This Whole Chicken Recipe is gluten free, dairy free, soy free and egg free.

Hi guys!

Last week I got an urge to eat stuffing. I know it’s random, we’re nowhere near Thanksgiving, right? I guess I’m just sick of the cold weather and being cold so I wanted some comfort food. I didn’t want to do a turkey, because that’s intense. So I decided to stuff a whole chicken. Which leads me to this recipe, my easy whole chicken [with stuffing].

Why make a whole chicken?

If you’re on a budget, getting a whole chicken is a great way to save money. It ends up being cheaper per pound and since you have the whole thing, nothing has to go to waste. I know it can seem intimidating, but would you be surprised if I said it saves time to cook a whole chicken? Stick with me on this one… if you cook the whole chicken yes it’s a bit time-consuming up front, but then you will have so many leftovers that your meals throughout the week will be easy! I suggest making the whole chicken on a Sunday. Then when everyone’s done eating, pull the meat off the bone and put it in a container either in the fridge or freezer. Unless you have a huge family, you’ll generally have a lot of leftovers! Make sure you pull off ALL the meat. From the breasts, wings, legs, side of the bird and even the bottom of the bird. I like to just use my fingers and start pulling.

Making bone broth:

Don’t forget about the bones! That’s another great thing about getting the whole chicken. You have all those wonderful bones (and sometimes the internal organs) that you should NOT let go to waste! Again, I understand making broth after you just finished making a chicken dinner sounds intimidating. Hear me out on this, it’s not hard at all!

Here’s how I did it:

When I was done pulling off all the chicken and storing it for leftovers, I pulled out my crock pot and plopped the whole chicken carcass in. I didn’t clean it off perfectly, there was some chicken left on it and even some skin. To make it fit in my crock pot I did break it down a little bit by pulling the legs apart. Then I covered the whole thing with water. I’d say it took about 4 cups of water. I also added in about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. This helps break down the bones even more as they cook. I cooked the carcass in my crock pot on low overnight and a little bit into the morning. I’d say about 13 hours total. Once it was done I turned the heat off to let it cool. Then I strained it into a large bowl and put that bowl right in the fridge. By evening there was a fat layer on the top of the bowl that I was able to scoop off. Here’s the fun part… I didn’t can it or do anything fancy for storage. I poured the broth into ice-cube trays and froze it! Then just for easy storing, once they were frozen, I popped the cubes out and put them in ziplock bags. BOOM! Now I have frozen cubes of bone broth ready to add to any recipe I want. I essentially got free broth from that whole chicken I made. So moral of the story, don’t throw away the bones! Make that broth!

gluten free stuffing — Stuffing before going inside the chicken

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