Edie Shaw-Ewald is a Registered Dietitian and Personal Trainer, and a regular contributor to the Bedford Beacon.
She coaches clients to use real and natural foods to achieve their healthiest body and mind.
She runs her own business called Nova Scotia’s Nutrition Coach:
As the old saying goes: ” when one door closes; another one opens”. So true in life and in the kitchen!
The door that recently closed for me was my oven door, so to speak. My oven started beeping out of control and then finally beeped its last beep about 3 weeks ago. I had a service person come in. The diagnosis: the electric control panel had ‘had the biscuit’ and it would be approximately $450 to fix it. Here is a mini tip: go with knobs instead of electronic push panels on ovens, stoves, etc. Knobs are easy and less expensive to fix, if they do break.
So I had no oven for a couple of weeks and in that time I rekindled my relationship with some of my smaller appliances. My bread machine came out and produced some great loaves, my waffle maker created those wonderful spelt waffles and last, but not least, my slow cooker saved our traditional Sunday chicken dinners!
I hadn’t been using my slow cooker very much and always felt that it didn’t really do a great job on a whole chicken…but WOW, I really came to appreciate it these last few weeks. Juicy, tender chicken- albeit without a golden top – but that is o.k., especially if you are plating it up on the counter and the chicken is not a centerpiece on the table.
I like to make an edible roasting rack to keep the chicken out of the drippings and to help the heat circulate. You can use pieces of a stale baguette, onion slices, carrot sticks, or another vegetable. It will add flavor to the gravy or broth. That is a little tip from my friend, Martha…Martha Stewart…perhaps you have heard of her? No? Well she is trying to break into this crazy wonderful world of homemaking. I must invite her to do a guest post on this blog sometime. But listen, if she tries to give you a stock trading tip – don’t take it…not a good thing.
Slow cooker chicken:
Tie up the legs with a little chicken twine to keep the bird together and promote even cooking.
This chicken was cooked on high for about 5 hours. Keep the lid on to keep the heat in! Check the temperature of your chicken with a food thermometer when you think it is done. Keep cooking until it is about 180 degrees. Let it rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Try cooking a chicken in a slow cooker:
– you will use less electricity
-you don’t have to watch it as closely as if it was in the oven
-if it is summer it won’t heat up the kitchen
-It will be pale ……but delicious!
Follow-Up on our wall oven – I researched several new options at Sears, Home Depot, etc. and also looked on Kijiji. Found a Jenn-air convection (5 years old) on kijiji – it works so well! It was a great deal…. and …it has knobs!
Source: http://www.bedfordbeacon.com/here%E2%80%99s-a-tip-slow-cooker-chicken
