Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot - Ya Gotta Try It!

I offered this great tip, below, in my Risotto post but it's so good I'm giving it a separate post. My friend Vivian has me hooked on buying a whole chicken, rinsing it, seasoning it however you like (Johnny’s Seasoning salt and a little garlic powder for me) and dumping it with no liquid, breast side down, into the crockpot on low for 6 hours. So simple, I often do it when whole Foster Farms chickens are on sale as they were this week for 78 cents a lb. 


Here is a link to an online discussion of the chicken in the crock pot 

http://thehappyhousewife.com/cooking/whole-chicken-in-a-crock-pot/

My friend Deborah Taylor Hough who writes books on Once-a-Month Cooking got me started, years ago, always keeping good quality zipping freezer bags on hand and a Sharpie pen in my kitchen drawer. There are only two of us and my husband isn't too fond of casseroles so, you ask, what to do with all that chicken meat. He'll eat roasted chicken if it's with mashed potatoes and gravy so I keep bottled gravy on hand and one meal hot chicken sandwiches (chicken on white bread and with mashed potatoes with gravy over all of it) I add five cups of water to bones skin and liquid from chicken and leave on low over night then freeze broth. Then I freeze chicken meat in quart bags for later chicken salad or other uses. This time I'm going to add some to some of the Risotto I made and have frozen in quart zip lock bags. I used to let things go bad when I froze them - freeze and forget! Now I regularly check the freezer to remind myself what is there to use.You can do it. Something I love to have in freezer ready portions is homemade Macaroni and Cheese. My favorite recipe is:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/macaroni-cheese/

Here is an article by Deborah Taylor Hough with tips on what freezes well and what doesn't.

http://www.menus4moms.com/articles/000018.php

More about my chicken, My husband had hot chicken sandwiches two nights as I was busy (it's one thing he'll eat over and over). I had a couple cold chicken sandwiches on white bread with mayo (yum). Before freezing I decided to use the remaining chicken in a casserole. I chopped the chicken. Then went to my fridge and cupboards for inspiration as I wanted a more complex taste than just mushroom soup or cheese sauce.

Sauteed some celery and an onion adding some Johnney's Seasoning Salt to it.

Chopped some fresh mushrooms.

Added to chicken in crockpot.

Made a sauce of:

• a can of cream of mushroom soup,
• about 1/2 a can of milk,
• 1/2 cup grated swiss cheese,
• 2 cups of cheddar cheese,
• 1/2 cup bleu cheese dressing,
• 1/4 cup mango ginger salsa,
• 1/4 cup sauce I had made for an hors d oeuvre (2 Tbs. whole grain mustard, 2 Tbs. Dijon mustard, 1/4 honey and 1 Tbs. butter).

Poured the sauce over the chicken and vegetables and heated in the crock pot. Cooked a cup of Basmati rice with about 1/2 cup quinoa I had. When ready to serve I mixed casserole with rice and topped with crushed Parmesan courtons stirred together with melted butter and grated fresh Parmesan cheese and put under the broiler until browned.

We enjoyed the casserole and I froze two small ones for future use instead of just freezing the chicken meat this time.

My Hors d oeuvre Triumph

I made the most amazing hors d oeuvre today.

Here's the link:
http://www.thelakekitchen.com/2011/01/13/golden-parmesan-potato-slices-with-golden-honey-mustard-dip/

I replaced the olive oil with melted butter and  after drizzling the potato slices with butter I broiled them until they started to brown on the edges before topping with the sugar/salt/garlic salt/paprika mixture and grated Parmesan. Then broiled them until the Parmesan started to brown.

My husband, to whom I respect re. all things food, said placing a lamb chop on top of some with a couple asparagus spears on top of that and drizzling with the honey mustard sauce would be an amazing entre

Mmmmmmmmm!

Trader Joe’s markets always have something to taste introducing their customers to different products. One day, as I wandered the store, they were serving Edamame (soy bean) Hummus on crackers. Now, I don’t normally cotton to hummus, kind of dry or grainy. But, this was amazingly creamy and tasty. They hooked me. I have an acquaintance who is a hummus aficionado and loves his garlicky. Loving garlic myself, I dumped my creamy new hummus into a bowl and crushed two fresh garlic cloves into it. OMG! I could eat it by itself. But, I took it to another level. Because of my Indian food hobby I’m very aware of Trader Joe’s Nan bread both fresh and frozen. (I’ve always touted their amazing frozen garlic Nan easy to keep on hand in the freezer.) In this case, though I had picked up some fresh garlic Nan (very light garlic flavor) that I thought might be a nice accompaniment to the hummus. The bread is thick and soft and sooo good. I sliced the soft ovals into 1 ½” slices, topped each with a touch of butter (can be omitted) and slathered with the hummus. I’m addicted and it's healthy food that tastes great. I now regularly stop by Trader Joe’s just to keep hummus on hand.

