I don’t know if this is going to become a semi-regular feature or not, but I really like That Wife’s “brain dump” posts, which she often does on Saturdays. They’re random and full of whatever she feels like saying, sharing, or showing a picture of. (This week has a really really cute series of her little boy eating an orange. Adorable.) She also has a picture of a whole chicken she made. Which reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to ask *you guys,* actually!
Can I cook a whole chicken in my crockpot? (And, HOW?)
See, I need to clean out our freezer. It is full to the max. I don’t know if it can hold another ice cube even. SO FULL. One of the things hogging up major space in there is a whole frozen chicken I bought a while back. I can’t remember why I bought it (obviously, to eat it, but what I was going to make, I’m not sure). If it weren’t below zero outside I’d jam a can up its ass and grill it. But it *is* below zero and that just isn’t grilling weather.
:::semi-related tangent:::
While driving home last night, Mr. N and I saw a guy standing in his garage holding a can of beer in one hand and a hockey stick (wtf?) in the other hand, watching over a grill he had slightly pushed out into his driveway. COOKIN’ LIKE A MAN.
:::/tangent:::
We don’t own a hockey stick so I suppose we need to cook our chicken inside. I would prefer to use the crockpot. Someone tell me a tasty way to do that. (Bonus points for: spicy, sweet, and/or asian/teriyaki-type recipes.)
Moving on…
Anyone out there a big Pulp Fiction fan? Watch this: “What does Marcellus Wallace Look Like?”. (If you’ve never seen Pulp Fiction, see it. Unless you don’t like lots of F words. And if you don’t like lots of F words, don’t click on that link either.) I own Pulp Fiction, but only on VHS (and we don’t have our VCR hooked up anymore). Think I need to upgrade.
Additionally, HAHAHAHAHA. The Oatmeal’s “State of the Web: Winter 2010″. Especially loving the TumblBeasts.
And now for something completely unfunny, AppliancePartsPros.com. I’m sharing this link with you because it’s an amazing resource. There are full diagrams of thousands of appliances, and it tells you all the parts, and then you can BUY the parts for reasonable prices. I found a seal for our dishwasher on this site. It’s just such a great site for people who don’t necessarily need a professional to come out and charge $100 to tell them a piece of rubber is rotten. I’m going to write a whole post about the dishwasher repair sometime soon. (I bet you’re super-excited to read that.)
And in more interesting project news: I bought the paint for the basement. WOOHOO. (But I’m not going to paint this weekend–I just had a coupon that was going to expire.)
OK. Back to the funny. This is pretty true for me: PhD Comics: Grad School Energy Levels. Except for the part about being Human but Not Caffeinated. Mine would say “Human, With Crippling Headache.”
And the strange: Snowball Leads to Slashing. You guys might think I’m a monster, but I fricken LOVE this story. Some kid in his 20s–who was probably drunk and being a heckling, irritating loudmouth dumbass given that he was outside at 4 AM with his friends–threw a snowball at a dude whose job it is to shovel snow. The shoveler guy then attacked the kid with a freaking BOX CUTTER and put him in the hospital with a slashed up throat!!!! HOLY CRAP! Do I think this is an acceptable response to a snowball? Of course not. But that doesn’t stop me from threatening (jokingly of course) to slash up anything that annoys me ever since I read this story.
Also, randomly: I bought some tiny vice grips at Lowes yesterday. I have no clue what I will use them for, but they cost under $2 and they’re adorable. I’ll have to take a picture of them for you, because I cannot find them on the Lowes site. So far I’ve used them to retrieve an ibuprofen from the bottle, to hold a lollipop I was eating, and to grab a package from the pantry. Mr. N was not receptive to me using them to zip and unzip his sweater. Maybe I can use them as a weapon if someone throws a snowball at me. Hmmm.
But, let’s get serious…
My friends’ cat–who is only 7 years old–is terminally ill. They only found out this week and may not have much longer to spend with him. (He has cancer.) I keep thinking about him, and them. This is him–Simba.
He is feeling OK right now, so they are just trying to keep him happy and comfortable until he gives them a sign that he’s ready to move on. Please do whatever you do–pray, send good thoughts, whatever–for his comfort and for their strength as they work through this difficult time. And go give your pets extra snuggles and loves (and maybe a few kibbles?). You never know how long they’ll be around.
Now here’s what’s probably coming up on this blog in the next week(ish).
Random acts of photography.
Another item checked off my ’30 before 30′.
The plan for the basement.
A recipe for a light appetizer.
Maybe the dishwasher post. We’ll see when the part arrives.
Now I think I’m going to go take the Roomba apart. It has been malfunctioning for weeks, and the simple cleanings aren’t helping. Have a good Saturday. And don’t forget to tell me how to cook my chicken.
