Crockpot = modern invention to replace ole-fashioned cast iron dutch oven in the oven or fireplace. Low heat simmers (kinda) all day. Good for roast beef or chicken without much-liquid to stews and chili. Wonderful invention. We have 'em in 3 sizes. Some aren't immersible (the smaller & cheaper ones). Some have a separate ceramic 'pot' that separates from the housing unit. Wouldn't be without one. first gift to college kids when moving away to school. Teach 'em how to buy cheaper cuts and CROCK POT 'EM.!

Can you roast a whole chicken in a crock pot???

I usually roast a big oven stuffer roaster and it cooks for two hours at 350 degrees.

so how long to cook a whole chicken in the crock pot. Does it get nice and browned??

Thanks, Melody

Hi Melody:

You betcha you can cook a whole chicken in a crockpot or slow cooker. I don't remember how brown it got, but I have done that several years ago. Mostly, cooking in these handy gadgets is done with steam so to speak. You can put in vegetables too if you wish - depends on the size of the cooker or crockpot. I think those names are interchangeable. They started out being called crockpots but now I think they are also called slow cookers - at least my latest one is. It is a small sized one good for one person. I do need to get another and larger one, though, so I can have more leftovers.

The chicken made in the crockpot or slow cooker just falls apart, it is so tender. I don't like leaving it alone all day when I am out, although I used to do this years ago. I now have it on during the night and by morning things are done nicely. I add just a little water in the bottom to make steam. I also make sauerkraut and spareribs this way and the meat gets so tender. I used to make beef roast and now I make corned beef briskets. Beef roasts these days, however, come more lean and are not so tender anymore. I also make bits of sliced chuck steak in canned tomato with flour added to make a sort of gravy. This is yummy and the small pieces of beef are so tender. I add the beef raw, by the way. When done, this is very good over potatoes or brown rice.

I love my slow cooker! By the way, best to not keep taking off the lid to check - this removes too much steam!

Shirley H.

Melody:

A dish I make frequently is chicken thighs - sprinkle some garlic powder over the top and some orange juice on the bottom of the ceramic dish for liquid. Salt too if you use it. I use thighs with skin on and bones in. We all need a little fat in our diets! The skin does make the meat more tender I believe. A package of chicken thighs gives me meat for several meals. I am alone now, and this meat warms up so well in the microwave. Then I just add vegetables, fruit, a beverage and there is my meal.

Shirley H.

Let me tell you about my experience the first time I tried to roast a chicken.

I was 28 years old . I bought the chicken, I cleaned the chicken (just like I saw my mom do....you pour salt over the chicken, you run it under the cold water, you scrub it clean, and you rinse it off. You take the chicken, holding it open and you let the water run inside and you turn it upside down and the water runs clean. (That's how my mother did it).

Okay, I do all that. I put chicken in the pan, I put garlic powder, I take a little extra virgin olive oil and put some in my hands and rub it all over the chicken. Then I sprinkled on whatever seasonings people put on chicken.

Then I cut up fresh parsley, sprinkle that on. (my oven was preheated to 400 degrees at the time). So the oven gets hot, I put in the chicken and twenty minutes later, my boyfriend at the time, comes running into the living room yelling "the chicken is on fire". I said "what on earth are you talking about, how can a chicken be on fire???"......so I look inside the oven and sure enough the thing is in flames. Because I had no idea what to do, I shut off the oven, waited an hour and then opened the oven door and what do I see.... a bag of things are stuffed inside the chicken....

My boyfriend says to me "what is that thing that caught on fire??" I said 'I have no idea, I'm calling up my mother". After laughing her head off she said "you have to pull the bag out of the chicken, every chicken comes with a little bag stuffed inside" I said "stuffed inside?,they stuff things inside of a chicken?? what is inside the bag?" Then she told me "gizzards and the neck".


Let me tell you. It was years before I ever roasted another chicken.

lol

Now let me ask you this. Where does it say on a chicken "Look inside and you'll find a little bag with gizzards and the neck"??. I was telling this story to a friend on the bus and in five minutes, the whole bus was laughing so hard some people forgot to get off at their bus stop.

mel

And don't get me started telling what happened the first time (the very first time) I tried to make spaghetti. What does it say on the box??? Drop into boiling water. Yep, I put the whole box in. I must have been 19 years old.

