Saturday, April 3, 2010

Crock Pot Chicken - Cook Once, Eat Twice!

The other week I made this DELICIOUS crock-pot chicken, and I knew I just had to share the recipe with all of my readers! It is so simple to make. All you do is put your whole. rinsed chicken in the crock-pot. Sprinkle both sides with garlic powder and paprika, and add a couple bay leaves. You don't need to add any water. Turn the crock-pot on low and let it go all day, or high for probably 4-5 hours. When it's done it will look like this. De-bone and eat; I served the chicken with mashed red potatoes and salad. YUMMY! This chicken is so moist. After eating, add all of the skin and bones from cleaning the chicken back into the crock-pot with the liquid that is already in there. Add 5 cups of water and let the crock-pot cook on low overnight. In the morning you will have wonderful homemade chicken stock that you can use or freeze for later. I had about 5 cups of broth, so you don't lose much in the cooking process.
Dinner Day #1
Dinner Day #2:
I took some of the cooked chicken and added it to a bag of cook-in-bag rice with 1 can of cream of chicken soup, some leftover broccoli from the fridge, and some carrot coins from the freezer. Mix all of the ingredients together and place in a greased baking dish, I used a 9" round. Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. Pull the baking dish and cover the mixture with cheese, and then bake for another 5-10 minutes until the cheese is nicely melted. I served this dish with a salad.
You could stretch your chicken even farther if you would like. Joe and I had enough chicken left over to eat sandwiches for the rest of the week for lunch. I could have easily made chicken noodle soup the next day and still had some for sandwiches left -- and this was from a chicken that cost me less than $4!!!!!
**Frugal Tip of the Day: Stretch those proteins!!**