The Busy Mom's Best Friend: The Crock-Pot

The crock-pot is one of the most convenient inventions of all time!  If you don't have one or don't find yourself using yours often, you must start feeling the crock-pot love.  There are so many things you can do with your crock-pot from cooking meat, making soups and stews, making hot dips for parties, keeping food warm - it's just wonderful.  You can take the toughest piece of meat and by cooking it low and slow in a crock-pot, you will get a tender and flavorful piece of meat every time!

One of the most simple meals EVER that I love to make is, what I call, Crock-Pot Chicken (creative name, I know).  There are only two ingredients involved in making this dish: a whole chicken and one onion.  It doesn't get much more simple than that.  So here's how to make it:

Crock-Pot Chicken
Slice onion and spread around the bottom of your crock-pot.  Then place whole chicken on top of onions.  Using whatever spices you like, season the chicken liberally.  I like to use Montreal Steak Seasoning and some Cayenne Pepper (my family likes things spicy), but another great idea would be  Lemon-Pepper Seasoning or make it more mexican style and use Chile Powder, Cumin and Oregano.  Then set your crock-pot on low and let the chicken cook away for the next 8 hours (if you have less time, set it on high for 5 hours).  What you will end up with is the most incredibly moist, fall off the bone chicken EVER!

Serve the chicken with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable.  Spoon some of the delicious onions and juice over your potatoes and chicken.  YUM - Enjoy!!