Crockpot Hot Pot Chicken

I have been excited for this recipe for awhile now. It exceeded my greatest expectations; honestly, this was the best chicken I have ever cooked.

Quick backstory: Bear and I eat Chinese hot pot quite frequently with our friends R. and S.  S. is from Beijing, and introduced us to hot pot at a restaurant in Midtown a few years ago. We were instantly hooked and often meet up with them and other friends to share a hot pot.

R. and S. have recently settled into a beautiful, huge apartment in Brooklyn and invite us over fairly frequently for S.'s awesomely delicious, homemade hot pot. Hot pot is all about the seasoned broth -- she prepares her broth in a neat pot with a divider. On one side is mild, delicious pork broth.  On the other side, hot and spicy broth. The last time we went, S. gave me a packet of the seasoning she uses for the spicy broth side of the hot pot, and I have been itching to use it ever since.

 

 

(The price for this on Amazon is, frankly, shocking to me, because S. picks up packets of the same spice mix at a Chinese grocery store for $1.99 each!)

I figured I would marry two of my culinary loves -- hot pot and the crockpot -- into one delicious hodgepodge.

Crockpot Hot Pot Chicken

• 1 three-pound to five-pound roasting chicken (basically a chicken big enough to fit nicely in your crockpot and still be able to close the lid)
• 1/2 packet Baijia hot pot seasoning (Note: this stuff is STRONG and SPICY.  I only used half of a packet for the entire chicken and that was perfectly enough.)
• 1 large onion
• olive oil to grease crock pot base

1.) Cut the onion into pieces and layer on bottom of greased crockpot base. This is a protective layer to keep chicken skin from burning into the ceramic base and keep juices circulating as the chicken slow cooks.

2.) Remove giblets from chicken's body cavity and cut off any excess skin (if necessary). However, I decided to just put the giblets into the crockpot. I LOVE chicken neck and liver and figured they would taste incredible in the seasoning too. I was right.

3.) Rub down chicken with hot pot seasoning, careful to make sure some seasoning is applied inside the body cavity and also in every nook and cranny of the chicken.

4.) Place the chicken breast side up in the crockpot on top of the onion protective layer.

...and that's it! Preparation time was only 10 minutes. I covered up the chicken and put it in the fridge. The next morning I took the seasoned chicken out of the refridgerator and plugged in my crockpot on the "Low" setting.

I came home 8 hours later to this lovely smelling bird:

We served our juicy hot pot chicken over fresh riced cauliflower, sauteed in a little bit of butter and garlic. Yes, actually fresh (not frozen) cauliflower. It only took about 15 minutes to get the right consistency. Maybe I am getting less lazy!

This was one of the best meals of my year. Seriously. And it was so incredibly simple -- it took 10 minutes to prepare and was ready when I got home from work! You really can't beat that.

As soon as we pick our hot pot birdy clean, I am going to boil down the carcass into some nice spicy chicken stock using (of course!) the crockpot. Maybe I'll use the stock to make some of that jambalaya Eleni recommended!

Enjoy and let us know what you think.

-Alex

P.S.

Some of you out there, like Eleni, may not like spicy food. You can still make this recipe using mild hot pot soup base. Just as flavorful, but less piquant.

See:
 

Again, if you have a Chinese grocery store nearby, you're better off getting your packets there -- they are much cheaper!