Urgent advice for Sunday lunch needed, please! Leg of lamb in slow cooker.

[Tinkjon]

I'm putting half a leg of lamb (bone in) in the slow cooker and am going to bung potatoes and veg in so it's like an all-in-one roast. i've done this before and it was delicious but I can't for the life of me remember whether I par-boiled the potatoes first. D'you reckon I'd need to? I was hoping to get away without par-boiling, could I if I cut them up fairly small? Also what about liquid - I drizzle balsamic vinegar over it, would the potatoes cook in just that and any fat that comes out, or do I need extra liquid? Finally, any ideas about how long it would take? Thank you!

No I don't think you need to par boil the potatoes. Not sure about the liquid but I'd imagine that you would need some. Why don't you do the potatoes seperately as mash or roast?

sheer laziness

I don't think you need extra liquid. I have cooked big joints of meat without liquid, and potatoes with nothing but a spoon of oil, so can't see why you'd need any just for combining the two.

As for time, it really depends on the size of the joint, but I'd guess at 5 hrs or more.

Well it was yummy : I put a splash of red wine in, and just chucked small-cut potatoes & parsnips, carrots & broccoli, some garlic & rosemary and left it on all afternoon. Thoroughly recommend this as the easiest roast dinner possible! The potatoes obviously don't crisp up like they do in an oven but they were still delicious as they soaked up all the juices, mmmmm....

Do you just put the joint of meat in then without any stock or liquid?

i imagined slow cookers worked like a caserole but obviously not

you can cook in them without ending up with stew then?

I thought it was stew based stuff as well, although I'm only a newbie. Oh I sooooo want to do lamb shanks

So let me get this straight. You chucked in;

meat
small cut spuds and veg
garlic and rosemary
splash of red wine (define splash? or what else could I used, don't drink)
Switch on and leave?

Can't wait for Sunday!

Would this work with chicken or is that too dodgy?

Yep, cooked without much liquid at all. You can definitely do things other than stews/casseroles, although I only know how to do casseroles and this one other dish

As for the 'splash' of red wine, it was a few tablespoons. You could use water instead though. Then about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and the same again of water and that was enough. I guess the food sort of steams as well, to a certain extent. The broccoli should've gone in later though as it burned on the edges.

It could work with chicken but only pieces - not a whole chicken. Also lamb is quite fatty so that kept it moist - chicken breasts are very dry so not sure if they'd work or not.

You can cook whole chickens in most slow cookers too, although for some odd reason my new one specifically says not to. The meat literally drops off the bone.

I thought it wasn't recommended to cook whole chickens as the temperature doesn't usually get high enough for long enough - and chicken is supposed to be cooked quickly. I personally wouldn't do it. Though smaller pieces are apparently fine, confusingly...

Oh well. I'm too excited about my lamb dinner on Sunday...oh bugger it, we're out next Sunday .

Friday evening then! DH won't know what's hit him

i dont suppose it is suitable for me to get one as i live on my own so dont cook large amounts most of the time

in fact i dont cook much these days

tho i did make bf beef in port the other week