Is it really worth doing something like a marinated chicken in the slow cooker - I would have thought you would have got a better result just by throwing it into the oven to roast conventionally?
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Is it really worth doing something like a marinated chicken in the slow cooker - I would have thought you would have got a better result just by throwing it into the oven to roast conventionally?
A marinated chook in the slow cooker is actually pretty good. And I love the fact that that it melts away, I still love roast chook they are just two different things I guess.
your probably right, but I always seem to overcook chicken in the oven and it turns out dry. I'd read on here about cooking it in the slow cooker, and thought I'd give it a try
Hmm....so the chicken recipe I made the other day only took about 3hrs on low, probably should have been less even. Is that coz I used breast u reckon?? And also maybe coz there wasn't much stuff in the SC, it's a 5.5L one and I added more but there still wasn't much and I just read in the book it should come up to half way.
Next thing I'm going to try is a beef casserole. Any hints?? How long should beef take?
Sarajane - when I've cooked beef casseroles before in the slow cooker, I've had them on for about 8 hours on low
Really? Wow, I just can't get my head around the fact that the meat won't be overcooked by then. Thanks heaps kellie.
SaraJane - i did a moroccan beef dish in the SC earlier in the week & it was on for about 8 hours. i noticed a big change in the last hour or two - the meat became far more tender & the sauce thicker. i used chicken thigh fillets last week & they were on from when i left for work until i got home which ended up being about 10-11 hours. the chicken was falling apart but wasn't dry.
sloane- how big is your SC and how much was it filled up??
My chicken was a bit dry the other night and was only on for 3 hrs on low, maybe i just need to fill it up more?
my SC is only a teeny 3.5l (but we have a small freezer so no point making too much because i can't freeze - booo!). my chicken dish was only about 1/3 full & the beef was about 1/2 full. maybe it was just because it was breast meat? i don't know because i've only used mine the twice :lol: but i'm sure i've read a couple of people on here saying that they don't use breast meat because it does dry out. i don't normally like thigh fillets because i like the nice white meat - but in the SC they were yummy! (although DP did comment that it looked a bit like cat food - it was a red thai curry - but he's evil!)
i think it truly varies cooker to cooker - i've never left our food (unless it's full and something like soup) for more than about 4 or 5 hours as our cooker just seems to cook heaps faster than recipes say
SJ, a girl at work said chicken breast cooks a lot quicker than anything else, so tends to dry out a bit. it is suggested you use thighs if you're using fillets. personally, i don't like thighs, so i just reduce the cooking time! i don't leave the cooker on while i go to work as the minimum amount of time i'm out is 10 hours - i just don't trust it that long! overnight for sure, cos i set an alarm to go and turn it off in the early hours of the morning if need be...
what is the general consensus on throwing in frozen meat?? i've used frozen chicken fillets before but i tend to prefer to use fresh as i'm worried about whether it's a bad thing to use frozen
Yeah, I only like the breast too, bummer. But I'll have to try out some thigh anyway, DH can eat it all if i don't, lol.
Sooo.......now I have to work out when to put the casserole on tomorrow if I want dinner at 6, lol.
I don't know about the frozen thing BG, my SC instruction things says not too but I can't see why not really, i would think it should be ok.
the only time i've put something on frozen was when we unexpectedly had dinner guests - found out at 1pm, we were all working outside, and i just needed something to go on and cook easily! we put in frozen fillets, but put them on high to get them to defrost more quickly (i despise defrosting in microwave!)
no one ended up unwell, so it must have been ok - i'm just not sure that i like the idea...
I've always put frozen things in. Its fine :)
Going to do a pea and ham soup this weekend. Would I need to presoak the split peas or will they be ok if I have the sc on all day?
No idea Astrid, but its something I've been thinking about doing. When I do refried beans, I soak overnight & then cook the soup during the day.
ETA: I have my tortilla soup in the SC today.... yum! I haven't got the roast chook yet but the rest is cooking away & I'll add the roast chook an hour before dinner.
if you want to use chicken in the slow cooker, I've used drumsticks before... the meat was absolutely beautiful, it all just fell off the bone
hi, i don't think you need to soak the peas (but don't hold me to it lol). I'm sure I recall on Better homes & Gardens recently they did a pea & ham soup which was cooked on the stove top for maybe 3 hrs, and the split peas that went in didn't need soaking as a result. So therefore, it should be fine in the sc. I made bhg recipe btw & it was good.
Astrid, I made pea and ham (well, turned out to be smoked hock) soup recently, and I didn't presoak the peas. Let's see if I can find what I did.....
That was in May, can't believe I found it! I didn't whizz the soup at all, just shredded all the meat off the hock. It was quite a strong tasting soup, from the smoked bacon instead of just using a ham, but delicious nonetheless. I am sure that it was on low, from probably about 10am to late afternoon.:
My pea and ham soup ended up being pea and smoked bacon hock soup. But it was delicious! The ham bone I had looked a little suspect, so I chopped all the meat off it and gave it to the dogs. They thought all their Christmas's had come at once! Even though the two of them had to decide on who got the actual bone! So I had to go down the street again and get another bone. But the butcher didn't have one, so I got a lovely looking smoked bacon bone/hock from the deli. It only just fitted into the SC! It was cooking most of the day, and my Mum looked after it. I used Cailin's recipe from thread #17, but instead of the soup pack, I used two carrots, an onion and couple of garlic cloves, All finely chopped. And six or eight cups of water. I forget now.:rolleyes: