Help me love my slow cooker!

[Bluemonkeyspots]

My mum bought me one years ago and I'm embarrassed to say i have only ever done a stew in it.

I'm not a great cook and we are very much a meat and two veg kind of family, can anyone give me some easy simple good recipes written out step by step

I can't see how it would be possible to cook a chicken in one, do you just bung it in or cover with stock?

What about mince, does it not just stick together if its not been browned first?

First of all I have to say I love my slow cooker. You can make all sorts of dishes in a slow cooker including our favourite steamed suet puddings,
ham in cider or coke, pulled pork, curry, lamb. I did a whole chicken but it does not get brown in the slow cooker and if you want crispy skin you have to finish off in the oven or grill. Tomato sauce for pasta dishes is also easy and very tasty in the SC.

Someone posted this web address the other day and it is really good. Lots of lovely recipes on A Year of Slow Cooking. It's an American site so measurements are in cups but you can buy the measures from any hardware shop for a few pounds. I think Tala make them.

Get a cheap pork shoulder, rub with brown sugar, garlic salt, coriander and smoked paprika. Cook for 6-8 hours on slow, pull apart with forks, anoint with bottled BBQ sauce. Yum!

I love mine!!! Any meat, any veg with any herbs and spices you like and it always works. Or chicken just chucked in with a bottle of beer. I also use it for making soups and sauces, I've never ever had a mishap with slow cooker and I am not a masterchef type of person.

think in terms of tougher cuts of meat that need long slow cooking. things like chicken breast can get a bit dry.

easy recipes -

gammon - stick it in with water half way up the pot. leave for the day (low if small piece) high if big piece. finish off in oven with mustard and sugar on it.

lump of beef - one of the tougher cuts. slung in with stock, or beer or wine. leave for day. can add veg at start too if you wish. root veg must be chopped small.

baked beans, glug white wine, stock pot or cube, onion, garlic, oregano or thyme, chicken or pork. cook. add some cornflour mixed with water first. can also use sausages browned first.

bash mince up a bit in the pot. it will then be fine you don't need to brown. bolognese can be cooked using the normal recipe, but when you add stock just add the cube/stock pot and not the water. it will look very dry but be fine.

curry is also very easy. meat, tin of toms, curry powder, onion, anything else lurking around you want to get rid of.

sorry missed out glug of tom sauce or puree in the baked beans recipe. its a bit like that posh french cassoulet. can also add chopped streaky bacon if you have it, bit i'm generally too lazy as it needs browning first

Thanks everyone, great ideas!

Barley do I need any liquid in the pork recipe you gave?

No, amazingly. It makes its own juices!

Barley's pulled pork recipe sounds delicious. I might go out and buy a slow cooker now. I have a rice cooker I use for many dishes. I like slicing up potatoes, asparagus, and adding turmeric, butter, garlic, salt and a little water.

Yes you can do a chicken

Switch sc on high, lift lid, put in chicken (not frozen or wrapped in plastic)
replace lid

wait 6 hours.

You can add herbs, garlic, lemon but you don't need to.

The same goes for shoulder / leg of lamb or a joint of beef.

I use my slow cooker all the time. Today for Sunday dinner I did "roast" chicken in it. I rubbed butter, herbs and black pepper over it, put in some stuffing and put it on low for 6 hours (it was a 1.6kg chicken). I prepped all the veg and put it in my electric steamer. I use a plug timer for the slow cooker and another one for my steamer which I set for 15 minutes. I can go out, come back at a specific time and it's pretty much ready. Even if I come back later than expected, all it takes is a quick nuke in the microwave. Then I crisp the skin up under a hot grill for 5-10 minutes and put the steamer back on for the same amount of time (15 minutes isn't quite long enough for potatoes but 30 minutes is too long so I put it on the timer for 15 minutes and then finish it off whilst the skin is crisping up)

See, I hate mine (it was a gift, I wouldn't have bought one), and I am a good cook. That's the problem with it - it's cooking for people who don't like cooking. Just bung everything in and leave it? Where's the fun in that?

My fave recipes are

beef shin - put sc on high, add layer of sliced onions, put whole pieces of beef shin on top of onions, add water to halfway up beef/onions and add pinch salt and pepper, leave 6 hours. Poke beef and if it falls apart its ready, if not cook longer with regular poking. If once beef is cooked, there's too much water, stir in a tsp of cornflour mixed With a little water.

this - works well with pork shoulder

I hated mine too bookofruth it dulls flavours! ruins curries! makes everything taste the same. I can see why people who are pressed for time and don't like cooking live them but when mine broke I was ecstatic!

I don't like mine for curries either. I use chicken breast which would be too dry cooked for a long time. snowlie do you think they are any good for stews, chilli, bolognese, cheaper/tougher cuts of meat etc?

I think bolognaise tastes over done - I like to taste zingy tomato. I liked it for plain roast chicken, but not sure it was any different to a slowly boiled chicken - tend or and juicy but needs another dimension of flavour.
My Beef Bourguignon was a bit ordinary, edible but not thrilling.
Stuff I cook in the oven slowly caramelises, gets sticky, moist, tender and wonderful. People tell me to adjust the flavours after the slow cooking it done....it's never the same....it's got that favour, cloying and dull, edible but hardly thrilling whereas make Jamie's lamb shanks in the oven and they are sweartastic - just so good you want to lick the tin foil - slow cooking the way I like it....caramelised, tender and tasty, a slow cooker can't do that.

Ragu bolognese is traditionally cooked for 6/7 hours though isn't it? It's supposed to be cooked for a long time.

I did a really nice beef and ale stew in mine.

I've not heard of ragu being cooked for 7 hours before. Locatelli in Made in Italy cooks his for 90mins as does Carluccio in Complete Italian Food....maybe others suggest it cooks for 7 hours but IMO they are wrong it destroys the flavour, indefinite cooking does not improve the flavour.

Oh I've always used this recipe. The best bolognese I ever made was one that I actually had the time to simmer for that long. The sauce was so rich and thick compared to how I've made it before.

Interesting recipe nappyaddict the author does suggest her cooking time isn't authentic though, not that authenticity is something that concerns me, taste is always my priority. I'll give the recipe a go, bolognaise is dd's favourite meal! but I'll do it on the stove top.

She only uses just over 1/2 cup of tomatoes with nearly 2lbs of meat - that can't be right - really? Not even a squigde of tomato purée?

I have also made this one in the slow cooker and also in the oven. It's divine.