What to do about Slow Cooker Curry

[Icequeen01]

I have family coming on Sunday who will be coming for lunch at approx 1.30 (timing has to be a bit flexible as they are travelling on motorways so arrival dependent on traffic). I decided it would be less stressful to do a lovely butter chicken curry that I make in the slow cooker than stressing about timings for a roast. However, the recipe I use needs a little bit of prep on the hob before everything is put in the slow cooker. I don't want to be cooking smelly spicy food at 7am on a Sunday morning and it will be on for too long if I put it on overnight.

Just wondered if anyone had any ideas as to what I could do - I thought this was an easy option but now I'm not so sure!

I'd make it the day before and reheat.

I have adapted slow cooker recipes before so they cook quicker on the hob or in the oven.

Or Has your oven got a timer? You can slow cook in the oven at slow cooker temperature.

Just chuck it in.

Oh and share the recipe with us :o

Thank you for your responses. I was wondering if it was possible to cook it the day before but then wasn't sure if I then reheat it in the slow cooker or the oven?

For the poster who asked for the recipe, I have tried to put a link here but for some reason I it doesn't work for me. If you go on allrecipes.co.uk and search for slow cooker butter chicken curry it should come up. It's lovely, I really recommend it!

This one? allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/17202/slow-cooker-butter-chicken.aspx

If you're not onboard with "just chuck it all in", I would fry the onion and garlic until soft the day before, then put it in the fridge.

In the morning you don't need to fry spicy food, you just need to put your softened onion and all your other ingredients into the slow cooker, put the lid on, and turn it on.

curry is always lovely(some say more so because the flavour develops) the next day.its one of the nicest recipes weve done in the slow cooker so yay for your picking this one to do they should love it!

our family always have leftover butter slow cooker chicken curry and its put in a Tupperware in the fridge.
id not advice putting it in slow coker to warm unless it has warming function as this will then be slow cooking it again.(check your instruction if it has a temp for keep things warm,some do some don't)
we either do it in the oven on low,keep stirig and checking or on the hob in a skillet or casserole dish.ha or my dad does it in the microwave but I think your portion would be too big for this.
let us know.

Never reheat in a slow cooker. It takes far too long to get hot. Food poisoning risk.
Reheat on hob.

Just looked at the recipe and looks nice. Bit of a silly question, is it tricky to pick out the 15 cardamon pods?

ive always found it really easy to find the pods supermodel but if not ive just told everyone when serving up and haven't had a problem.if left in again it only enhance the flavour:)

Fab, thanks so much everyone. I think I will do the day before but reheat in the oven. I was wondering about the whole food poisoning risk if I reheated it in the slow cooker so thanks Wolfie for clarifying.

Trills - yes that's the recipe I am reluctant to just chuck everything in purely because I've never done it that way before and I'm doing it for guests. I think I will try it when just cooking for us as it would be interesting to see if it makes any difference.

For the poster who asked about the cardamon pods, I read on one of the comments on that recipe that someone threaded the pods onto cocktail sticks so they were easily removed. Have to say I have never done this as we like to play a game of Russian roulette in our house with each mouthful. Sad sods that we are we also have a competition with our 18 year old DS to see who can find the most pods by the end of the meal! We really do need to get out more

I make that recipe regularly - I have never once precooked anything I just throw everything in and give it a gentle stir after a few hours.

Ready made thai red current paste and coconut milk, chicken thighs and veg. Easy

I've made that recipe loads of times. The first time I browned everything but every subsequent time I've just chucked it all in and it's always been perfect. So I wouldn't ever brown again as it makes it a much easier recipe.

Hmmm now I'm dithering whether to be brave and just dump everything in....

Do it, it really makes no difference honestly.

Ok, you have convinced me - it will make life so much easier! 😀

This recipe looks fantastic

Can't you just do your prep, stick it all on the slow cooker ready, pop it in the fridge overnight and cook in the morning?

Spam - now I have decided to just throw everything in without doing the prep beforehand (the recipe tells you to brown off the chicken with the onion, garlic and some of the spices before putting it in the slow cooker) I will definitely prep everything the night before and keep in fridge. I am putting my faith in MN that my curry will still be lovely using the 'bung everything in' method!

Well I'm sitting here having a coffee waiting for the family to arrive and I can report that the 'bung it all in' method seems to have worked a treat. Curry looks and smells lovely. Only slight problem is that I seem to have a lot more sauce than normal - I doubled the recipe due to there being 7 of us (two of them teenage boys with hollow legs!) not sure if to just leave it as it is or try and thicken? I've tasted the sauce and it's lovely so the flavour is still good.

Yay for bunging it all in.

Is the sauce runnier than you want, or is there just a lot of it?

Slightly runnier than I would like.

Cook with the lid off for a bit?

Thanks Clash, I will give that a go now.