I haven't used my crockpot much this year, since there aren't any crockpot recipes in the Edmonds book. But the other day I got a chicken out of the freezer, and, after considering a few alternatives, decided to cook it as pot-roast chicken (p142). Since I didn't have a casserole dish large enough to take a whole chicken, I decided to use my crockpot instead.
The best part of crockpot cooking is knowing that dinner will be waiting when you get home from work. The downside is that you have to find time to set it all up before you leave in the morning. The preparation in this case was to brown the whole chicken in butter, before adding it to the crockpot with some herbs, an onion, and a little water. Technically I was supposed to truss the chicken too, but I wasn't sure it'd fit into the crockpot that way.
I got up 15 minutes early to do this. I'd planned half an hour but had a little trouble dragging myself out of bed. So, by the time I had the chicken browned and into the crockpot, I was already running 5 minutes late for work. With no time to make my usual porridge, I chucked some cornflakes in a bowl, and took it with me and had breakfast at my desk.
All day, I was looking forward to my pot-roast chicken. When I arrived home, the house was filled with the enticing smell of cooking chicken. I turned the crockpot onto 'keep warm' while I arranged some veges.
I went to take the chicken out of the crockpot using a pair of tongs, but it was so tender that the whole chicken just fell to pieces as I picked it up. It was a bit messy to fish out all the pieces individually, but it saved me the trouble of carving it!
The chicken was lovely and tender, though the breast meat was just slightly dry - I think it was in the crockpot a couple of hours too long. It's still usable though, and the meat from the rest of the chicken was beautiful. Plus, there's enough there to feed me for several days at least!
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