Rather than making you wait to the end, here’s how this works:
Put a dead chicken in a slow cooker and turn it on low for 8 hours.
It almost sounds too easy, but it’s not, and it actually gets better.
It Can’t Be That Easy
Something inside you is going to make you feel like you’re missing something.
“Shouldn’t I add some seasonings or something?”
“How is it going to work with no liquid?”
Please. Don’t overdo it. Just put the bird in the slow cooker and turn it on. If you really want to pay attention to detail, put the bird in breast down. But if you screw that up, you’ll still be ok.
Eight Hours Pass
Great job, you just cooked a chicken.
The best bet now is to let it cool slightly by removing parts of the bird and putting them on a plate. When it’s cool enough for you to handle by hand, start peeling all the meat off the carcass.
After it’s cooked move pieces onto another plate or bowl and shred it by hand.
All the pulled meat goes into your Tupperware, and all the bones go in a bowl to eventually go back in the slow cooker.
Time To Play
So now you have a container of shredded chicken. Here are some options:
- Put the chicken right on a green salad.
- Mix the chicken with some mayo for the other type of chicken salad.
- Mix the chicken with some bbq sauce for some bbq chicken.
- Put it in a wrap, or between a bun.
This is why I do this every week. It’s beyond simple and it provides a high quality protein with meal diversity.
There’s More!
Put all the bones back in the slow cooker, fill the cooker up with water and turn it back on for another eight to ten hours.
When that’s done, pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer and you have a few month’s worth of chicken broth. Use this in soups or drink straight.
Spice up this portion by including a bunch of veggies with the bones. We keep a zip lock bag in the freezer with all the veggie scraps (pepper tops, carrot peels, etc.) and toss them in with the bones before filling with water.
Store the broth in freezer style mason jars, or pour 2 cups into a zip lock bag, lay the bag flat on a cookie tray, and place in the freezer. Use a tray with a lip because sometimes a bag can rip during the freezing process. BUT, then you have nice little 2 cup bags of broth ready to go.
ABUNDANCE – because I make this recipe almost every week, we’ve ended up with an abundance of broth, so I keep a jar in the ‘fridge and top the dog food with it. Makes it a little more palatable for the guy.
You can also mix the broth with dog food, pour into a kong and put in the freezer for a long duration treat for your pup.
Hold Up…There’s MORE!
Just when you thought we’ve tapped this for all it’s worth, I take all those chicken and veggie scraps and toss them out to the chickens. They go nuts for it.
In the end, it’s just a few bones left in the compost pile.
ALSO
I freeze all the offal and to use as lobster bait.
NOTHING goes to waste.
The Recipe I Cook The Most
Short of my breakfast scramble, this is the recipe I cook the most. So much so that it’s a major motivator for me to build the systems to raise meat birds on the property. I want to do 2 runs of 30 birds to give away 5 in each run and have 50 to cover me for the year.
This also works well with a crock pot full of leg quarters, but I would avoid using a bunch of breasts – too dry.
Also, do me a favor and buy a quality bird. It made my soul sore a few months back when I did this with cheap leg quarters because it made my house smell like garbage. Literally. Like, I woke up wondering, what stinks? It was cheap chicken, spend a few extra bucks, you’re worth it.
I welcome your feedback after you try this, and anything else you can do to improve this method. But don’t go throwing spices and sauces and rubs and TIME into this recipe, you’ll be missing the point.
I take a bird from the ‘fridge – put it in a slow cooker – go to bed – shred the meat in the morning – and I have lunch for the week.
Itadakimasu (‘eat a duck we must’) (bon appetit in Japanese),
-NHMan
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