In which we make use of a whole chicken (not one of ours!)

On Friday night, I decided it would be very clever to make dinner for Saturday, given that Dino was working and I was going to be working on my first assignment. So, I decided that a chicken casserole was the way to go. A few months ago, I discovered that I have a knack for butchering a whole chicken (although, let me be clear that the chicken is already dead and the feathers have been removed, I'm not that good) - which makes for a great casserole and also leaves the carcass for Dino to make one of his fabulous stocks.




So, I cut my chicken into pieces, marylands, wings and breast and put the rest aside for Dino to use.

Nicole's Slow Cooker Chicken Casserole

Chicken pieces
3 carrots, peeled
2 zucchini
1 onion
1 small leek
A half bunch of celery
1 capsicum
1 clove garlic
swiss brown mushrooms (or mushroom of your choice)
1 tablespoon of seeded mustard
a bottle of white wine (Semillion Sauvignon Blanc is my preference)
Chicken stock (approx 6 cups)
speck or pancetta
a sprig of rosemary
duck fat for frying
milk and cornflour for thickening.

• Chop all the vegetables into reasonable sized chunks - this will cook for a long time so you don't want them small or they will cook away to nothing.
• Heat a tablespoon of duck fat in a pan and brown the chicken, then put it to one side.
• Brown all the vegetables, garlic and speck and add to the slow cooker.

• Add the chicken to the slow cooker and place the sprig of rosemary on top.
• Add the mustard to the frying pan and deglaze with white wine then add to the slow cooker.

• Add the stock and cover and cook on low overnight.

• The next morning, mix cornflour with milk and add to the mixture (you may need to do this more than once) to thicken to your taste.
• Continue to cook on low for a few more hours (I totalled 20 hours) and then turn to keep warm until you are ready to serve.
• Serve with white rice or mashed potato and season with pepper.

Makes enough for two generous dinners for two people and two lunches.

Dino will fill you in on his stock secrets shortly.

In the meantime, the chicken coop is coming along beautifully and we hope to have chickens in the next few days. And, after two gruelling days, I finally submitted my first assignment. There goes the weekend...