I'm giving my slow cooker one last chance...

[storminabuttercup]

I just can't get on with it, nothing ever tastes nice

I'm going to try it tomorrow as I'm late home but if it's not nice again it's going on free cycle.

I have chicken thighs (boneless and skinless) mushrooms, dried herbs and spices, plenty of tins of stuff and fresh potatoes, parsnips and carrots....

Can anyone inspire me to make something yummy?

I'd make a Chicken and Chorizo Casserole...

Dust your chicken thighs in seasoned flour (a plastic bag with a few tablespoons of flour, some salt, pepper, dried herbs is quickest) and fry off until they get a little colour. Place in the bottom of the casserole dish. Fry a little chopped chorizo sausage (about 2oz), chopped onion and some garlic in the same pan with a little oil until the onion is tender and the fat runs out of the chorizo and add that to the pot. Cut the potatoes and carrots into similar size chunks, fry those off in the same pan and add to the pot. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper and a few more herbs. Now add about 400g passata to the pan you've been frying everything in and scrape up all the juices and caramelised bits before adding it to the pot. If you have a little red wine (a small glass), swill the pan out with that as well.

I don't have a slow-cooker so I'd cook that combo for about an hour at 170C until the vegetables were tender. In a slow-cooker press go and come back in several hours?

I feel the same about mine tbh. Actually there was a thread on here not so long ago where lots of people came out of the woodwork and confessed their hatred of the slow cooker! Mine has been banished to the garage

I make a similar recipe quite a lot, I'm all out of chorizo at the min, thinking maybe using some smoked paprika and the mushrooms may work

got any wine? I'd go for coq au vin: the ONLY decent dish I've ever had from my slow cooker as it works for EVIL.

Destroyer of texture, remover of flavour, keeper of wateriness.

But hey, good luck!

Sorry I lie, it's good for keeping mulled wine at a nice temperature, and that is the only reason it gets a place in my kitchen now.

Ah stuff it, you are right they are crap!

What can I do with my ingredients that won't take forever to cook...

Maybe some sort or marinade so I can get DP to pop them in the oven? Or something to reheat...

Coq au vin reheats ok doesn't it?

low do you have a recipe for that mulled wine please?

i love my slow cooker, use it at least a couple of times a week in the winter. have to admit, i don't pre-fry stuff, i bung it all in

try beef, onions, carrots, stock, slurp of red wine, and 2 tablespoons of redcurrent jelly. cook for a few hours then about half an hour before it's ready, add some mushrooms and chestnuts, thicken the sauce with gravy powder and serve with jacket spuds.

I use very regularly for chicken casserole - use thighs, cool and strip meat and eat the next day. Also for shepherds pie mince, and for bolognaise.

Not impressed by any other meals from it.

You could make a quick "Chicken and Potato Curry".... Cut the chicken thighs into biggish chunks and season well. Heat some oil in a saute pan and fry off some onion, garlic, ginger if you have it and then add a tablespoon or two of good curry powder (or individual spices if you have them). And the chicken and diced potato and stir that around to cook a little and coat with the spices. Then add enough chopped tomatoes or passata, stir, cover & simmer until the potatoes and chicken are tender. Finish by taking off the heat, adding some fresh chopped coriander and stirring in a few tablespoons of plain yoghurt. Lovely.

Make sure you don't cook chicken for too long in the slow cooker.
5-6hours for chicken breasts

8-9 hours for thighs

Both cooked on low.

And you don't need much liquid at all.

I gave mine away on freecycle. I don't get how to use it at all. When I look at recipes, it all says brown meat, soften onions etc. I don't have time in the morning to do that. And dishes finish in about 6hours for chickens. I don't have a timered one so they are overcooked after a full days work.

And most dishes I saw, well I can do it on the stove just as quickly. (We don't eat red meats so no cheap cuts here). Seriously I see curries type of food but i do one from a slater recipe in about 10 min, time to brown onions and cook the chicken strips. And coq au vin... Nigella has a cheat one that tastes good enough for a weeknight dish. Or people just use it for weekends?

Thank you for this thread. I've been thinking of getting a slow cooker, but now I don't think I'll bother - I'll stick to my pressure cooker.