My Saturday Risotto Event

With a broken arm I haven’t done much cooking lately. It was a quiet Saturday. I was due for a cooking event. I had recently read a recipe for risotto and it had stuck in my mind as something that sounded good but that I’ve never had much and only made it one other time as part of a stuffed pepper recipe in this blog. Like my approach to Indian dishes, I looked forward to taking my time and following a basic risotto recipe perfectly.  I’m including links to the risotto-making tips and the recipe I used.

I had Basmati rice on hand (the tips said you could use any type). It called for 5 cups of chicken broth. I had 4 cups of freshly made  chicken broth in the freezer and finished it with half a can. I had recently cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot.* I took my time finely chopping a sweet onion and four cloves of fresh garlic. 


After sautéing the onion and garlic in olive oil, I added and coated the rice that I ’d rinsed. I warmed the chicken broth (they said cold chicken broth shocks the rice, I’d never thought of rice as have a sensitive nature but, hey). After adding the warm broth to the rice and aromatics, the key to risotto, it seems, is to constantly stir it as it cooks. I stirred for about 25 minutes. The rice gets thick and creamy. At the end I added several tablespoons of butter for even creamer (they say you can add cream for even creamier). Talk about comfort food, so yummy. The idea is to then add some cheese, in the case of the recipe I was using, freshly grated Parmesan. I didn’t add the cheese because I’m going to freeze portions of it and add the cheese when I serve it. I kept eating it just as it was, Yum.

I’m impressed with risotto. It should freeze well. One can add different kinds of cheeses, vegetables, chicken or other meat; it’s a flexible dish. My mom and Grandma never did rice as a savory dish, I don’t know why (only with milk, sugar and raisins or in a rice pudding) they would have loved this, though.

Here is the link to the risotto-making tips I used.
Risotto-Making Tips

Here is the recipe I used:
Ingredients:
· 3 Tbsp. olive oil
· 1 onion, diced (I used a sweet onion diced small)
· 3 cloves garlic, minced
· 2 cups short grain Arborio rice (I used Basmati)
· 1/2 cup dry white wine, or more chicken broth (I didn't use wine and only used 5 cups of broth)
· 5 cups chicken broth, warmed
· 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
· 2 Tbsp. butter
•Salt and pepper to taste

Place chicken broth in a heavy saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer over low heat. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan and cook onions and garlic, stirring frequently, until onions become translucent, about 4-5 minutes; don't let them brown.

Stir in the rice and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 3-4 minutes longer until some grains begin to look translucent. Add wine; cook and stir until wine is absorbed. Then add about 1/2 cup of simmering chicken broth to the rice mixture, stirring constantly, until the liquid is absorbed.

At this point you can add more broth, about 1 cup, at a time. The whole cooking process should take about 20-25 minutes. The rice should be tender, but firm, or al dente, in the center; test it by biting into some grains. When the rice is done, remove the pan from the heat and stir in cheese and butter and salt and pepper to taste. Stir until melted, then serve. Serves 4-6 

*Side note: My friend Vivian has me hooked on buying a whole chicken, rinsing it, seasoning it however you like, Johnny’s Seasoning salt and a little garlic powder for me, and dumping it with no liquid, breast side down, into the crockpot on low for 6 hours. So simple, I often do it when whole Foster Farms chickens are on sale. Here is a link to an online discussion of the chicken in the crock pot 

http://thehappyhousewife.com/cooking/whole-chicken-in-a-crock-pot/

The Delicious Element of Surprise

I've been inspired by Indian cuisine for some years now. Learning to prepare it under the tutelage of a special friend introduced me to the alchemy of cooking, It stimulated my curiosity about recipes, unusual ingredients, and intriguing tastes and aromas that one could concoct.

