Are you ready for some crock pot?

Say hello to my little sous chef, Grace, everyone! Isn't she cute sporting my Cafe Marisa apron?

So I have my Grandma Smith's crock pot and have never really used it to actually "cook" something, mostly to just keep things warm. But in the last few weeks I have dared to crock-and man does it rock! Hey, I'm a poet and I didn't know it! sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Anyhew, I have always had this fear of leaving the house with something plugged in on my counter, let alone an aging crock pot-although, I must say it hasn't been used much, so it is a fairly young piece of equipment as far as that goes, but I digress. After being reassured by friends at work I went for it last week and made a chuck roast, it was pretty simple, and pretty darn good! I had enough cooking liquid and it did not dry out, always my biggest fear. It just fell apart. I don't think it was quite as good as the one I do in the oven on the weekends, but it was worth it to get home after six and have a delicious din din already done! (of course, I DID have to come home and check on it between work and Carlos' swimming lessons. I still did not actually trust that I can really just leave it-I am over it now thankfully! but I digress) So this a.m. I found a recipe at allrecipes.com for a whole chicken in a crock pot. I haven't tasted it, but it smells heavenly. It looks like it will be falling off the bones when I remove it in a few hours, so I plan to serve the chicken and the sauce over egg noodles with veggies of some sort on the side. Right now carrots are sounding pretty good. I will post the recipe as it is but will add my "tweaks" as well. My tweaks are in turquoise.

Kathy's Delicious Whole Slow Cooker Chicken
Submitted by: KATHYP100 Rated: 4 out of 5 by 229 members
Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 8 Hours
Ready In: 8 Hours 15 MinutesYields: 6 servings
"A delicious and simple whole chicken recipe for the slow cooker that is simmered in a zesty sauce combination of balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and lemon juice, with honey, garlic, and sesame and olive oils. Delicious served over jasmine rice!" If I had jasmine rice I would definitely be serving this dish over rice, but tonight it is egg noodles.

INGREDIENTS:
1 (3 pound) whole chicken, skin removed-this is an awesome idea!
1/2 cup chicken broth I put in a little more than this
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup olive oil used much less, only filled the 1/3 cup half way per the feedback from other cooks on the allrecipes.com website.
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce I eyeballed it and probably added more of this
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar and this too
2 teaspoons lemon juice I took 1 whole lemon cut it in 1/2 and squeezed 1/2 the lemon into the sauce, straining the seeds with my hand and then stuffed both lemon halves into the chicken
1 teaspoon sesame oil did not have this item on hand, so was omitted
2 tablespoons minced garlic added a bit more of this too. I used the jarred chopped garlic for this recipe. nice short cut when you can!!

I added several fresh thyme sprigs on top of the chicken and in the sauce.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Remove skin from chicken, and empty inner cavity of contents within. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel, and place inside the slow cooker. I also sprinkled the bird very well with kosher salt and pepper.
2. In a bowl, stir together the chicken broth, soy sauce, olive oil, honey, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, and minced garlic. Pour mixture over chicken, and cover. Add fresh thyme sprigs, too!
3. Cook chicken on low setting for 8 hours, or 4 hours on high setting.

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Printed from Allrecipes.com 10/13/2008