Hi Melody:

And then there was the time I took the turkey out of the pan to put it on the big platter, and the bird fell on the kitchen floor. Figuring, how much dirt could the thing collect in that short a time, I put the darn thing on the platter and served it. No one caught on and no one got sick or died. ARRGH. I usually kept my kitchen floor pretty clean.

Shirley H.

I'm sitting here laughing my head off. Now that is something I might have done. Dropping a bird on the floor, dusting it off and serving it.

That is funny!!!

Oh, one day, long long ago, I had my friends over for Roasted Lamb. Came out pretty good. They had a 2 year old. My godson, Sean.

Now I had goldfish in a 10 gallon tank, in my living room. So we are all in the kitchen enjoying dinner, when little 2 year old Sean, comes in and babbles "Auntie Mel, I fed the fish". And we laughed and we didn't get it!!!! He says again. "Auntie Mel, I fed the fish" and I looked at him and said "That's nice honey, you fed the fish" and he beams and says "Yeah, I fed ALL the fish". You ever see 3 people jump out of their chair and run into the living room and see a whole box of gold fish flakes completely enveloping all the fish????? The father took the net and scooped out as much as he could. But later there was 10 dead fish in my fish tank.

The look on their faces was priceless!!!!

mel (Auntie Mel)

Yes clean it, yes pat it dry. Sift some flour very lightly on the 'top side of the chicken [makes the 'evil' skin {YUMMM} extra crispy] and put about [six more or less] peeled whole garlic cloves in the cavity -nothing else. Roasting for a small to medium bird takes an hour about. House smells great, you don't get vampires or werewolves in the neighborhood and the whole chicken tastes of the sweet roast garlic taste.

Crock pots, for meats - you have to brown the meats first! Otherwise it looks like dirty gray glue on the outside. I use chicken broth canned and add water as needed. I find beef broth saltier and tastes kind of tinny. Once meat is done, you really can't tell the difference. I don't normally do crock pot cooking as it requires LOTS of planning, really.

A big chest freezer 'came' with our house when we bought it...It's been a long time 'running' as it was old when we got our house and the mortgage is almost paid off...I cook mostly for the 2 of us, and freeze in single or double portions what's left over...Sometimes I make Huge batches of beef chuck which I get on sale then cook and split up into a Cuban stew called Ropa Vieja [old clothes-not as bad as it sounds] and bar-be-que. Bag it or container it and freeze it...then microwave it. Whatever I cook..- I've always adhered to a philosophy of 'effort VS reward'...time spent, ease of putting it together and how it tastes....
Now that I'm not working, I'm getting and freezing all sorts of things at Farmer's Markets, right now it's early berries...Strawberries, blackberries and whatever comes next... Whatever I can get in season-I clean cut[if needed] freeze then bag - ASAP [freezing first-then bagging] enables you to take out some loose pieces as you need them -Process is also good for spicy peppers[freeze whole] and I just cut, bag & freeze tomatoes in season. I think I would be worse off health-wise were it not for that HUGE chest freezer in my big kitchen! When that dies tho [the freezer] I DO HAVE remodel plans - hope I can live thru that!

Enuf of food! - j

I found this today on another forum...it is really interesting!

http://www.time.com/time/photogaller...373664,00.html

And BTW...I've always had a Nesco dutch electric oven, that cooks wonderfully on the tabletop. Roasts, chicken turkey veggies... all wonderfully tender.

It is not a slow cooker, but it does steam the food so flavors mix. I put garlic and various bullions in the bottom of the cooker under the rack and baste it with the juices. One can cook potatoes, squash, carrots, yams, all together.
My grandmother gave me her old one when I was married 39 yrs ago, and I replaced it 10 yrs ago with a new one finally. I even have one at the cottage, and we turn on the generator for it...
Mine is an older version of this:
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html...sin=B0002WYJYY

I get flavorful meals, quickly, easily, and have trained hubby to do it when I am working! LOL

Mrs. D. I will never complain about my food bill again.
Some people (Breidjing) spent $1.23 on food for a week. Some in Shingkhey Village spent $5.03 a week. Then I looked at Germany where they spend $500.07 a week. My goodness, what a difference.

I noticed, in many photos, there was lot of Soda Bottles.
And I mean lots!!!!

And as far as the roaster. I remember seeing these on either QVC or HSN. They looked absolutely wonderful or roasting.

Happy Cooking.

Me?? I'm about to stick my 8 lb Perdue Oven Stuffer in the oven!!!

Mel