A Late Slow Cooked Post – Pot Roast Chicken

Confession time, I went to the movies on Thursday night and completely forgot about my slow cooked Thursday post.  I saw The Sapphires with some girlfriends, it was great!  I did however actually cook a slow cooked meal this week that I wanted to share with you so here it is, slow cooked chicken pot roast.

I think pot roasts are more of an American thing than they are in Australia or at least that’s my impression.  Having said that I have made a pot roasted chicken several times in my cast iron pot.  This was my first attempt at doing one in the slow cooker.  I searched for a recipe to use, but in the end I just adapted the old Donna Hay one I always use.  The others were either too involved or the opposite, bland-sounding.  The end result was incredibly flavoursome, but not quite falling apart tender – another couple of hours would have been better I think.  The initial stage was dead easy and didn’t involve any of the usual browning and deglazing, however I did decide to put the chook and the potatoes into a hot oven at the end to crisp up the skin and give them some colour.  This is the perfect meal if you’re going out the for the day, but will be home with a bit of time to spare before dinnertime to transfer the meat to the oven and get the rest of the meal organised.  Not a great after work meal, but good for a busy weekend.

Ingredient
1 whole chicken (I always buy the biggest one I can get at the farmers market)
4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
1/3 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup white wine
thyme
salt and pepper

Line the slow cooker pot with tin foil so that the ends are hanging out over the edges.  Add the potatoes to the bottom of the slow cooker and place the chicken (rinsed and patted dry with paper towel) on top.  Pour over the wine and chicken stock, add a couple of sprigs of thyme and season with salt and pepper.  Turn the slow cooker onto auto (if you have it, otherwise I would use the low setting for 8-10 hours) and cook for at least 8 hours (10 would be better if you want it really falling off the bone).

Just before the end of the cooking time, preheat the oven to about 200 degrees Celsius.  Use the ends of the foil to lift the chicken and potatoes out of the pot, tip slightly so that the liquid runs back into the pot, and place into a roasting dish.  Put the dish into the oven and cook for thirty minutes or until golden and the skin is crispy.

While the chicken is cooking, transfer the juices from the slow cooker to a small saucepan and reduce over medium heat.  Once the meat is done, serve with some of the reduced juices, the potatoes and other vegetables (I did sauteed cabbage, and steamed peas and corn).

The meat was lovely, full of flavour and moist, though not falling off the bone as I had imagined it would be.  And the potatoes weren’t as good as normal roasted potatoes, but in all the meal was delicious.  The best part was being able to do a roast despite the fact that I wasn’t home until the late afternoon.