I made a crock-pot rotisserie chicken for Patti Popp’s Eat Local CT Challenge along with a salad with a (sort of) Thousand Island dressing.

I happened upon a recipe for crock-pot rotisserie chicken at one of Kimberly Hartke’s blog carnivals. Obviously I spend too much time with Engineers because I thought there was a new kind of crock-pot on the market, like with an actual rotating rod. It turned out to be a recipe for cooking chicken in an ordinary crock-pot that tastes just like rotisserie chicken. Still, I like rotisserie chicken, I have a crock-pot, and I had a chicken.

It turns out that there are a quarter of a million (literally) other crock-pot rotisserie chicken recipes. (Google it.) Most of the recipes are quite similar, with variations on the spice mix (or shall we say flavor profile of the dry rub).

A popular technique is to raise the chicken off of the bottom of the pot. Most recommend making several balls out of aluminum foil on which to rest the chicken, but a few suggested using potatoes. I went with the potato idea since you can eat them. I mostly followed the recipe from Real Food, Allergy Free, but borrowed here and there from some of the others.

I made a rub of

• 3 tsp salt
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp pepper (multicolored)
• 4 minced scallions
• 1 Tbsp minced spring garlic

I rubbed some olive oil all over the chicken, then worked the “dry” rub into the skin.

I used some leeks cut lengthwise along with the potatoes for the elevation medium.

The chicken went breast down onto the potatoes and I put on the lid. (No water or other fluids—everyone was fairly adamant about that.) I let it go for 4 hours on high and another 2 on low.

It was excellent! I mean really good! The meat was literally falling off the bone (like nearly everyone said it would). Even the breast meat (not my favorite part) was moist and tender. Seriously. I could see making this every week.

Sources:

• chicken: Center Brook Farm, (Jesse Miller) New Milford, CT (New Milford farmers market)
• leeks: Mountain View Farm (New Milford farmers market)
• spring garlic and green onions: Holbrook Farm
• Cayenne pepper: Cherry Grove, Newtown, CT, dried here
• thyme: mine
• potatoes, salt, pepper, paprika, and olive oil from away (although the olive oil is from my own grove, but more about that in another post!)

With a refrigerator full of heirloom lettuce, you almost have to have a salad too.

I tried to do a local Thousand Island dressing. (Operative word is tried.) I substituted yogurt for the mayo and strained it to make it almost Greek style. While there’s ketchup in the fridge, it’s there for other people. Instead, I used some of the roasted plum tomatoes from the freezer. I put the defrosted tomatoes through the food mill, then strained the liquid. I mixed it into the yogurt and added two chopped hard-cooked eggs and two chopped dill pickle spears and some of the pickle juice. I added some red wine vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper. It needs something more, but I don’t know what. I suspect that the problem is simply that yogurt is not mayo. Still, it wasn’t horrible—just missing something.

Sources:

• Red Romaine and Grand Rapids heirloom lettuce: Sport Hill Farm
• yogurt: Arethusa Farm Dairy
• tomatoes: Holbrook Farm
• eggs: Woodbury Laid Eggs
• dill pickles: Riverbank Farm, canned by them too
• honey: Steve Prutnik, Bridgewater, CT
• salt, pepper, red vinegar from away

I love local food challenges that happen during the growing season!