To think a whole chicken cooked in a slow cooker is

[formerbabe]

absolutely disgusting!

WARNING...Graphic description of chicken!

So, I'd read a lot on here about cooking a whole chicken in a slow cooker, so I did it and it was absolutely repulsive!

Slimy, greasy, grey, falling apart with bits of limp skin hanging off it and tiny bones breaking free from the carcass.

Yuk, yuk, yuk!

Yup, and tastes vile too. I'd thought it was going to be delicious.

I think you might be doing something wrong. That's how I cook mine, and it's lovely. Admittedly you've got to remove the skin, but you wouldn't expect a crispy skin surely?

You're weird! It's the best way to cook it. Maybe there was something wrong with your chicken in the first place.

Take the skin off before you slow cook the chicken. It isn't needed to keep the meat moist in a slow cooker, and contributes nearly all the grease.

The bones thing is a pain though!

You must have done it wrong or had a horrible chicken. Grey?! Always works well for us, despite the lack of crispy skin.

Brown the skin under the grill or take it off

You need to use a good quality chicken ime. Waitrose seem to be the best,the Essential ones for a fiver.

It's poached chicken ,of course it falls off the bones,what did you expect?

We love it in this house!

That is what I ended up with when I tried a chicken as well, bloody awful. However after reading pp I might try it again without the skin,

I couldn't face this at all, I like chicken roasted, with golden crispy skin.

Agree - hideous. Grainy, mushy texture too. We have thrown the slow cooker in the bin as everything I ever cooked in there was average at best.

but you wouldn't expect a crispy skin surely

No but I wasn't expecting the chicken carnage I was greeted with though! I quite like pork done in the slow cooker but I think chicken ends up with a very weird texture.

I think any chicken on the bone or with skin on is yuk in a slow cooker.

YANBU

How long did you do it for? Ours always comes out beautifully cooked, tender and full of flavour, with a pot of delicious gravy underneath it.

I think it depends what you're expecting. It's not meant to come out like a roast chicken, it's meant to be like casseroled chicken - falling off the bone, slow-cooked flavoured with whatever you added to it. I usually do it in a sort of chicken and herb broth with onions and mushrooms. I take the skin off first.

Each to their own though - it is personal taste!

I like my slow cooker but I don't think the "all you have to do is throw in the raw ingredients" thing is always true. Most meat dishes are much, much better if you brown the meat and onions for a minute or two first.

Glad it's not just me Luna! I hate it, all food cooked in it looks and tastes the same. We've only got one as we didn't have a cooker when we had our new kitchen and we only used it twice until we decided microwave veg and meat in the halogen oven was so much nicer!

I like my slow cooker, but for flavour the tagine is better, everything tastes delicious, meat is tender, yum!

I joint a chicken and remove the skin from the breast then cook it with a cup or so of white wine and sprinkle of garlic granules with a stock cube.

Sadly chicken doesnt taste of much these days so I find you have to cook it in something that gives it a bit of flavour in the slow cooker.

Never tried it in a slow cooker.

But in a baking dish. Either marinated in mustard and filled with veggies or wine-y, onion-y and carrot-y goodness!

We don't have a slow cooker. But we do have a rice cooker? Where you can also steam stuff? Super useful!!

Slow cookers are great for some things, but not everything.

I'm a member of several slow cooker groups on Facebook and recently there was a phase of cooking full English breakfasts in a slow cooker. Not one of them looked particularly appetising.

It's grim, like those rotisserie chickens from the supermarket and Gwyneth Paltrow's chicken slow roasted for a million hours.

I don't own a slow cooker (was thinking of getting one though) I do however have a friend who is obsessed with hers and cooks just about anything in there she has also joined a facebook page dedicated to what can be cooked in a slow cooker, just thought I would put that in my post for other slow cooker fanatics

Anyone with an electric oven doesn't need a separate slow cooker. My mum slow cooked all her stews and meat by putting it on a really low heat for hours in the ordinary oven.

Crispbutty - that's not always so practical if you want to use the oven for other things. I can't put a cake in the oven or use the grill while there's a casserole in there slow cooking for six hours.

That's high energy in comparison though.

If anyone wants to try the chicken again, put a foil sling under it so you can lift it out without it falling apart. Then pull the meat away from the bones and serve. I've got the hang of it now and put sliced potatoes and quartered onions underneath, with some seasoning. They soak up the stock and are lovely. I can lift the whole chicken off into a bowl, pull away the skin and lift out the breast meat and leg meat. That gets served, or put back in with the potatoes to serve later. The carcass and skin gets put in the freezer, then when there are several I make slow cooker stock. Kids love it as soup.

I'm so pleased to know that I am not the only one who thinks food cooked in a slow cooker is horrible. I hate the smell, texture and taste and yes I have tried with different meat/ingredients/recipes and got fed up throwing away inedible shit which started out as perfectly good ingredients..

I now make candles in my slow cooker.