Cooking Chicken In The Crockpot

While browsing my favorite Crockpot recipe book the other day, I came across the directions for cooking chicken to use for casseroles, soups, etc.

This was the easiest and most wonderful way to cook chicken to put in the freezer! I can't believe that I've never done this before.

The original directions say to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I used bone-in split chicken breasts instead, since they were on sale for $.78 a pound last week. Skinless and boneless is, of course, the easiest way, but even with a few bones and skin, this was still easy, very doable and not too gross!

I had about 6-7 pounds of the chicken and the pieces were large so I cooked it in two different sessions. In the end, I had 12 cups of cubed, cooked chicken and 12 cups of homemade broth, both of which I froze in 2 cup portions.

The directions:

6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 teaspoons garlic powder
4 cups water( I added a bit more.)
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried bay leaf( I just crushed one bay leaf and used that.)
1 tablespoon dried minced onion(I used fresh.)

Place all ingredients in 4 1/2 to 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on high heat 3-4 hours or on low heat 6-8 hours. Remove chicken from water. Shred or chop chicken to use in casseroles or other dishes. Chicken can be frozen in individual freezer bags for easy use later.