Adventures With Chicken

I've been in a grocery shopping funk lately. The grocery store in our little town has higher prices and less selection than the stores in the college town 40 minutes away. I try to make a trip there once a week to do most of the shopping, but it's an all day affair and I've officially been a sale flyer slacker. Hence, the cupboards are getting quite bare, even by Old Mother Hubbard standards. I did have one last locally farm raised chicken in the freezer that I had put in the fridge to defrost and was going to cook in the evening for next day's meal. I don't usually get home in time to roast one of these chickens in a reasonable amount of time, as they are plump almost 7 pounders. Well wouldn't you know I forgot to get it going and here it was almost midnight. Curses! What could I possibly throw together for dinner the next day without a stop at the grocery store? Hmmm....I wonder if I can cook a whole chicken in the crockpot. Off to the interweb I flew, fingers flying furiously. Sure enough. I ran across some recipes "chop apple and onion, stuff the chicken...etc." Hey interweb, it's midnight, I'm not chopping apples and onions. So I threw caution to the wind and invented...

MIDNIGHT CHICKEN

1 thawed roasting chicken, in this case 6.5 pounds

Rinse, pat dry, rub all over with a little olive oil

Season generously inside and out with whatever concoction makes sense to your sleep deprived mind (season salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder)

Place chicken in the crockpot

Turn to high, go to bed, and wake up 5-6 hours later to perfectly done "roasted" chicken along with a couple cups of very rich stock.

Cover and put in the fridge for dinner tonight.

Take the children to school, go to work.

Come home later that afternoon and use a few cups of that delicious chicken to make

CHICKEN TETRAZZINI BAKE

1/2 cup chopped onion--no, we're out, substitute a bit of dried minced onion

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground sage

1/4 tsp pepper

2 cups chicken broth--how about delicious roasted chicken stock, YES!

1 cup milk

1 (4.5) oz jar sliced mushrooms--or fresh mushrooms, today canned, draiend

2 to 3 cups cooked chicken or turkey

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley--sorry cupboards bare, a bit of dried instead

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

7 oz cooked spaghetti--if you use 2 cups chicken, add another ounce or two

1/2 cup shredded swiss

Heat oven to 350. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour, salt, sage and pepper, cook until bubbly. This only takes a minute or so. Stir in broth, milk, mushrooms. Cook and stir until mixture boils and is slightly thickened. Stir in remaining ingredients except swiss cheese. Spoon into ungreased 2 qt casserole. Sprinkle on shredded swiss and bake for 30 minutes. Garnish with parsley.