Picked up more chicken today and tried another recipe in the old slow cooker today. Wasn’t as successful as the first one. I think I’m putting too much stuff in.
Today I put in (in order): tiny potatoes (I’m not getting the satisfaction out of the potatoes. Even after 9 hours in the crock, they’re still not as soft as I’d like them. Maybe I have to chop them up even finer. Or maybe I’ll just eliminate them from the equation altogether); onion (not doing it for me either – are onions supposed to taste good when you eat them or are they just there to smell good while they cook and get into the other foods? Because in both my experiments eating the onion was blandsville); green pepper; celery; mushrooms (always a pleasure); chicken breasts; lemon juice straight from the lemon; canned tomatoes (tastes good straight out of the can!); a bulb of garlic; rosemary; oregano; basil; pepper.
I wonder if I may be putting too much stuff in? Maybe I should just be putting in chicken and garlic and one or two vegetables and herbs and that’s it?
I think for my next illusion I’m going to try something Greek – chicken with kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes (would they become un-dried in the slow cooker?) or something curry or something with…squash? Suggestions welcome.
I wonder if I should get some capers?
Onions are going to lose it if you cook them for hours and hours. Sucks. However, the onions are releasing their flavor to the rest of the food. I’ve never put potatoes in the crock (my kids like them mashed or made from french people).
If you wern’t opposed to cooking with a pan, I’d suggest carmelising some and adding them to the crock near the end.
I crock cook a lot, and to make your onions better, I advise sauteeing them on the stove before adding to the pot. Just fry ’em on med to med-high with a little butter or olive oil until they soften and maybe go a little golden, then put the whole works in the crock. I would say put them in the pot at the beginning. It’s an extra step but improves flavour.
Other notes – don’t lift the lid to stir or check on your crock, it greatly increases the time required to get hot and cook (may be a factor in your firm potatoes?)/
And – buy some buillion cubes. When you throw all your stuff in, add a cube or two of any broth you like – chicken is a safe bet, especially if you’re cooking with chicken. An alternative is of course canned or boxed stock. Makes a huge difference.
Yeah I don’t have a pan, and I know that few people have seen the stove in this place but frankly, I’m scared to use it. Also having butter or oil on hand is tempting fate. Or is it tempting fat? Hahaaaaa! Not that that will be a big deal in a few weeks but for now, none of that. Plus of course the whole point of getting the crock pot is that I’m too lazy to cook, so adding steps defeats the purpose. Of course at the moment I’m having a lot of fun with it so I don’t mind cutting up vegetables but once the novelty wears off I’m sure I won’t be too keen on these extra steps.
Maybe next time I’ll try scallions instead of onions and see what happens.
As for the firm potatoes I’ve never lifted the lid during the cooking time. The recipes I’ve been using call for 6-8 hours and the first time I did about 8 hours, the second time about ten. I think I just need smaller potato bits.
I’ve noticed that a few of my recipes call for this bullion stuff. Seems weird to add chicken flavour to chicken, but I’ll give it a shot and see what my tongue says. I guess it’s also like adding salt?
capers are evil. don’t even joke man