Crockpot Moroccan Chicken

Friday morning came faster than I thought it would but I was mentally prepared for the task at hand (touching a dead bird). Athens had a level 2 snow emergency today so Georgie's Wee Wigglers class was cancelled. Initially I was bummed because we love our Friday morning outing but as the morning progressed I was overwhelmingly thankful. Around 9:30 I looked at my email for the recipes that Ben promised to send me. His most recent one had a few extra tips on how to make working with raw chicken easier. He mentioned how it would be easier to have both sinks empty and use them to wash and EMPTY OUT THE CHICKEN's INSIDES! WHAT!? I had no idea I would have to reach INSIDE and touch anything! I was nauseous all morning thinking about it. I put the chicken in the sink, took a few heavy swigs of coffee and started to make the paste that I was going to use to coat the outside and inside the skin of the chicken.

Creating the paste was fun. Here is Ben's recipe. 

paste to put under and on the chicken skin: 3 cloves minced garlic; scrape 2 tablespoons of lemon rind with the cheese grater; 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 2 tablespoon paprika; 1 teaspoon cumin; 1 teaspoon ginger; 1 teaspoon curry powder; enough half and half olive oil and lemon juice to make all this spice into a paste

You're going to put this paste inside the chicken skin by using your fingers to gently separate the skin from the meat from the head side of the bird (take the giblets and crap out of the bird and throw them away too). get 2/3 of the paste under the skin, and put the rest around the bird. 

"Giblets and crap" ICK! 

As I was finishing the paste Ruthie woke up early and fussy from her nap. G was concerned about her so he was following me all around. I strapped her in the carrier and gave G a hug.

Best part of the whole recipe was zesting the lemon rind. It smelled so good! 

Paste is done now time to take on the chicken....with Ruthie attached unfortunately.

Ruthie screamed as soon as I cut the chicken out of the plastic wrap. NO KIDDING! She hated it just as much as me. At one point I was near tears shushing her, bouncing her, my hands in a dead bird. George was so worried the whole time he kept saying "Rufie cying mama." Then he started his fake cry and attempted to win an Oscar with his over the top dramatic behavior.  Touching the chicken was just as nauseating as I thought it would be. It was cold and for some reason it reminded me of Ruthie when I pick her up after giving her a bath.....which totally freaked me out. This picture was when it was all done and the chicken was in the crockpot. I put the leftover lemon and a whole onion in the bottom of the crockpot per Ben's instructions. Although I saved 1/4 of the lemon to put down our disposal. I read somewhere that helps clean it and it makes the kitchen smell nice. 

After the chicken was in I set the Crockpot to low for 4 hours then eventually would change it to high for 3. 

George and I started phase two. The Hummus!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/real-hummus/

"Hummus!"

But before we could start Ruthie had a BM and 'lucky me' it was a blow out. Like I said earlier she was in the carrier. We had quite a mess. As I changed her, and cleaned up myself, Georgie said "poop" while pointing to his bum bum.  So, I changed him and then returned to the kitchen with two very happy babies;).

As we gathered ingredients we couldn't find the tahini so we went on a hunt for it and George kept looking into the fridge saying "Hini where are you?"

"Tabe uh oon"

He wasn't a fan of helping push the button.

"No, no"

Prep work is done. Now we wait for the chicken. I will post after babes are asleep to hopefully reveal a successful dinner!

YAY! Everything was delicious! Prep work may have been tough but it was more than worth it. I cut up carrot, red and green pepper sticks to dip into the hummus. We also had some toasted pita bread for dipping. Everyone was satisfied and we have leftovers :). Next time I hope I can be a little braver and get more paste into the chicken's skin. I think it would have added more flavor. I will also make the paste ahead of time so that the morning of things go a little faster.