Whole Chicken and Potatoes in the Slow Cooker

This recipe is really quick an easy. After such a long fun filled weekend I needed something I could prepare in about 30 minutes before getting for work this morning. I was half awake while preparing this recipe this morning and thought it would take longer than anticipated, but the longest part was removing the skin off of the chicken. I was a little lazy and left the skin on the wings and plus wanted a little fatty deliciousness in my dinner. I love pita bread so I decided to serve the completed meal on top of a piece of pita. Since we are all busy and even us working women don’t have time to make a new meal every night I try to make meals that are great reheated or can be used as a base to make another recipe. Below the Whole Chicken and Potatoes recipe you will see a recipe for Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. This is a wonderful way to use your leftovers to make something new and fresh that everyone will love the next day. I will post a picture of the soup tomorrow once I have prepared it :)

Whole Chicken and Potatoes (Crock Pot Recipe)

Ingredients

• 1 (3 pound) whole chicken, skin removed
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3 stalks celery (more if desired)
• 1 baking potato (chopped into pieces-circle or cubed)
• 8 oz of baby carrots chopped (more if desired)
• Pita bread 

1. Remove skin from chicken and empty inner cavity of contents within. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel, and place inside the slow cooker.
2. In a bowl, stir together the chicken broth, soy sauce, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, and minced garlic.
3. Pour mixture over chicken, and cover.
4. Chop potatoes, carrots, and celery and place around the chicken.Cook chicken on low setting for 8 hours, or 4 hours on high setting.
5. Place pita down on your plate, add the chicken, veggies, potatoes, and juice on top of the pita bread.

Left over chicken, veggies, potatoes, and juice can be used to make chicken noodle soup.

Homemade Chicken Soup

Recipe compliments of Crystal Miller

Ingredients 

• 1 whole chicken or leg and thigh combination or leftover chicken and bones from last night’s chicken dinner :) If using a whole chicken you could get more soup stock and have extra dinners for the freezer
• 1 onion
• Add more carrots and celery, if desired
• Salt
• Seasoning salt
• Poultry seasonings
• Garlic
• Noodles, egg or fettuccini

Put chicken or pieces into soup pot. Cover well with water. Add onion and salt (I use about 1 T. salt for 12 cups of water). Bring to a boil and simmer until chicken falls off the bone, about 2 to 3 hours. I strain out the chicken by pouring the soup into a colander that I set inside of a large pan. I pour the broth back into my soup pot and let the chicken cool to the point I can take the meat off the bone. While the chicken is cooling I add the carrots to the simmering broth. I also put in about 1-teaspoon poultry seasoning and a little bit of seasoning salt. When I finish deboning the cooled chicken I put the meat into my pot. I then add noodles and cook for about 10 minutes or (amount varies, I just put in probably 4 or 5 cups of dry noodles for the 12 cups of water). I then adjust my seasonings according to taste and enjoy with fresh homemade bread. This soup freezes well. The noodles will sometimes fall apart when it has been defrosted and heated up. We are not picky about that, but if you wanted intact noodles you could freeze everything but the noodles and add that after it has defrosted.