Week 26: Jeff's Jerk Chicken

 

1 whole chicken

Caribbean jerk seasoning

white cooking wine

Pour enough white wine into the slow cooker to just cover the bottom.  Thaw and rinse chicken.  Rub jerk seasoning over entire bird and place in Crock Pot.  Cook on LOW about 6 hours.

First let me thank Jeff L. for being the inspiration for this recipe.  The one and only person who asked for a recipe to be named after him without actually submitting a recipe!  (The plan for this recipe accidentally slipped in front of him and he did have a hearty laugh about it...I'm not THAT mean!)

So easy to make this one.  Now, for those of you who have never cooked a whole chicken or turkey, let me tell you...there is junk inside the raw bird.  I am only telling you this because at one time or another, we were all new and we have all left something in there.  The innards, the neck, some other mushy stuff...it is all still inside.  Usually the innards are separated in a little plastic bag so they are easy to remove.  Check all the way through the cavities though and then just let the water from the faucet run through the bird for a bit to finish cleaning it out.  I know some people save those organs to make other stuff with them, but I can't ever imagine what I would want to do with them, so I throw them out immediately!!  In one of my other postings, I made mention of cooking a roast upside down.  Chris from "Cooking with Kick" (see the link to her website on the right of my page) commented that she does the same with chickens and turkeys.  So, I thought I would give this a try.  All the good juices drip to the breast instead of just dripping off the bird.  It isn't as picture perfect as a Martha Stewart fresh from the oven bird, but who cares about what it looks like- you're going to carve it anyways!  This worked awesome!  Thanks to Chris for this tip as I will now be using it as the norm.  I served this with wild rice and sweet white shoe peg corn.  The leftovers made it into chicken quesadillas made with the raw tortillas I mentioned in last week's posting.

Next, I just want to make mention of this week's milestone on the Crock Pot Challenge.  HALFWAY THROUGH!!!  I would really like to express my appreciation to all of my followers.  I still am continuing to get daily compliments, suggestions and kudos about my weekly efforts.  I realize that not every recipe on here is an instant classic, but I am trying!  That's the whole point of this little experiment...to see what will work and what won't.  Thanks to a last minute entry (thanks Brad F.- you too will get a recipe named after you!) I now have 60 followers!  I have been viewed in 46 states and countless countries and have close to 5,000 total pageviews!  If you are the curious type, click on the map in the upper right hand corner of the page and there is a list of all the countries who wanted to see what all the fuss is about!  So keep reading, keep cooking, keep following!  Only 26 more weeks to go!