Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

This spring we hatched some chicken eggs given to us by a friend. Of the thirteen eggs that hatched, we kept three hens and a rooster (which we gave to a friend).

The rest of the chicks returned to the farm they came from. Our friend put the remaining pullets in with her laying hens and raised the remaining cockerels with her "broiler" birds. In September, two of the cockerels came back to us in freezer bags.

I am not ashamed to admit that I have never cooked a whole chicken. I love to cook but the thought of trying to coordinate a chicken and all the accompanying dishes seems like a daunting task. I have watched my father and mother in law cook large quantities of food for large quantities of people and I am always amazed how everything is done cooking at the right time. For years I have thought that if I attempted to do what they do all my food would be ready to serve at various times forcing my guests to eat in courses...you know the potato course, stuffing course, peas course, and finally the highly anticipated chicken course.

At breakfast on Sunday my husband casually mentioned that we (meaning ME) should cook on of the chickens from the freezer. In a moment of weakness (pre-coffee brain) I agreed and he quickly went to the freezer to retrieve a bird. Meanwhile, I began thinking to myself, "What was I thinking...how the hell do you cook a whole chicken?"

What are you lookin' at?

I went to my computer and posted the following status on Facebook: "I am planning to "roast" my first ever chicken tomorrow. Any recipe links, ideas, suggestions out there? (FYI: I have some frozen chicken patties just in case.) I received 25 comments to my status, some humorous and some helpful.

Matt Blazek: "Why do you have roast in parentheses? Are you going to set the chicken in a chair and verbally abuse it in amusing ways?"

Jolly Hall: "You are kidding????!!!!! Brine it!"

Robert Souther: "Make sure you take off the feathers first!!"

Ann Holland: "I always cook ours upside down - flip it over for the last 30 min. - very moist every time."

In the end I decided to use a recipe sent to me by Emily (Strout) Durgan, a fellow camp counselor from my Camp Knickerbocker days. It was easy to prepare and came out so moist that we ended up pulling it apart when we began serving it. It was delicious...thanks for sharing the recipe Emily! Now that I know I can do it, I plan to cook more whole chickens in the future. Matt has even talked about raising some of own broiler chickens next year.

Note: I also made stuffing, peas, mashed potatoes, and TWO pumpkin pies. They were all ready at the right time, YEAH for ME!

CrockPot Rotisserie-Style Chicken

This is MY actual chicken!

1 (4-5 pound) whole chicken, skinned (optional)
2 t. salt
1 t. paprika
1 t. onion powder
1/2 t. dried thyme
1 t. Italian seasoning
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. black pepper
1 pinch of chili pepper (optional)
4 whole garlic cloves
1 yellow onion, quartered

Directions:
1. Skin the chicken (if you decide to) and get rid of the neck and other stuff from the cavity. Rinse the whole chicken with water (inside and out) and pat dry with paper towel (inside and out).
2. In a bowl, combine all of the dried spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the bird, inside and out. Stuff garlic cloves and onions inside the chicken.
3. Place the chicken, breast-side down, into the CrockPot. DO NOT ADD WATER!

4. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or on LOW for 8 hours. The meat is done when it is fully cooked and has reached desired tenderness. The longer you cook it, the more tender the meat.

Note: The chicken was very flavorful and had quite a KICK to it because of the cayenne pepper. If you don't like spicy food you may want to reduce the cayenne pepper to 1/4 t. or 1/8 t. or eliminate it all together.