Whole chicken in a slow cooker

[wibblyjelly]

I'm planning on doing a show chicken in a slow cooker tomorrow. It already has herbs and lemon in it, but I'm just wondering what is the best liquid to cook it in. Should I use stock, water, or something else I've not thought of. Tia.

Whole chicken instead of show chicken of course!

When I do a chicken in the slow cooker it is sans liquid. It doesn't need it.

I didn't realise you could put stuff in them, and cook them dry. That will make life a bit easier!

It will make its own juice. It will be lovely honest!

It will give off plenty of liquid - no need to add any.

out of interest - how long do you cook for? I fancy doing this

Furball, I was going to do it for about 6-8 hours on low. I've not done it before though, so hoping that timing is ok!

Wibbly, I would do on medium for most of the time and then turn to low for the last couple - I would say nearer to 8 hours rather than 6.

Thanks Bella. My cooker only has low or high, no medium! So should I maybe do high for 6, and then low for 2?

I add a small amount of water (just covering the base) and a stock cube and use the juices for gravy.

I for mine for 4 hours on high.

We've had one today, was done on high for 4-5 hours (didn't really pay attention). I just popped it on a bed of chopped onions and carrots and a couple of bay leaves, the juices make fabulous gravy (I thickened it with a bit of Bisto Gravy salt but normally I put a couple of tbsp of flour on the veg for thickening, forgot today). If you take the skin off first the juice is much less fatty, but the flavour isn't quite as good.

Sounds like a plan wibbly

To warn you it'll come out looking raw, like boiled. Not really something you'd want to carve at the table. If you want it looking golden you need to brown it first.

You can brown it at the end as well. I don't usually bother, but carve it at the kitchen counter.

I sometimes cook a slowcooker full of chicken wings and crisp them up at the end with 15 mins in a hot oven, delicious and you get a big pot of gravy to use another time.

I don't mind what it looks like, as long as it tastes yummy!

Cook on high if doing a whole chicken or a roast. Low allows bacteria to breed without being killed.

Thanks wibbly - let us know how you get on with it

I'll give it a whirl next week

I was really surprised at how much liquid came out of the chicken by the end, it was almost submerged! Chicken was very tender. I didn't realise that it had stuffing in it, and that came out lovely. The only thing that was a pain was that it was difficult to pick the bones out, as it just fell apart. Will definitely do it again though!

Yeah I forgot to say you would need to wrestle with the chicken to get it out in one piece

Yes, I've had that problem too, I usually run a fish slice under the legs to make sure they aren't stuck to the dish then poke my carving fork deep inside the cavity and lift, using the fishslice with the other hand as soon as I can get it underneath. I have had a few disintegrated chickens though.

I make a cross out of foil, the cross bit goes under the chicken and the edges poke out the lid.

Try a shoulder of lamb next.

If you want to do a duck, make some balls out of foil
Put these on the bottom of the slow cooker and sit the duck on top of it. This way the duck fat will drain away from the bird.

Lamb is on the list, and I was wondering about doing duck. You really can do anything in a slow cooker