There's a Rooster in my Crockpot

Here is part two of the poultry saga just as I promised. If you missed the blog that day, here it is. It would have been brought to you yesterday, but Mr. Rooster decided to take an extra day to thaw in the fridge. He must have been as scared to be cooked as I was to cook him. Besides, I still hadn't decided on an exact recipe. I was unable to get a hold of my sister or brother in law for their input (who, now that I think about it, still have not returned my call...ahem.), so I decided on a lemon herb crockpot recipe. l could have put him in the oven, but that would have meant hauling out my turkey pan since he wouldn't have fit in anything else I had. So the crockpot it was.

Here is what I found after removing the bag from the fridge.

Notice the lovely bright red blood and greasy yellow fat. This didn't help my squeamishness at all. Step one was to get him out of the bag without touching him. Funny- my first job ever was at Chick fil A in which I touched raw chicken on a daily basis, and here I was terrified of this rooster. I'm proud to say I was able to accomplish the next several steps without ever touching him with my bare hands. And let me tell you, this was not easy.

Here we are post bag removal and the rinse cycle. Are you imagining him with a head and feet? I know I am. Next step- the spices. I used garlic powder (feeling too lazy to mince the real deal), oregano, lemon pepper, salt, and pepper. The oregano and and garlic powder are sprinkled into the cavity.

Down the hatch.

Next step was to sear the outside in a large pan on the cooktop. Using butter would have tasted better, but the health nut that I am, I opted for olive oil.

I'm not a chef, obviously. I couldn't get "all sides browned" when he was so bumpy. It must have been all that running after the girls that beefed up his legs and got him in this mess to begin with. Next was seasoning the outside. After placing him in the crockpot, I sprinkled lemon pepper, salt, freshly ground pepper, and lemon juice all over both sides.

I then added water to the pan that he browned in, and poured the heated juices into the crockpot.

Here we are four hours later.

Yum. It smelled so good at this point I felt like I could stop referring to it as "him".

Here it is ready for carving.

And whalah- the finished product.

Served with an apple spinach salad, green beans, baked potatoes, and buttered bread.

It tasted pretty good, and the ultimate test of success- the kids didn't even ask for ketchup! So sis, if another rooster decides to misbehave, send him up our way- after beheading and skinning of course.