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!

I tried it once too.. gross. Chicken is not supposed to 'fall off the bone' blurgh.

Tbh everything I've ever tried from a SC has tasted the same and had the same mushy texture. I'm not a fan.

The only decent use I've found for my slow cooker is for making mulled wine! Keeps it nice and hot and if you heat it with the lid off it doesn't let the alcohol boil off.

Chicken is not supposed to 'fall off the bone' blurgh

Don't be so daft,it depends on the recipe!

I put the chicken on for a few hours on slow and then transfer it under the grill to brown.

I make a paste of salt, pepper, garam masala and a crumbled stock cube combined with a little oil. I rub this on the chicken and then put it on top of sliced onions and garlic in the slow cooker for a few hours. I turn it over a few times.

I then transfer it to a hot roasting tin, smother it with butter and grill it upside down first. The juices tend to go back into the chicken making it more moist. Then I turn it over and
grill it until gokden. Works for me every tine.

I agree with you OP. I bought a slow cooker for home cooked food after work, but found that whole chicken doesn't work. Breasts are ok and roast beef too but not boned food. You end up fishing out all the bones. It's nearly enough to turn me veggie. I find slow cookers are best for soups and casseroles. Anything else has what dh calls that slow cooker taste and texture. At most I use it once a fortnight. It's better to enjoy food that you cook on your last legs at 7 at night than put up with food that's substandard but done as soon as you come in.

We don't have a slow cooker. But I couldn't do without our rice cooker. Rice, steamed vegetables, chicken, seafood etc in one go.

I can leave the kitchen or simply cook a sauce and the rice is never undercooked or burned...!

Slow cookers are just better at some things than others - e.g. the slow cooker 'Cowgirl stew' recipe from the Mumsnet Top Bananas! Cookbook makes the best come-home-to meal I've come across (we find it's improved by cooking for 24 hours, no big deal for a slow cooker!) - but give me a whole chicken and nothing beats it oven roasted imho

Ours have been great - a few hours in the slow cooker (skin on), followed by 15 minutes in the oven for a crispy skin.
The recipe did tell you to leave it to rest before transferring, presumably so it was more manageable to move but I didn't have time so the legs fell off. But delicious.
I then make stock overnight and the kids have chicken ramen with leftovers the following day.

I don't think just plain chicken really works in a slow cooker; I think it's best for spicy casseroles e.g. Jerk chicken, lamb and lentil curry or pulled pork, gammon works well too.

I haven't made anything in a slow cooker that doesn't taste better done in a normal over in a cast iron casserole. Sold my slow cooker. Tried dozens of recipes, searing etc. And it was all just bland and weirdly textured. I'm a very keen cook and it always felt like a second best meal. Would rather have pasta and pesto with cheese if I need a quick post work meal than something slimy and bland that's been bubbling all day.

Norma oven

Aaagggghhh
Normal oven

Would rather have pasta and pesto with cheese if I need a quick post work meal than something slimy and bland that's been bubbling all day

Completely agree. If I have little time, I'd rather make some pasta or scrambled eggs on toast or stick a jacket potato in the microwave.

It was delicious when I tried it, I put it under the grill for 5 minutes afterwards to brown it. I find we waste too much when we cook whole chickens so I now just throw some chicken breasts in the slow cooker for a few hours on high and voila, lovely tender chicken that falls apart so you can shred it with a couple of forks. It's so useful to have on hand for quick meal prep during the week!

Chicken is probably what I use my slow cooker for more than anything else. I sauté onions and lots of garlic, add some tomato purée and thyme and a glass of wine and a stock cube. I put that in the slow cooker, put the chicken on top, breast down, sprinkle it with thyme, salt and paprika and cook it. At the end I take out the chicken and blend everything to make an amazing gravy. The gravy is the point of the dish, really, and I eat it for days with rice, but the meat is also very nice, and makes very good sandwiches as it is moist without being greasy.

Slow cooked food in the oven, delicious. The slow cooker I only use for stock or a gammon.

Everything just came out weird texture or bluergh.

I have two slow cookers and don't use them much (one huge, one smaller) and I just know that a whole chicken wouldn't be for me. I've poached chicken for coronation chicken and it takes no time so can't see the point of a whole chicken in the slow cooker.

However.... I did a huge lasagne in it yesterday and I have to say it was really nice. But I did start my meat sauce off on the hob first and made a cheese sauce and just layered everything up and left it for 4 hours. Was very good so might try that again.

Put your chicken on two raw potatoes to lift it out of the subsequent juice that is produced. It's not as greasy or wet then,as it's not sat in its own fluid for 3 hours. Absolutely perfect every time.