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| Cooked chicken Yes, I attacked it with a fork and tasted it. |
I put a frozen chicken and an onion in my new crockpot. This was a free chicken, so it was and is making me pretty happy. The chicken went into the crockpot at 1 am Sunday and I took it out at 1 pm Sunday. This cooking time was so convenient, done while I slept.
After I took all the meat from the bones, I put it back in the broth and cooked it another 8 hours. I strained all the bones and bits, took out additional meat. Those scraps are for the hens. Now, I have 8 cups of broth with fat on top, waiting to be skimmed.
refrigerated broth
About six hours into the broth making, I became hungry. It was near the end of the time I could have food before the no-food prep. I took three small red potatoes, just beyond the new potato size, and halved them and dropped them into the broth. Less than thirty minutes later, I had some very tasty potatoes that I put in a bowl and topped with 8 oz of Greek yogurt. I may never boil potatoes in anything else.
This chicken made 8 meals, half for me and half for exbf. We both just have chunks of meat at this point. The chickens will get 4 meals from the leftovers.
Tomorrow, I will put carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables in about half of this and have that with some of the chicken breast thrown in. I am salivating thinking of the meal.
I think I will cook brown rice in the other half of the broth. Then, I can freeze the rice in pint packages.
I Love my Crockpot.
Plus, I am no longer fearful that my house will burn to the ground. But, there were no pretty pictures for this post. There is delicious food, frugal food.
One strange thing I experienced with this was the chicken skin. When I tried to peel/pull it off, it was not longer solid. It came off like jelly, sort of slimy. What's with that?
I am proud of myself.
Your turn
Have you had the chicken skin become gelatinous after cooking for so long?
A couple weeks before Thanksgiving I spend days and days making chicken broth to be ready for the army's worth of chicken and noodles I make each year.
ReplyDeleteEventually everything turns gelatinous. After one proper boiling, I pick the meat off the chicken and strain the broth into Ziplock bags that go in the freezer. I throw everything else back into the crockpot with more water and boil it again for several hours. Strain and repeat.
After the second or third time, I just use a small amount of water and the bones only, which breaks downs releasing the marrow.
I've read that the best broth is made using the feet. I've not tried that for two reasons, first I'm not sure I could stomach looking at a crockpot full of feet and second, no butcher in the midwest sells feet. If I saw some around that time, I might give it a go and tell no one in the family until they have raved about my chicken and noodles again.
Everything goes gelatinous! ??? Glad to know that. I am not sure what happened to the bag the giblets were in. I guess we will eat paper, too. I can see you--boiling pot after pot of chicken bones.
ReplyDeleteI had heard people say they broke the bones to release the marrow. Thinking that would be hard, I started. It was surprising how soft they were. The chickens could probably eat those.
I can find the chicken feet in the grocery, but I could not get past a pot full of feet...lol.
Your information is a great addition to this blog. I learn from comments. Thanks.
Thanks Linda.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not sure EVERYTHING becomes gelatinous, but a lot does. If I refrigerate my broth, it definitely sets, like a jello.
Btw, yesterday my husband brought home a roasted chicken from Costco for $4.99. We had roast chicken for dinner, I picked off the rest of the meat for chicken salad and chicken noodle soup. Threw the chicken carcass into a pot with water and thyme and boiled it forever. Strained and repeated. I now have quite a bit of wonderfully seasoned broth to make chicken noodle soup.
I'm estimating maybe seven meals out of on $4.99 already roasted, seasoned chicken. Can't eat cheaper than that unless someone else is buying.
Rita,
DeleteI tried to follow your blog and got a message that I could not! I tried three or four times. I read lots of your blog and love it.
My broth from a normally cooked chicken usually gets like jello, but not as thick as this. I put the chicken's part in the refrigerator on the top shelf and then sitting on something high. Today, I went in to get it to feed them and it is frozen. I had a wicked thought that I could put it back in to boil again. I might.
At that price, why cook. I have only had a couple of those chickens and got them free. As I was walking past the Walmart section out near the registers where they place the roasted chickens, an employee spoke to me. "Do you want a chicken?" I was unsure since no one at WM offers anything free. It seems they gave them away after a certain time on the warmer. Well, I got about six chickens when I realized it was giveway time. Now, they toss them in the trash. Shame.
I am still recovering from the colonoscopy today and am going out to dinner at the church tonight. But, tomorrow I am going to use half that congealed broth for some sort of soup.
I really want to follow your blog!
When I looked, it appears the Follow option is odd. I'm betting. It has something to do with the stupid Google +. Seems like that's the only option.
DeleteI hate it google yahoo, Facebook, Flickr and all these other sites start trying to combine things. It messes so many things up. There is a reason I don't want my Facebook, yahoo and google things combined.
I can't figure it out either Linda.
I made a chicken soup for my partner before one of his surgeries when he had been told 'clear fluids' only for forty-eight hours. And the leftovers (and there wasn't much) did set. He tells me the flavour was amazing too.
ReplyDeleteCrockpot? I wonder if that is a distant Irish cousin to my Coffeypot?
ReplyDeleteCoffeypot,
DeleteThey are probably kissing cousins twice removed. lol
When I boil a chicken or cook it in the crockpot, the skin always does that.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Janie,
DeleteWhen I boil a chicken, the skin can be taken off mostly whole. This is my first crockpot chicken and the only skin that was gelatin I was pulling off in tiny smidgens. Weird. Thanks.
Do you usually leave it boil that long? I think that's the difference.
DeleteRita,
DeleteNo, not at all. Maybe two hours for a frozen chicken or an hour more. I suppose that is the difference.
I am so glad it came out well. DS has filed to try and overturn the decision for his fasfa. His school district will pay his school loans back after he is there for 5 years so we are going to hope for the best. Even though he is a special ed teacher a masters makes him more marketable. DD's fasfa for her masters is easier because she still lives at home(well when not at college), she has an internship this summer in New York and has been offered a partial scholarship for her Masters which she will start next January since she graduates in December. Thank you for the great advice
ReplyDeleteJudy,
DeleteDoes he get paid more for a MA and PhD? I am curious because here teachers get paid not only by how many years they have taught, but also by the degrees they possess. In TX my son said it doesn't matter if a teacher has BA or MA, the pay is the same. I find that appalling. I received even more grants for my MA.