If you've got to brown stuff anyway I can get a stew on the table in 30-40 minutes with the pressure cooker - and all the results I've had have been great.

I agree about browning, if I'm doing that I may as well do it properly!

Tried brisket last week, what a waste, boring, dry(yes dry) dull, tasteless meat.
Stick to casseroles in the oven on a timer.

Another vote for the pressure cooker over the slow cooker. I've also found that anything cooked in them turns out pretty flavourless or just generically "stew-tasting". Bleurgh.

In a last-ditch effort to try to find out why the fans like them, I bought "The Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook" and cooked my way through it. The only recipe which wasn't completely meh and i would consider repeating was a beef adobo recipe which contained vinegar that gave it a lift. Mind you, I bet it would be even better cooked conventionally for a shorter time in the oven.

A lot of the recipes looked pretty good, and i suspect that they would be much nicer cooked in the oven.

And I do brown the meat and am generally thought reasonably competent in the kitchen, so STILL don't know what the mystery is, unless it's just that the fans really don't mind the taste due to the convenience factor.

I use my slow cooker all the time, and Im a bit of a food snob! Anything that takes over an hour to simmer on the hob/oven can be made in the SC, and will come out even better.

This week I made chilli, rice pudding, chicken soup and korma in mine, all were amazing.

I dont brown anything but mince.

I'm freecycling mine and having a very large Le Creuset casserole dish bought me for christmas. I've had enough of the funny taste everything has in the slow cooker. Tempted to buy an aga....

I use mine all the time but adapt normal recipes as I find slow cooker recipe books and any recipes I find online are quite honestly shit and makes me think no wonder when I see people hate them.

I find most recipes are bland and insipid and add far too much liquid. TBH most of them would taste crap however you cooked them.

Although I don't believe in browning meat - onions definately need frying first, I tend to add in spices for 30 secs as well to release flavour better. However this can be done the night before and stuck in the fridge and added to slow cooker in morning.

I find it is difficult to get root veg properly cooked in them (well if you like them chunky like I do it is) so I either save them for non slow cooked meals or cook them seperately.

this is a fab recipe but you need to leave out the water they add. I chuck in frozen peppers (will cook from frozen in slow cooker) and its even better if you use a spicy chorizo.

I do pulled pork joints in mine and also cook chilli in bulk for the freezer. Also the kids love slow cooked brisket for sunday dinner (with plenty of black pepper/rosemary/garlic added but no liquid).

As with any cooking though you need the right ingrediants - sausages look awful but taste ok, chicken breast is a no, pork chops/steaks are a waste really. Fish is also awful in there.

You need foods that are designed for slow cooking, very little liquid and lots of flavour and definately pre fry your onions/garlic/spices.

And yes you can do all these things on your hob/in the oven and its a time rejiggler rather than time saver tbh. I have a shitty oven and love slow cooked foods so great for me.

I have a slow cooker that doubles as a rice cooker so use it 2/3 times a week and want to kiss it for the perfect fluffy rice it gives me.

Anything else turns into bland mush.

Am tempted by pulled pork though - do you have a recipe pretty please TheArmadillo?

I still haven't settled on a recipe yet. I tend to use pork leg rather than shoulder as fat is mostly in one place and easier to remove after cooking.

My basic thing is rub pork joint with a nice spicy rub (homemade or bought). Cook for about 8hours on high (seriously) till you can pull it apart with 2 forks. Strip off fat and pull to pieces with aforementioned forks. Mix with barbeque or other sauce of your choice over a medium heat. Can be frozen - I tend to keep some in for quick dinners with wraps and salad as reheats well in microwave.

Removing fat/pulling is a bit messy but other than that very easy to do. There are loads of (american) recipes online and haven't really settled on one yet.

Thanks Armadillo, that's really helpful. I'l give that recipe a go too. I have never found any kitchen tool so very frustrating before!

I started a thread a couple of weeks ago saying that slow cookers are shite.

Someone came on and said I was being unreasonable and that she had just made a 'delicious' recipe with baked beans and red wine.

Nuff said.

Can't believe you're all saying slow cookers are crap! They're ace. The amount of liquid you add is the key. Don't put very much in!