slow cooker quick questions thread

Rikki

Jars in the slow cooker has never worked for me. Tended to dry out and if your not there to keep an eye on it dinner could be ruined.

jcr16

yes it fine. i never had a prob. i don't do it alot but it a great quick handy standby .

although i do use my small 2 litre slow cooker. as my others 4.5 and 6.5 would be far too big.

i generally find if i've got left over roast chicken i will put that in the slow cooker, add the jar of sauce and put it on low for the afternoon. and by tea time it perfect. i've never added extra water, never had it dry out.

candygirl

I sometimes use curry sauce jars but always add a bit of water, and they turn out fine:D:D

davetaylor

I have a whole chicken in my slow cooker. It will be done soon. Dry rubbed with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder. I'm considering blasting it under the grill for a few mins to crispen it up a bit.

Anyway, here is my question. I know what i will be doing with the meat from the chicken. But I want to save some chicken and make a chicken noodle soup. Should I reuse the chicken bones to make a stock overnight first and then make the soup with the stock tomorrow or can I do it all at once? What do you reckon? To be honest, I've never really got my head around exactly what homemade stock is and how it should be used?

davetaylor

So I found this from another thread (Thanks Pink), It all makes sense, but I now just have one question. How do I actually use this jelly like stock when it's made? Do I need it all for one pan of soup? Or is it that concentrated that it can be stretched out. I've read about people freezing it in ice cube trays. Does one block of frozen stock equate to one tock cube?

Hi Clutterfree,

To make stock from a chicken I put any leftover chicken (bones, skin and any meat I'm not using for something else) into the oven in the roasting dish to brown........this really helps the flavour of the stock.

Then put the lot into the slow cooker........I also throw in any left over veg or half dead bits of veg you find in the bottom of the fridge. (I keep the ends of vegetables and peelings in the freezer specifically for making stock).

Cover it with water and leave on overnight.

Strain the liquid into a pan and discard all the bones/veg etc.

Put the pan onto the hob and boil to reduce it to a smaller amount (if you intend to freeze it) as it takes up less room in the freezer.

A good stock will be jelly like when cold.

If you are making stock on the hob, after browning the bones and adding water and veg, quickly bring it to the boil and then reduce the heat and let it simmer for at least four hours.

I hope this helps.

Pink

rachbc

I oten cook meat from frozen in the sc - inc whole joints o beef - works really well

davetaylor

Never tried from meat from frozen, veg I have though. Does anyone have any answers to my stock question before? I'm just about to put the bones in the oven for about 10 mins to brown them off.

DaisyMoo

Thanks everyone - I have a 5litre pot, so may add a drop of water, I'll try it out at the weekend when I'm home all day to keep an eye on it!!

gnasher18us

Sauces are normally fine, it's your meat that needs heating first.

Slow cookers cook at 90 degrees (approx) slowly, and bacteria in meat need a "quick heat" to be killed, and much hotter. Always brown meat in a hot pan before adding it to the slow cooker.

You rarely need to add water to anything in the slow cooker, unless it's soup - because it doesn't dry up with the steam.

The lid creates a seal with the crock pot, and should only lose water when the lid is lifted for stirring.

Try to stir as little as you can, but watch it through the glass lid (if you have one).

jpscloud

Gnasher I'm not sure about meat having to be browned before going in the slow cooker - just look up chicken recipes for slow cookers online. I've always used raw meat in mine and never had any problems - turkey drumstick is a great favourite.