Not impressed with my slow cooker 😔

[Studyafter40]

Bought a slow cooker and decided to make chicken soup for the first dish. Put it all together this morning and left it on auto setting anticipating a delicious meal this evening.

Well, I've just come home to rubbery chicken floating in slimey water, accompanied by raw, slightly warm vegetables. Its been on for almost 7 hours and taken £2 in electric! I've transferred it to the stove now to try and salvage it but it tastes really weird as the herbs and spices haven't really mixed together. The book says to leave it for 8 hours but I didn't think the last hour was going to do much more. It's a basic Swan slow cooker. What did I do wrong?

Nothing. In my experience everything becomes a sort of grey-ish sludge in a slow cooker. I hated mine.

How strange. For comparison - I put frozen chicken portions and carrots etc and stock with flour into ours this morning and we’ve come home to the most tender casserole. Not sure what is wrong with yours particularly why things are raw? Sorry not helpful :(

This was my experience with everything I made in mine. Honestly I wonder if it even worked properly as I read about these thick, rich, flavourful dishes and mine were all stuff floating in water. I’m a good cook and followed instructions but it was all bilge! Now the Instant Pot - that’s good food.

Yep, they’re not all that.

Doesn't sound quite right! Too much liquid probably - it doesn't burn off like other methods so if it's watery at the start it will be watery at the end unless you open the lid for the last portion. What is the auto setting? I can't work out why the vegetables would be only slightly warm either! I just cook most things on low for 6-7 hours.

I hated the texture of chicken from the slow cooker. It’s actually put me off chicken entirely.

It probably isn't getting hot enough if the vegetables were raw. Was the soup hot when you spooned it out (it should be, even on low setting)

Sounds like too much water. I rarely add water instead I add canned tomorrows etc how much did you add? I tend to put it on really high if adding water, how much seasoning and herbs did you add?

Also £2 in electricity shouldn't be right - that's like 8khw or something! They should only use about 1.5 across eight hours. Faulty maybe?

Yes it's weird that the chicken was cooked, although rubbery, but the carrots, onions, garlic and celery were still crunchy. The water was hot, but not boiling. All the oil was sat floating on the top of the water.

It was Greek chicken soup so definitely needs water. I opened the lid to add the rice and egg/lemon sauce and saw it looked quite sorry for itself.

I have one recipe that cooks perfectly in the slow cooker, everything else is not nearly as nice as oven cooked.
I’ll try to attach the recipe.

It takes a bit of practice to learn how your slow cooker works. I'd experiment when you are there to watch it, at first, and with cheap ingredients.

It could be faulty. Do leek and potato. Chop a few potatoes small, add a cup water and a stock cube. Garlic. Chopped leeks (frozen should be fine). Cook it up. Add milk and blend or mash to the consistency you like when it's ready. Add lots of black pepper.

Check the settings. Most have low and high. I could cook a frozen whole chicken on high in about 5 hours.
(I wouldn't eat it like that,but strip the meat and add to other things. Was a Handy emergency dinner when I'd forgotten anything else).

Yep, something not right here. It sounds faulty if it truly used up that much electricity but didn't get hot.

I threw mine away for the same reason. The rubbery chicken made me retch.

Gosh I cook in mine most days, I never use auto though, I use low if it’s going to be seven or eight hours or high if four. Tonight we are having chicken tikka masala looks and smells divine, been in there since about eight and yesterday we had shoulder of lamb with potatoes etc done in it, day before we had Thai green curry, do spag bol regular. I cook I’d say five nights a week in it. Simplest thing ever.

The auto setting on my slow cooker is just a keep warm setting if you’re finished cooking but not eating for another while. For something like chicken soup I would usually cook on high for 8 hours

This sounds amazing and clearly shows I don't make the most of mine.

Would you mind sharing your recipes?

I think it’s faulty op. On current rates a slow cooker for eight hours costs 18 pence. It shouldn’t be any where near two pounds and how your veg are barely warm but the chicken over cooked is a total mystery, even on low it’s 190 degrees and Hits that after three hours. How you can cook veg for several hours at 190 degrees and rhey are look warm and under cooked is a scientific mystery as well as why it’s using so much power and not getting warm.

as said I’m doing chicken tikka and on low it’s simmering right now Ie bubbling it’s that hot and I know it will take a couple of hours to cool down when I’ve switched it off.

it must be broken.

It shouldn’t be using anywhere near that much electricity, check there’s not a fault with the plug or something.

I prefer to put the liquid in already hot so that time in the slow cooker isn't spent heating it to cooking temperature.

I use the high setting too rather than auto.

I've cooked a whole chicken in mine and it was lovely. I didn't add any extra water to the pot just halved an onion, chopped up some carrots into big chunks and laid the chicken on top. It releases enough juices by itself not to need any extra water. Then all
I did once it was cooked was brown the top of it off in the oven. The chicken just fell off the bone and the juices in the pot were used to make the gravy. Even with chicken breasts I only use enough water to cover them and put hard veggies in first and then add in things like peas towards the end. If it looks like it needs a bit more water then I top it up. I also find cooking it slower and longer helps too which is why the cheap fatty cuts of beef etc are brilliant cooked in a slow cooker cos the meat goes lovely and tender

I've looked up Auto, which is supposed to be high for 30 mins, then low for the remaining time.

Oh dear, maybe I had it on the wrong setting then! The book said most dishes are cooked on auto. I'll try high setting next time.

I have no idea why it took so much electric! I wasn't in so nothing else was turned in besides the heat lamp for the gecko but I accounted for that.

@hedgehoglurker yes, that's what I read.