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?

Honestly i do it so quickly as I work.

for bolognaise I literally throw raw fresh mince in, some fresh garlic granules, a couple of onions some peppers and mushrooms and tomato purée and Passata and leave it on low. Or for chilli I do basically the same with a chilli con carne mix

for Thai red or green curry I use coconut milk and the green dragon pastes and rhen meat and veg

for the lamb I literally threw it in added a stock cube some garlic and some butter and left it, it was falling off the bone, when It had shrunk down I added potatoes and veg a couple of hours before we ate and let them cook in the juices, I then just added flour to thr juice to make gravy.

for beef stew, diced beef, root veg, potatoes, onions, Tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce

I use a lot of bought curry sauces , the curry sauce company do some great ones, just add meat , chicken, beef lamb, potatoes, veg a little oil and your sauce and leave it.

this is tonight’s but you can make your own or get cheaper.

www.ocado.com/products/the-curry-sauce-co-tikka-masala-curry-sauce-54469011

i even do baked potatoes in there , prick, rub with oil and salt, wrap In foil, job done.

i don’t brown anything, it’s always brown and lovely looking by the time it’s served, I tend to put it on first thing in the morning, before work, takes literally five mins to throw stuff in and dinner is ready when we wish to eat that night.

I just don’t have the time to cook and want fresh food, it always tastes fantastic. I’m honestly really surprised anyone struggles with it and assume the ops must be broken as it costs less than 20pence a day to run.

Op high is for lean meats and a cook of four or five hours. Low is better for flavours and is for cooks of seven or eight.

Where yours has Auto, I think most (mine included) have Keep Warm. I wonder if there was a mix-up in the factory and yours has the wrong component? But this wouldn't account for the electricity used.

It should never cost that much money. I think yours must be faulty. I love my slow cooker, cook all sorts in it as does Ds at uni, he has a teeny 1.5L one. Always follow an actual slow cooker recipe too.

What’s left of ours tonight after everyone dug in..😃

It took me a while to find recipes that worked well. The best ones seem to rely on herbs and spices plus quite strong flavoured meat.

I bake ham resting on veggies and apple juice. And trout stuffed with herbs. They always come out moist and well flavoured. 🙂

Some of slow cooker hits are -

Lamb Rezala
Beef Rendang Curry
Jerk stew with hot peppers
Goan chicken curry

I am a tropical girl living in the UK with a white spouse who knows v little of my kind of cooking and Instant Pot and slow cooker are pretty much how I get to eat my sort of food whilst working FT!

I really think slow cookers = beige casserole isn’t a useful notion !

Slow cooker is great for curries, or for slow cooked tomato sauce, or roast beef / lamb

I don't like mine either

You need to use as little water or stock as possible and add more at the end if you need it as it makes its own. Use the high setting and stock gel pots are good too. Also put liquid in hot not cold and veg needs to be chopped pretty small and put at the bottom as takes longer to do.

If it's using £2 of electricity then something is wrong.

I add a lot of flavourings to mine, like lots of fresh herbs or spices, stock, if a casserole I add gravy. For curries I have the base paste plus lots of additional spices. Everything always turns out really tasty.

Any recommendations for which slow cooker to choose (or avoid)?

Your settings were too low. Most dishes need a high setting. Auto on mine is a very low sort of keep warm setting. If I use the low settings it takes hours and hours and hours. I use high settings and it cooks everything in 5+ hours.

I find any dish that uses a lot of liquid, I use less than what is required as veg and meat give off lots of liquid. If I get caught out and it's too watery then I use some corn flour to thicken.

I threw 5 large chicken thighs in mine this morning with garlic, black pepper, thyme and some butter. 7 hours on low and I made lovely gravy with the liquid. We had it with mash and green beans. Chicken thighs make the best soup.

Maybe it's just not great. I recommend the Crockpot Duraceramic £99ish on Amazon.

My soup always comes out lovely as do stews, and chicken korma and few other things I do in there.

I only use it to slow cook large joints of meat eg pork shoulder or a whole chicken. A whole chicken cooks beautifully imo

Auto starts high then switches to low when it's reached temperature.

Yeah that doesn’t sound right. We always have great results with ours. Admittedly don’t make much soup in ours, DW has a soup maker, but lots of stews, curries, and joints of meat. Beef and pork dishes always do particularly well, but never had an issue with chicken really. Maybe try again or try another meal and see how you get on. The convenience factor is really worthwhile persevering - or at least it certainly has been for us.

For those of you saying you do curries, could you tell me how?!

I tried it with ready-made sauce and chicken and it was a tasteless, watery mess. What am I doing wrong?

I go in & out of love with my slow cooker.

It works great for stews & curries, I can't imagine chicken breasts work well as it they aren't that suitable for slow cooking.

My tips;

• Reduce the liquid by at least half (for a normal recipe)
• Veg tucked in on top / on top of the meat (to stop them becoming soggy)
• Brown the meat first to seal in the flavour

I really hate the prep, that's my problem; I hate the browning of meat etc. some people say you don't have to but you lose the flavour if you don't I find.

I also don't massively love stews etc myself but it's great for the kids, so I do use it regularly enough.

OP, I think you've either got a faulty slow cooker or it didn't cook at high for long enough.

I cook on high for a couple of hours, then low for remaining time.

Mine seems to be the same consistency when it finishes as when it starts, so spag bol, stews etc need to be thick to begin with.

But that sounds like a lot of leccy for a slow cooker....

@lisavanderpumpscloset I’ve never tried a ready-made curry sauce in the slow cooker personally, but I’ve made lots of curries and have usually found the results to be good. I prefer beef or lamb, so fattier meats for slow cooking. Chicken is fine but I’d probably go for chicken thigh.

BBC Good food have some decent slow cooker curry recipes that would be a good starting point. This Slow cooker chicken curry recipe uses a curry paste, so not too taxing if you want a relatively simple one to try for starters. They can always be adjusted for taste then if you prefer a hotter curry paste or a different sauce base.

We used to use ours loads for curries, stews, chilli, even cooked a whole chicken in it, which fell off the bone and was delicious. The last few times however, the food hasn't come out as well, and its currently consigned to the cupboard. Not sure if there is something wrong with it, or just user error for some reason, which is a shame as I loved it when it worked well. It's a proper Crock Pot one, but was on special on Amazon so quite cheap.

I make cakes in mine as well.

@EarringsandLipstick chicken breasts are just the best in a slow cooker- so tender and tasty