#8: One-Dish Wonder Roast Chicken and Baked Potatoes

Dear Tiffany,


Today you have a long day at work, and so does Sam.  How would it feel to come home to a feast?  Now, how would it feel to come home to a feast...without either a) slaving in the kitchen for hours, b)paying for takeout, or c) blowing your budget on an in-home chef?


This one-dish meal is inspired by a few different recipes that Stephanie O'Dhea shares on her blog, and there are variations galore to keep it from ever getting old.  Chicken is pretty cheap, and even though you're paying for the weight of the bones and such, its still a really good deal to buy a whole chicken verses the boneless skinless breasts.  Check out this great post on The Simple Dollar to see what you're really paying for.

The basics:

Prep time: About 10 minutes, then in the slow cooker all day

Good for leftovers: yes!  See below for how to use them.

servings: about 8 depending on the size of your chicken

cost: about $8 total.

Ingredients:

whole chicken (about 4-5lb), thawed

Italian seasoning

1 onion, quartered

4 cloves garlic or about 2-3 tablespoons minced garlic

several medium potatoes

The Process:

there's no wrong way to
eat a baked potato

Wash and dry your potatoes, and wrap them in aluminum foil.  Place them along the bottom of your slow cooker (I used a 6 quart; if you are using one smaller than 5 quarts you may have trouble fitting your potatoes in).

This bird is ready to cook!

Remove the giblets from the cavity of your chicken.  I saved mine in a ziplock in the fridge so I can stretch your dollar a little more and make an easy chicken stock later to use in other recipes.  If you're not fond of eating chicken skin, you can remove it at this point too and save it for your stock.  Shake Italian seasoning all over your chicken and rub it in.  Place your garlic and quartered onion in the cavity, and place in the crock on top of your potatoes, breast-side down.  Propping it up on the potatoes keeps the chicken from stewing in its own juices- that method tastes good too, but won't have as much of a "roast" effect.  It will also be lower in fat because the fats have a place to drip down to.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 5.

To serve, remove the chicken to a platter and cut off the meat you want.  The chicken was literally falling apart, so if you care if it looks pretty (have company coming over?) you might want to place a cheesecloth underneath the chicken before cooking so you can just lift the cheesecloth out rather than taking it out in pieces as I did.  Just leave the drippings in the pot, so you can use them to make your stock later.  Remove your potatoes (I suggest using tongs or a big fork so you don't burn yourself! Cut open your potatoes and top them with whatever suits your fancy: today I have butter, grated cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, green onions, etc.

The upside to doing the potatoes this way is that they don't get cooked with the chicken, so my vegetarian friend won't have a problem eating the potatoes at small group tonight.  For other ways to do potatoes, check out my potato post.

Variations:  This is the basic-basic of seasonings, but there are a lot of ways you can do a roast chicken! Barbecue sauce and lemon pepper are just two that I can think of off the top of my head; as I come up with more I'll be sure to post them here.

This chicken was literally falling off the bone- Joey tried to eat a drumstick in drumstick form and it fell to pieces.  I cooked 8 potatoes; we only had 5 people show up but they managed to make all the leftover potatoes (and most of the chicken!) disappear.  I do have a picture, but its on Amy's camera so it may be awhile before I can post it.


I used the chicken bones, skin, and giblets to make chicken broth, which I'll freeze so I can use it in recipes to come.  See how here.