Late-20s yuppie, professional techie, terminal student. I probably live farther north than you do. (
You can cook a whole chicken in a crockpot. I have this recipe bookmarked to try (haven’t yet!). http://crockpot365.blogspot.co.....ecipe.html
I’ll check this one out, thanks. (I’m a little wary of Crockpot365 though; I’ve tried probably a half-dozen of her recipes and the best of them was mediocre and bland at best. But maybe that was bad luck/bad choices on my part.)
I’ve used this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/who.....cipe-33671
It’s pretty good. The flavor of the onion is reeeeeally strong in the chicken though when its done. I’d probably either skip the onion or use much less of it. I’m contemplating adding potatoes and/or carrots to the bottom of the crockpot, but that might be too mushy.
Thanks! I’ll check this one out too (and thanks for the warning on the onion. Mr. N is not a big onion fan. As far as your mushy potato worry: ever use a Rutabaga instead? They don’t fall apart like potatoes, and make a great substitute for soups, etc.
Just chop up a bunch of carrots, 4 potatoes, celery, 1 whole onion (or other vegetables), throw in a cup of chicken broth, some sea salt, and the chicken in the crock pot – mmm-mmm-mmm! Tender and delicious. And check out the big brain on Brett! (I’m also a Pulp Fiction fan.)
Yum! This sounds good! Almost as good as a Royale with Cheese ;-D
Our roomba does this more and more as it ages – I clean it as well as I always do, start it, and a moment later it stops and wants to be cleaned. Brad always just takes it all the way apart, cleans all the little pieces, and poof, all better. It would be freaking annoying if I didn’t have a Brad around, but I suppose it does get pretty dirty and hairy.
I’ve also had to give its ‘cliff sensors’ a good cleaning with alcohol on a cotton ball. It specifically asked for that, but I’d do it anyway while you’re at it.
Good to know yours works after ‘deep cleaning’. Everybody stand back! I’m going in.
CHICKEN QUESTION! Both of the recipes linked said not to add any additional liquid. Won’t it just burn all to hell, like when I tried to cook the pork loin in there? Pat’s suggestion is the only one that includes any liquid.
Ok, first of all, that paragraph about those tiny vice grips almost made me choke on my lunch because I was laughing so hard. I can totally see you annoying the hell out of Mr. N with those!!
Secondly, you should just throw that chicken in the crock pot (spray some pam or something in there) and then make chicken noodle soup!!! If you want the recipe, let me know….my mom makes it all the time in the winter and it’s amazing (and you know me, I pick out the chicken). Oh and it’s easy AND has vegetables in it…but you can leave those out since you’re a hater.
Hi! I’m a frequent reader (from WB too) but I don’t think I’ve ever commented to you before so – Hi there!
If you use broth / wine / liquid with your chicken in the crokcpot it will likely get very fall-apartish and be more like a stew than a roasted chicken. Fine but suprising if you’re wanting a more roasted chicken result. But amazingly, the chicken itself has enough moisture to ‘roast’ in the crockpot. All you do is season the chicken however you like (I would just use salt and pepper and maybe poultry seasoning or whatever cajun type seasoning you like) season it inside and out and if you’re not using a reddish cajun seasoning, sprinkle the top of the chicken with paprika. This makes it look less anemic when it’s done because there’s nothing to brown the chicken in there.
So just season, put it in there and let it rip while you’re at work. It’s amazing and very tender.
I also often make chicken cacciatore (though I don’t know if it would fit your and Mr N’s tastes) with a cup up chicken, spaghetti sauce, onions peppers and mushrooms and some red wine. Deelish!
You are so sweet to send out a positive message asking everyone to think well for my kitty. Thanks, friend! It is very important to enjoy all of the moments that we have with our furry friends and not take them for granted.
This recipe was passed on to me this week for whole chicken, but I haven’t yet made it. But the “40 cloves of garlic” definitely gets my attention piqued. :)
http://www.mnn.com/food/recipe.....low-cooker
MOOOOAR VLOGGGSSS
I used this recipe last week, and I thought it was amazing. My husband told me never to cook chicken any other way. I used a small onion and a few stalks of celery for the bottom of the pot, and I had to cook mine for about 6.5 hrs to get it done. The skin didn’t get crispy, but we don’t eat the skin anyway, so if you don’t mind that, I would say try this one out! The meat was so juicy and flavorful.
My chicken in a crock pot method is as follows Chicken in the pot with cut up onion in cavity. lemon juice, olive oil S&P on the top, cover 10 hours on low – no extra liquid needed, it basically cooks in its juices.
or do this mustardy/honey one seen here http://wicked-delicious.blogsp.....inner.html
Though… I’d recommend ZUNI CHICKEN b/c it’s the best and takes like, 45 minutes in the oven.
ps. please please please remove the captcha thing.. it’s killing me!
I’m sorry about the captcha! I hate it too, but I gotta do it. I think you can reload it for a better one. I get spam like nobody’s business, and that thing cuts it to minuscule amount compared to what it was.
I’m definitely going to try zuni chicken sometime! For this chicken though, it’s going in the crockpot tomorrow. Thanks for these suggestions. I think I’m gonna meld everyone’s together.