I intended to compose some Friday Food Reflections, but Friday slipped away without time to post.So I switched to a Monday food report instead.Because I know you’re all dying to know about my food discoveries, I’m such the chef.Ha.So here’s the first report:Whole Chicken in a Crock(a mixture of personal beef with chicken)Wad up several pieces of foil in loose balls and toss them into the crock. You can be as artistic or athletic as you’d like with this. You could shoot them into the crock from across the room to add an Olympic-inspired element to your food prep, or just wad and drop. You’re basically making a bed of foil for your bird. I toss about four foil blobs into my large oval Rival brand Crock Pot.Do whatever you ordinarily do to your chicken before you bake or roast it in the oven.
- In summer, I like it with a couple of lemon wedges stuffed in the body cavity and some rosemary on top (after rubbing or spraying on olive oil).
- In fall and winter, I stick in an apple and shake on some poultry seasoning.
- Maybe sprinkle on some salt, too, to crisp up the skin…at least I think that’s what salting it does. It all kind of grosses me out, actually; I hate dealing with raw meat and poultry and would rather the entire family turn vegetarian, but I go ahead and do it. I’m willing to deal with uncooked chicken so that I don’t have to deal with disgruntled children staring with horror at lentils and rice. I admit it; I’m weak.
Anyway, set the bird onto the foil balls, put the lid on top of the crock–carefully, if the handle has fallen off your lid, like it has off my stainless steel Rival Crock Pot, and you’ve called more than once and they have none available to sell you and act like you’re crazy if you ask if they would send you a replacement for free, which they couldn’t do even if they didn’t think you were crazy, because they don’t have any, not that I’m frustrated about this or anything–set to low and cook most of the day, or set to high and cook a few hours in the afternoon.When done, use tongs to handle the meat (after using the tongs to pull off the piping hot lid that has no handle; without the handle, you’ll have to improvise, so be careful, because the steam may shoot out and burn your arms while you use tongs and hot pads in place of lifting it up by the handle that has broken off your Rival Crock Pot lid that you received as a gift and therefore have no receipt to prove purchase, not that I’m frustrated with Rival Customer Service or anything), because the meat will tend to fall off the carcass, it’s so moist and tender.Serve to your carnivorous family who gobble it up with big smiles.Carefully clean the crockpot, replace the lid, carry the entire unit to the basement to store and pull out the old, dated, funky-looking flowered crockpot, circa 1985, to use until the issue is resolved.Because it has a handle to lift the lid safely.Thanks to my inability to declutter consistently, the faithful old crockpot is still around and can now sit on the counter, not matching anything in the kitchen, with its functional, in tact lid-and-handle, ready and waiting for the next MmmmmMonday food assignment.Enjoy your chicken.Sorry about the beef.
Stretch Mark Mama says
I’ve had the lid fall off of three Rival crock pots. Obviously a cheap, faulty product. With the first one, I e-mailed the company to complain, and they sent me a whole new crockpot. Only! The heating element was bent and unusable. I think they did this on purpose–because I needed only the lid and the lid was fine. But what was I supposed to do with the heating part? And the extra crock? (I ended up freecycling that part.) And why in the world did they spend all that money to ship a full crock when all I needed was the lid? Needless to say, my Rival cust svc experience was not very satisfying, esp from a “green” perspective. So when the next two lids melted off, I didn’t write to complain. Sigh.
Shalee says
Chicken… beef. It’s all good to me.
(Personally, I love it when it all falls off the bone. So much easier to deal with at the end.)
Sorry about the cruddy service. But that’s what happens when we live in a throw away world. If only everyone wished to make things last…
Crock Pot Replacement Parts says
I am left to wonder about two things; first: have either of you checked to see if your particular models of crock pot were on any recall lists? There have been a few that I have heard of and your experience with multiple lids failing just sounds unacceptable. Second: I wonder if there was a recall, would you even need to supply a receipt to take advantage of it?
Interesting recipe, BTW!
amanda says
what i did to my crock after my husband broke the handle off: (i just like to blame it on him, im not sure if it was him or the party potatoes that did it) i took a knob for a dresser and put it on, using the rubber washers that fell off of it on either side. works like a charm, and new knobs are only a buck fifty! i put a cute one with a lion on it from my kiddos dresser that i redid, but kyou can use wood, metal, whatever suits your crock! 🙂