
One is from the Barefoot Contessa and is called Lemon Skillet Chicken and the other recipe is called Salt and Pepper chicken from Melissa Clark. Both are easy and a great hit with the family.
My third tip is cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot on high for 4 hours. I place the chicken in the crockpot and season it with salt and pepper. I don't cook it any longer than 4 hours as this will make the chicken too dry. Your chicken should fall apart which makes it easy to take all the meat off the bone and then I have enough meat for two meals.
I usually end up with about 5 cups of shredded chicken from a 4 pound bird. I use that chicken to make chicken enchiladas, chicken noodle soup, mulligatawny, tacos, etc.
Then I am left with skin and bones. YUCK! NO, don’t throw away the bones? This will make the best broth.
Add carrots, onion, parsley, leeks, garlic, rosemary, whatever you have on hand to your crockpot and fill to the top with water. I cook this on low for 2 days in my crockpot.
This makes tasty, healthy broth that CANNOT be bought from any store. I pour the broth through a strainer in a large bowl such as this one pictured and then pour it in tupperware containers. Freeze the containers until you want to use them. This stock cannot be beat. It is healthier than anything you could buy and you can taste the difference. Good luck with cooking your next whole chicken.
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