I love basic American comfort food, but it now lacks for me the surprise; the unusual flavor that sneaks up on you. Good ole' American Green beans and onions with a little bacon or some bacon grease can bring fond memories. Now with my Indian cuisine inspiration I take those beans and onions to another level with a can of diced tomatoes and a little Garam Masala (a dry Indian spice mixture) - a Comfort food/Indian fusion! Chicken salad with celery and onions for crunchiness, pickles for tang and Best Foods Mayonnaise, of course, is a fond memory for most. You cannot imagine how that same chicken salad can be taken to another level using left over tandoori chicken and tossing in some pecans and dried cranberries - Yum City!

Recently I came across an unusual chicken salad recipe with that "surprise" dimension. I had to try it, I did, and it was a keeper. Everyone who tried it loved it. It caught my eye because it used some ingredients with which I've become more familiar, chutney and curry powder. (Interestingly, though, many of the Indian recipes I make do not include curry powder.) I keep Trader Joe's Mango Chutney in the larder at all times now. It's a perfect dipping sauce for pot stickers and pork or shrimp balls (available frozen from Trader Joe's). It's a perfect replacement for that mint jelly on lamb. (See the link to the food blog below on creative ways to use Chutney) This interesting chicken salad recipe also caught my eye because it would be easy to keep all the ingredients on hand for a quick hors d oeuvres or lunch. I made it the first time exactly as described and used canned chicken. Left over chicken, cranberries instead of cherries and cashews or pecans rather than peanuts would work.

Not Our Mother's Chicken Salad

2 cups shredded cooked chicken or1-12 oz can chicken meat *

1/3-cup mayonnaise
6 ½ oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
¼ cup mango chutney *
1 cup dried cherries *
Curry powder to taste (I ended up using about 1 teaspoon for a light curry taste )
¼ cup chopped peanuts, if desired *

·Available at Trader Joe’s

 Mix the mayonnaise, pineapple, and chutney. Season with a little curry I started with ½ teaspoon. Add chicken, cherries and peanuts and more curry if desired (I used canned chicken and it was great).

I could see using dried cranberries and cashews or pecans in the place of the cherries and peanuts.

Here is a link to some other great ideas for using chutney
http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.com/2005/03/all-about-chutney.html

The Oriental Restaurant

The Oriental Restaurant was the first and only source for Chinese food in my 1950’s American community. It was something unusual and became a hit with my family very quickly. Even my grandparents, kids from the back woods of Idaho, became fond of the unusual food mixtures.

Chow Mien, in those days, was a mixture of celery, onions, water chestnuts and bean sprouts with julienne chicken, pork or small shrimp served on top of crispy noodles. It was served with rice cooked in a way no rice had ever been cooked in our house, fried with egg, vegetables and a savory sauce. Been sprouts, water chestnuts, rice with egg, these ingredients and mixtures were unusual but so tasty. My Dad expanded his menu favorites to include Almond Chicken, sort of a Chinese version of good ole fried chicken, breaded chicken pieces with a savory sauce graced with chopped almonds. The Won Ton soup preceding the dishes was a simple clear broth with a fat stuffed noodle. Noodles and broth were familiarly American but seemed oddly exotic served in this simple way and the adding of soy sauce was my first introduction to enhancing dishes with sauces.

The ubiquitous soy sauce that sat atop each table to enhance the dishes served played a role in one of my earliest memories as a maturing child. I remember sitting in a booth with my folks at the Oriental Restaurant and hearing them jokingly refer to the soy sauce as ‘bug juice’. I believed it and think it was much later as an emerging adult that I thought about that, learned different and went on to expand my ethnic food horizons. I wonder now about the ‘bug juice’ incident, was it a clue about some remaining reticence of common American folks to trying foods from cultures very unfamiliar. I have fond memories of the Oriental Restaurant and of being introduced to different foods. It was the beginning of my awareness of lives different from my own.

Gladiolas and Mom

Red Gladiolas lined up stately along the flower bed in front of the short retaining wall that contained our small sloped lawn. I remember my mother standing next to them posing in a short sleeved dress, short brown hair and in her hand-made shoes from the White Shoe Company in Spokane. Those shoes made a statement about my mother. Clearly the small round shoes indicated a handicap of sorts. She never exhibited any handicap, though. She rarely spoke of the twelve operations she had endured, before age twelve, to enable her to walk on club feet. She never complained, she danced and ran and volunteered and had a career. Others should learn from her. And she felt good about herself, you could see it as she smiled next to those red gladiolas.