Turkey Leg in SC and question about mince

RichyRich

Good evening old stylers, and welcome to the weekend!

I know I am not a regular poster on the OS Board, but that is because I am an extreme novice. I am however a regular lurker and have taken much advice on board from the thread, in particular about my choice of fabric conditioner (a.k.a. Tesco Value Vinegar) and cooking more from scratch (although living on my own and working reasonably long hours I often find I don't have the energy).

Anyway, tomorrow I have a busy day and would like to do something in my slow cooker so that I can get on with what I need to do and have something ready to eat. My idea is to buy either a whole chicken or a turkey leg from Tesco in the morning, stick it in the slow cooker, get on with work, then come back, stick some roast potatoes (one of the few things I can cook!) in the oven, do a bit more work, then boil a few veggies up. The plan is then to carve up and freeze some for my dinner tomorrow.

Now, if I get to Tesco and find one of these £1.99 chickens, I'll get one of them. However, if I find there are none I think I'll grab a turkey leg because they're reasonably cheap. I have had turkey legs before and done them in the oven and am aware that they can be really sinew-y and chewy - would this be the case if I did it in the SC? Or would the long slow cooking process make it nice?

Secondly I'm after a bit of advice about cooking it - my plan was to put a bit of water in the bottom of the SC, bung the (chicken or turkey) into it, add seasoning of various descriptions, and turn it on and leave it. Will this work? Should I put it on high or low or warm? Any better ideas?

And the bit about the mince - I bought some mince and it went 4 days out of date. Upon noticing this I bunged it in the freezer where it now is. But I'm scared to use it. Can I? Or should I throw it out for fear of dying?

Thanks in advance

Pitlanepiglet

Rich,

I've cooked one of these mammoth turkey legs once in the slow cooker and it was beautiful. I just put in about a pint and a bit of water, some onions and carrots and left it going. I then just scrapped the meat off it and it made the most wonderful "stew soup" like my mum used to make after christmas! Next time I'll put more water in as there was much more meat than soup.

I'm not sure I'd have managed to carve the leg after four or five hours of cooking, it just fell off the bone but it wasn't at all sinewy. I'd buy the chicken (if you can find one) but also a turkey drumstick but I'd make stew from the turkey.

On the mince front I guess you need to get it out, defrost it and see what it looks like. If it looks and smells OK bung it in the slow cooker for a good few hours and I'm sure it will be fine.

elona

I would put a turkey leg on high for about four hours in the slow cooker but woud get a better result by 7 hours on low when it should just fall off the bone.

Not sure about the mince but as long as it does not go brown and smells all right you could try cooking it.

hollyh

I found i couldn't fit a turkey leg in my slowcooker it's a 6.5 litre one as well.

When i do chicken i just stick it in there on it's own all day.

Butterfly_Brain

It is best to brown the meat first to seal in the juices and I would add new potatoes as well as veggies and you don't have to faff about with roasties

RichyRich

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

It is best to brown the meat first to seal in the juices and I would add new potatoes as well as veggies and you don't have to faff about with roasties

But I love roasties!

I ended up going to tesco and finding lamb breast which as i recall is deeeeeeeelicious when cooked slowly with all the fat nicely melted. Bunged it into SC with some herbs, mint, and gravy granules.

Chicken drumsticks tomorrow I think, followed by a nice stew on Monday.