One of the reasons fall is my favorite season is because it means that slow cooked meals are more frequent. The ease of adding a few ingredients to a slow cooker or Instant Pot and letting it do all the work for you, makes meals so much easier. A bonus being that the whole house smells intoxicating during the day from the cooking process. I also love slow cooking over night, and waking up to a complete dish ready for the week ahead.

A go-to meal-prep of mine is cooking a whole chicken for the week ahead. By doing this  I set myself up for a ton of protein throughout the week and I also have bones from the carcass to make bone broth. YUM!

 

 

 

I love really herby and fragrant chicken. By loading it with fresh fennel, onion and lemon the aroma is refreshing and the flavor bright. This fennel and lemon chicken makes the most rich bone-broth as well as the acid in the lemon breaks down the protein enzymes and extracts all the wonderful collagen.  You can use any slow cooker for this method, but I use and highly recommend the Instant Pot. I cannot say enough good things about my Instant Pot it makes food not only delicious and quick but it is so incredibly easy to use. It pressure cooks, slow cooks, makes rice, yogurt, soups, stews, steams, saute, the options are endless with this incredible machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After just returning from a trip across the country for my best friend’s wedding this chicken is going immediately into the Instant Pot and will feed me easily for the next week and beyond! Not to mention, it renders some of the most flavorful broth I have made yet!

 

 

       

 

SLOW COOKED FENNEL & LEMON CHICKEN

 

Ingredients

1 whole organic/pasture-raised chicken
1 cup fresh chopped fennel
1 lemon
1/2 cup yellow onion
2 tablespoons fresh chopped fennel fronds
2 cloves garlic crushed.
1 teaspoon sea salt

Process

 

1. Prepare the whole chicken, remove any giblets or organs. I often throw in the neck or save it for bone broth! Clean the chicken and pat dry.
2. Chop the onion, fennel, and fennel fronds. Cut the lemon in half.
3. Stuff half the lemon, onion, fennel and 1 clove garlic inside the cavity of the chicken.
4. Place the chicken in the Instant Pot (slow cooker). Then cover it with the rest of the onion, garlic, fennel and then coat the outside with the fennel fronds and sea salt.
5. Place the timer on 6 hours and allow for it to work it’s magic. When it’s finished the chicken will super succulent and juicy! You may even have some broth already made from the natural juices.
6. SAVE your bones and make bone broth 🙂

 

 

ENJOY!

 

Kari