CrockPotChickenzzzzzzzzz

So the best part about a crockpot is that you can walk away.

The worst part about a crockpot is that you have little control over seasoning.

To me, this means crockpots are good for things that you don't really want to season too heavily while cooking: larger poultry, stews, and even soups.

To this end, I really, really enjoy cooking a whole young chicken in the crock.

Tonight's variation:

1 crock pot PLUS 1 4 lb chicken, 3 baby carrots, 1/4 of a sweet onion, 11 cloves of garlic, 1 1/2 tsp herbs de provence, 1/4 tsp summer savory, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp lemon pepper, 2 bay leaves, 1 stalk celery, 1/4 cup chicken stock, 1/2 cup chardonnay, cheesecloth

Sauce-- if desired-- 1 sauce pan, 1-2 tsp flour, 1 1/2 tbsp butters, leftover drippings/liquid from chicken

Remove giblets and any visible trimmable fat from the chicken. Rinse inside and out and pat that sucker dry.

Mix the spices together. Rub them under the chicken skin and on the chicken skin. Place the chicken into the crock.

Crush the garlic cloves, and add the bay leaves, onion, carrot and celery. Roll it up and stuff it into the bird's cavity.

Pour the wine and stock around the chicken. Cover and cook for 5 hours on high, then 1.5 hour on low. Remove skin and bones and cavity-cheese-cloth-seasoners and separate yummy chickens, or just remove meat and skim fat from liquid.

(Either way, get rid of the fat if you're making gravy.)

Once it's separated, keep it warm in the oven at about 200 degrees.

If you're a gravy fan, put the butter in a sauce pan and melt, then whisk in the flour. Keep whisking about 3-5 minutes, until cooked. Add the strained & skimmed crockjuices. Whisk. Bring to a boil, boil for about a min and the reduce heat drastically, to a simmer, and let it chill like that until it gets to the desired thickness.

I like to roast potatoes in a wine/butter/broth combo for about 40 min at 400 degrees, and then a veggie of your choice. (Tonight, broccoli: 4 tbsp water or broth added to a pan of broccoli that went into about 2 tbsp of olive oil, lightly salted, covered after adding liquid and steamed for 3-4 minutes...)