By Mrs. Canadian Renegade
After resting the chicken for 48 hours, it was ready to cook. The rooster, however, was much too large for the slow cooker. I ended up taking off both wings and still barely managed to close the lid. After cooking for a few hours the rooster seemed to plump up and the lid was no longer sealed. I think it was his way of getting a leg up on us, so we removed a leg too.
I lined the slow cooker with some carrots and onions then added the chicken on top. The chicken was then coated in half a cup of butter, the juice of one lemon, a teaspoon salt, half a teaspoon paprika, and a quarter teaspoon each garlic powder and black pepper. I turned the slow cooker on for about five and a half hours on high.
Between the resting period in the brine and the slow cooking method the chicken was falling off the bone. The meat was tender and delicious. Thankfully, the chicken was so large there was plenty left over for another supper and a couple lunches.
The following day, I used the chicken remains to make chicken soup. I started with the stock and then added the contents for the soup later. I had saved all the goodness that cooked out of the chicken while it was in the slow cooker and added that back into the stock. Once I removed the fat from the top and the spices that settled to the bottom, I was left with about 3.5 cups of collagen. I added a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar as I've read that it help break down the collagen in the bones. This results in an abundance of collagen and a richer flavour profile.
While I would have liked to let it simmer longer, I was limited on time so after bringing the stock to a boil I let it simmer for about 2.5 hours. I also knew there was a missing flavour from the first time I made chicken soup. My mom suggested star anise and it was exactly the flavour I was looking for.
Chicken Stock:
1 Chicken carcass
1 Bay leaf
1 Fresh rosemary sprig
1 Fresh parsley, handful
1 tsp Thyme, dried
1 Cloves Russian garlic (or 5 regular), smashed
1 One inch ginger, diced
10 Peppercorns
4 Star Anise
1 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
16 C water
3.5 C Collagen (optional)
Once the stock was done simmering I used a sieve to remove the the contents from the stock. If you don't have a sieve to strain through, you can add your smaller spices to a tea ball to easily remove them once you're done.
At this point, I added the vegetables and the chopped chicken into the broth and let simmer for an hour. I diced everything on the smaller side since I am feeding small children. Another benefit to dicing vegetables smaller is that they cook quicker.
Chicken Soup:
5 C Chicken, chopped
4 Medium carrots, diced
4 Celery stalks, diced
1 Medium onion, diced
Since I don't eat wheat, I cooked some vermacelli rice noodles and added them to the soup as it was dished out. We didn't have enough noodles for the soup the following day but I did have left over rice from another meal which was also a nice addition. I also like to add a scoop of salted butter to my bowl. Yum!
