Garlic Whole Chicken
This is not an overwhelming flavor of garlic, it does season the chicken slightly. The chicken is indeed tender and juicy. The slow cooking of the garlic, much like roasting, reduces the garlic flavor but yield some great soft garlic you can just spread on the potatoes. Good chicken without a doubt. This is in my regular rotation. The plus side to this recipe is minimal ingredients, no olive oil, no water needed. The Thai family loved it, even the picky niece who normally refuses anything not Thai.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, remove the head, neck, feet, and giblets.
- 40 cloves garlic, peeled but whole
- 3 large shallots, palm size is perfect, 2 sliced, 1 quartered
- salt, pepper, and paprika, to taste
- 3 small potatoes, optional, cut into big bite size pieces
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken and remove the feet, head, and neck. Trim any fat near the chest opening.
- Peel the garlic, set aside. Peel the large shallots, slice 2 and quarter 1, set aside. Feel free to use onions in place of the shallots.
- Place slices of shallot on the bottom of your slow cooker.
- Take the bird and sprinkle salt, pepper, and paprika on the backside, rub it in well, flip the bird over and do the same, coating the front of the bird, legs and wings. Place in the slow cooker, backside down on top of the shallots. Stuff the cavity with several quarters of the shallot and as many garlic cloves as you can. Place the rest of the garlic under and on the sides of the chick, top with the shallot slices.
- Cover and cook on High setting for 4 hours, then reduce to low setting and add the large cubed potatoes on the top, salt and pepper as you desire. Cook for another hour. At the 5 hour mark of total cooking time, use a meat thermometer in the thickest section and check the temp to be safe, ours was perfect at 5 hours. The potatoes were perfect. The chicken, fall off the bone tender, and juicy.
- Serve, use a pair of tongs to grab the meat, as it is fall off the bone tender. Add some potatoes and some garlic. A vegetable on the side would make this a complete meal (I took the photo before I added some spinach.)
Notes
This chicken in the photo was 113 Baht, that is 83 cents per serving for 4 servings, and just 55 cents per serving for 6 servings. A delicious and hearty meal for very good value.
Original recipe by Lee Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.