George Forman Grill vs 1.5 litre slow cooker

McKneff

No problem cleaning,  wipe with some kitchen paper while still Warm. Takes seconds. 

joedenise

For the meats you plan to use I would say a GF grill would probably be far more useful.  A 1.5l slow cooker is very small and usually round which makes it fairly useless for most things!  If going for a slow cooker I would get at least a 3.5l one.

Slow Cookers are great for stews, curries etc but not really useful for small portions like a couple of thighs of chicken; chicken breast cooks too quickly be nice done in SC.  A whole chicken is lovely done in a SC but if you don't like reheating chicken then that wouldn't really be any use to you.  For the person who said curries come out too watery can I suggest you just use less liquid to start with and if still too watery add a slurry of cornflour and water to it for the last hour of cooking or cook with the lid off for an hour!

OP - On balance in your circumstances I'd go for the GF!

goldfinches

Pussinboots61 said:

goldfinches said:

I have a slow cooker and a panini press, which is pretty much the same thing as a GF grill I think, and use the slow cooker far more than the press.
If you're interested in trying a slow cooker have a look at this range 3.5L Brushed Digital Sear and Stew Slow Cooker | Cooking & Baking (morphyrichards.co.uk) which have a metal pot that you can use on your hob and then simply lift into the slow cooker base.
I have one of these and it is my most used piece of kitchen kit by far and I find 3.5l a great size for batch cooking for one person. I typically make 6 to 8 portions at a time and stock up my fridge and freezer.
Recipe books I've found helpful for adapting to using a slow cooker are the Dorling Kindersley, Good Housekeeping and bbcgoodfood ones which you can often borrow from your local library. 

This looks good but can you cook say just two chicken thighs or one piece of chicken in the 3.5 slow cooker? I cook mince in batches but I am wary of freezing and reheating chicken so I tend to that on the day I cook it/

I'm afraid I can't help with this question as I've been a vegetarian for 40 years so haven't cooked chicken this way.

Have you considered dishes that can be eaten both hot and cold? Rukmini Iyer's Roasting Tin series, Diana Henry's Oven to Table and many of Nigella Lawson's recipes use chicken pieces and are often designed to provide a hot dinner followed by a cold lunchbox portion the next day. The bbcgoodfood website also has a section designed for this type of batch cooking that you might like to try.

goldfinches

Novice_investor101 said:

I’ve got a one person sized GF grill & a 1.5 ltr slow cooker. The grill definitely gets used more, mainly for cooking chicken & making cheese toasties. It can be used for a lot of things. I’ve done kebabs on it before & they were lovely. Much more economical than turning the oven on too. 

The slow cooker mainly gets used in winter for things like stews (i find it makes curry etc too watery) & my favourite - beef brisket, a treat once a year as i try to avoid red meat. 

I’d get both, but beware that a 1.5ltr SC cooks things a lot quicker than a large one so typically 6 hours on low is enough to cook most things. It’s for this reason I rarely put mine on before i go to work for 10 hours. 1.5 ltr also doesn’t hold that much, two good meals at most for things like stew, & tiny joints of meat. If you want to batch cook, go bigger. 

My top tip for the problem of things being too watery is to add some kind of lentil or grain that will go with whatever the dish is e.g. if cooking a curry add a level tablespoon of red lentils if you want thickening without adding to the flavour or a level tablespoon of brown lentils if you want thickening with the addition of a mild nutty flavour. Both types of lentil disintegrate completely so no-one who didn't see them being added will know they are there. Add either of these at least an hour before the end of cooking or at any time from the beginning onwards as they don't suffer from being left to simmer away for hours.
Other things you can add that will be visible at the end are bulgur, risotto rice, pearl barley, green lentils and so on, all those will do the job of taking up the liquid nicely and add to the dish.

Brambling

Pussinboots61 said:

Thanks for this. Is the GF grill easy to clean? My sister in law said she had one once and it was a bind to clean and she couldn't get rid of the grease. They might have improved more since then though.

I'm not sure if you can still buy them but don't be tempted to buy one with removal plates as they are a waste of money they don't get hot enough and boil the food rather than grill.  

They are easier to clean if you don't let them get cold.  

Novice_investor101

Pussinboots61 said:

Novice_investor101 said:

I’ve got a one person sized GF grill & a 1.5 ltr slow cooker. The grill definitely gets used more, mainly for cooking chicken & making cheese toasties. It can be used for a lot of things. I’ve done kebabs on it before & they were lovely. Much more economical than turning the oven on too. 

The slow cooker mainly gets used in winter for things like stews (i find it makes curry etc too watery) & my favourite - beef brisket, a treat once a year as i try to avoid red meat. 

I’d get both, but beware that a 1.5ltr SC cooks things a lot quicker than a large one so typically 6 hours on low is enough to cook most things. It’s for this reason I rarely put mine on before i go to work for 10 hours. 1.5 ltr also doesn’t hold that much, two good meals at most for things like stew, & tiny joints of meat. If you want to batch cook, go bigger. 

Thanks for this. Is the GF grill easy to clean? My sister in law said she had one once and it was a bind to clean and she couldn't get rid of the grease. They might have improved more since then though.

I’ve never found cleaning it to be a problem. If I’ve cooked something particularly sticky then i douse two paper towels in water & lay them over the cooking plate & close the lid straight after turning it off. The steam makes it all wipe off easily. 

goldfinches

The other thing that occurred to me while I was doing the washing up earlier today was that instead of batch cooking one can do batch preparation which might suit some people better.
I thought it would be particularly useful for dishes that can be prepared in one large pan like stir fry things so you could bulk buy your chicken and then portion it up by weight at home and freeze some of the portions. You could then buy larger quantities of veg and things like garlic, ginger, chilli and so on and prepare them all at once and again divide them up into portions and pop them into plastic containers in the fridge.
That way you could take a portion of frozen meat out the night before and leave it in the fridge to defrost and then whenever you want to eat you would simply empty the containers into your pan in order and then dish up.

bouicca21

I had a normal size slow cooker and found it far too big for a singleton so I passed it on to DD and got a 1.5 litre one which suits me fine.  But a slow cooker is more for stews than the sort of cooking that OP does.

I had never thought of getting a GF grill, but I’m intrigued by some of the replies.  I hadn’t realised that one could be so useful.