Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
I love rotisserie chicken but have no rotisserie. (sniff) Imagine how excited I was to learn that I could make my own rotisserie chicken in the crockpot. (I have this crockpot, which is the perfect size for a whole chicken.)
If you enjoy eating the skin, you can put the cooked chicken in the oven on broil for a few minutes after it’s thoroughly cooked to get it crisp.
Why make it yourself?
While the grocery store rotisserie chicken is yummy – and way better than hitting a drive-thru – making your own allows for a lot more control:
- You can get better quality chicken – we use organic chicken we raised in our own backyard.
- You are assured that your food isn’t covered in “flavor enhancers” like MSG.
- You know that it hasn’t been sitting there in a warmer for 8 hours, possibly taken out by a customer who changed his mind and returned it to a shelf. (Clearly, I have trust issues.)
Give the homemade version a try. You’ll love it!
Recipe: Rotisserie Chicken in the Crockpot
It’s so simple.
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken, rinsed and patted dry, innards removed
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- Seasonings of choice (I use salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a dash of cayenne, and 1/4 tsp of sugar)
- Onions and/or lemons (optional)
Directions:
- If you have a roasting rack for your slow cooker, insert it. If you don’t, wad up 6 balls of tinfoil for the bottom or slice onions and/or lemons in half. You want to raise your chicken up a little to let the juices run down and steam it. If you don’t raise it up, your chicken may be more of a stewed texture from sitting in the juices.
- Rub the chicken with oil and seasonings.
- Place the chicken in the crockpot and cook it on low for 6-8 hours. Do not add any other liquid. When it’s done, it will be tender and practically falling apart in its deliciousness.
- Because I grew up in the South, gravy is essential in our household. If you, too, are of the gravy persuasion, you can use the drippings and some flour or cornstarch to make gravy on the stovetop while you brown your chicken in the broiler.
That’s it. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Use all your leftovers.
After the first meal, you can use the leftover meat (if there is any) in soft tacos or on sandwiches. Go a step further and return the carcass to the crockpot to make a rich stock for soup. (You do this just like you would with the Thanksgiving turkey carcass, but scale it down – you won’t get enough for canning. Find the instructions here for making broth from a carcass.) Actually, here’s an entire article on getting a week’s worth of food from one chicken.
Why the emphasis on not adding any other liquid? What would be the result if one DID add other liquid? Assume that the liquid is just a couple of ounces, and below the level of the rack, so the chicken isn’t stewing in the liquid. RSVP
Sally – the chicken will make quite a lot of liquid in the cooking process. If you put in more, you’ll end up having boiled chicken instead of a rotisserie style chicken. Even with a rack, your chicken will be at least partially submerged. 🙂
Take your shredded rotisserie chicken, put it on top of French toast and top it with maple syrup. You’re welcome.
Um, oh my gosh. That’s like a quick version of chicken and waffles. WOW!!!!
You tell us to hard copy your info for emergencies, but don’t provide a printer friendly “button”. I don’t print anything when I have to use all my colored ink on unnecessary pictures and ads. Please “fix “this. I so enjoy your site, and I read it every day, but I would like to hard copy it for emergencies. Thank you and God bless you. – Cher
DITTO!!!!
Hear, Hear! I would love that magical button as well! I usually copy, then cut and paste in another document and put the printout in our “Daisy Binder” in the emergency closet. And, yes, we really do have a Daisy Binder and everyone know swhere to find it!! We love us some Ms Daisy!!!!
Oh, DITTO! I have such a problem printing only your articles. They come out landscape, not portrait, and with huge print. Nothing I can do by fiddling with settings can change it. I don’t understand at all, and am truly disappointed because I have been wanting to save printouts of so many of your articles.
Have most of your books and love them. You are a true blessing. Thank you, Daisy, for all you do.
Yes! Please have a print button for all of your articles!!!
Try Evernote free. It will allow you to do a “simplified article” when you clip the note (browser addon) and then print from Evernote. Saved both to the cloud and your Daisy binder. Sort by categories you add. Really user friendly. Solves the prolem for pages with no print button.
My cooking ability is limited to opening a can with a P-38 but perhaps the following would work with chicken as it does for a roast?
Quarter potatoes, carrots and celery into large chunks and place them into the bottom of the pot to a height of an inch or so. Place the chicken on top.
After the chicken is done, deglaze the bottom of the combined vegetables and fat.
“Déglacer is a method of deglazing or loosening the deposits of browned juices and fats, known as the fond, that accumulate on the bottom of a pan during cooking.
A small amount of liquid, such as water, stock, or wine, is added to the pan and then brought to a low boil. As it simmers, the bottom is gently scraped and then stirred to dissolve the fond.
The fond (stock) has incredible concentrated flavors, and once dissolved, the liquid is used as the basis for a flavorful pan sauce, or reduced to a demi-glace to accompany the main course.”
If you deglaze the fond with wine buy two bottles. One to drink as the chicken cooks and the other for deglazing.
Marinate the leftover chicken and stock/gravy overnight for an even better taste.
The dirty secret of cooking, fat tastes good.
Back in Country … where I was not, at the start of a patrol, a 55-gallon drum can was filled with various “stuff” and buried. Later, after fermenting a while, weeks, a month, it was unburied and voila, dinner.
Amusing to see a young Lieutenant JG lose his appetite after a monkey paw surfacing to the top. (from what I heard.)
SHTF Cuisine in a Can.
Thanks this sounds great. I must try it next chicken I get.