Please give me your best slow cooker recipes and tips

[Beewhisperer]

I got a slow cooker for Christmas (yes I did ask for it)
This morning I shoved some casserole veg, stewing beef and some stock in it and am hoping for the best.

Could you lovely people please share your favourite recipes or tips with me. Preferably recipes that don't need me to brown the meat first as I am lazy!
I would love to have a bank of different ideas.
Thank you

Love my slow cooker. Any ideas what to do with chicken breasts, that's not curry. Have 6 nice breasts smiling at me every time I open fridge, so time to cook them??

Thank you wantto that's exactly what I ended up doing and it worked brilliantly.

What did you end up doing with the chicken val?

Watching as well. From experience, spag bol always works well. My chicken always ends up far too dry though

Ooooh lovely.
Piece of ham, bottle of full fat coke, leave on low all day...to DIE for!!

Google "campfire stew" bloody lovely.
I do Bolognese, curry, stews.
My favourite is soups though. Any soup with red lentils, fridge bottom vegs, just going off, day before shopping for the week, Chuck it all in chunky if you can't be arsed cutting up small, bit of veg stock. Makes a big batch, I use takeaway tubs, fill and freeze.
It's lunches for work all week. Saves quite a lot of money and faff.
Baked potatoes, easy.
Whole chicken.

I never brown anything, just sling everything in raw, can't be arsed with that, too much faff.
Love it when working, gorgeous hot dinner smell when you get in from work, can't beat it.

Val4 I saw a good looking recipe for fajita chicken you could use the chicken breasts for. It was bell peppers sliced at the bottom, put that old el paso fajita seasoning on the breasts and then put them on top of the pepper (I don't know if you put the seasoning just in the slow cooker or roll the chicken in it IYKWIM). Then cook it, slice the chicken and put it all on wraps :)

Jimijack how much stock do you use for soup?

Re browning meat first - I have a morphy richards slow cooker where the dish is actually metal. My old one was ceramic so not sure what is most common these days.

I put meat in the metal dish and brown on the hob, then transfer the dish to the slow cooker. Still only using one pot and the meat gets extra flavour as I will chuck in some garlic, herbs, chilli or whatever flavour goes with what I'm making.

I'm going to try pea and ham soup tomorrow, thanks for the suggestion.

Enough stock to cover veg and lentils.
Add a bit more after a few hours. Lentils soak up the water, I use 2 veg stock cubes.

Love my sling together soups, absolutely delish.

I agree with pp who have mentioned adding liquid. Add far, far less that the recipes say or everything just turns into a thin soupy, unappetising mess. I think browning meat and sweating your vegetables is worth it for flavour too. To me the benefit of a slow cooker isn't that you can just chuck it all in and leave it, but that having done some decent prep, you can leave it.

Use far less liquid than you think you'll need, especially if you're putting mushrooms in!

Go for chicken thighs rather than breasts - I find breasts dry out. Can leave the thighs on the bone to cook (the meat just falls off later) but I'd remove the skin to stop it getting fatty.

One of my favourites at the moment is Spanish(ish) stew although it's a bit different every time. In general though chicken thighs, chorizo, onions, peppers, carrot, tin of mixed beans in spicy sauce, tinned tomatoes, plenty of paprika. Sometimes add potatoes.

I use it quite a lot for pulled pork (never made it any other way), but my attempt at a whole chicken failed miserably. I also sometimes will just chuck in some chicken, veg and a jar of curry sauce - it isn't particularly better than doing it on the hob but it's nice to come home to my tea already cooked!

Ribs are lovely in the slow cooker. Loads of recipes online, but i like the Chinese style ones with something along the lines of soy, honey, full fat coke, ginger and five spice.

Love my slow cooker!! There's a mumsnet recipe for no stir risotto done in slow cooker which is AMAzING! At work now so don't have book to hand but will be back in morning with recipe :-)

I also like to do a kind of roast in mine, I buy a cheap joint of beef (usually end up cutting in half and freezing one bit as I o lay have a small slow cooker for the two of us), put onion quartered and some chunks of carrot, put the beef on top and a splotches of tomato purée, beef stock cube and splash of red wine...tiny bit of water (so beef isn't completely covered in liquid) and cook low for the day. In eve I do roasties (keep potato water to make extra gravy) and cauliflower cheese (sometimes) and it's bloody lovely. The beef goes kind of like pulled pork when you carve and even my non meat liked child devours it! X

I got one for xmas too.

Beef chilli but with casserole beef chunks rather than mince. Also add tinned toms, onions, cannalini beans, diced carrot, chilli powder or flakes, beef stock and paprika. Cook on low all day.

Beef brisket cooked on low for a long time is lovely too. Nigel Slater also does a pork rib ragu recipe that's lovely. www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rib_rag_28935

I also do this in the slow cooker: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9646/chinesestyle-braised-beef-onepot