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?

I’m guess too much water, and you put the water in cold, and it was on too low.

I cook everything on high in mine and always add boiling water from the kettle never cold.

And vegetables do take so much longer than you’d think - I’ve taken to chopping mine really small.

I follow the general rule of thumb of 4 hrs on high or 8 hours on low, which seems to work well

Large joints, such as gammon or a whole chicken, cook fine both ways but seem to be better/hold their shape for slicing better for 4 hours on high, whereas a stew that you might want to be a bit oozy benefits from a long cook on low. Both ways will cook things safely, but it depends on the texture you are looking for.

I do a couple of different ragu's (oxtail and beef) in the slow cooker - I want the oxtail falling off the bone and the wine and herbs etc to all meld together, so I would always do this kind of thing on low for a longer time

If it's a recipe you're adapting for a slow cooker that has a lot of water, reduce it by about a third (casseroles etc)

I've got a Lakeland one, it's got a non stick bowl that you can use to brown meat etc. on the cooker first.

Was it someone on MN who was filling the slow cooker up with water/ liquid right up to the MAX mark every time?! And wondering why everything was watery.... Just checking you haven't done the same, op?!

I don't often do chicken in the slow cooker as I don't think it's as good as other meats for it. I've made some lovely meals though.