How can crockpot recipes taste good?
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OP it doesn't sound like you are particularly comfortable in the kitchen - so, I think a crockpot is a great tool for someone who isn't as experienced. It really is pretty hard to screw up most of the basic slow cooker recipes...
WTF - no, I can easily handle any white sauce (any sauce!), any pan-fried dish, any stew, any soup, any roast. My BBQing could improve, because I've never had a BBQ, and I've never used a bain-marie. I'm sure if bothered to spend time on those, I'd make lovely things. I can handle anything you'd find in a typical cookbook and am comfortable improvising.
I've just never touched a crockpot, and it's not going to happen.
The frozen chicken / soup etc. refers to how I've seen people describe meals here, when they cook for convenience.0 -
seltzermint wrote: »I hear you loud & clear, OP. It is so weird to me when friends and coworkers talk about "yeah I just throw everything in the slow cooker and dinner is ready when we get home every night", because when I pick their brains it's stuff that just doesn't sound like it would work out well, and my own attempts have met with uncooked or burnt-around-the-edges toughness. eek
The only truly successful Crock Pot recipes I use are pretty high maintenance...lots of prep and pre-cooked elements and several layers of ingredients added at various times. Like a sweet potato, kale & butternut squash recipe that takes 4-5 hours to cook but you have to add everything at different times. In other words...no more convenient than just using a Dutch oven.
I tried steel cut oats in the Crock Pot last week and it was tasty but the texture was SUCH a disappointment compared to 15 minutes of cooking soaked-overnight oats in a big pot. Especially with the leftovers. They were mushy and sad.
I'm convinced I'll just never be a Crock Pot fan, and I seriously view it as a type of cooking that people either love/hate, excel at or just fail at.
Thank you!0 -
OP it doesn't sound like you are particularly comfortable in the kitchen - so, I think a crockpot is a great tool for someone who isn't as experienced. It really is pretty hard to screw up most of the basic slow cooker recipes...
WTF - no, I can handle any white sauce (any sauce!), any pan-fried dish, any stew, any soup, any roast. My BBQing could improve, because I've never had a BBQ, and I've never used a bain-marie. But I can handle anything you'd find in a typical cookbook and am comfortable improvising.
I've just never touched a crockpot, and it's not going to happen.
The frozen chicken / soup etc. refers to how I've seen people describe meals here, when they cook for convenience.
My bad, sorry!
Again, crockpots are useful tools because they enable someone to prepare food and allow it to cook for an extended period of time unattended. This is not ideal for every recipe or every type of food. If someone is starting with frozen chicken, a raw onion, and a can of cream of whatever soup, you are pretty limited in what the outcome is going to be, regardless of your cooking method.
But again, I can point you to this recipe:
http://crockingirls.com/recipes/bacon-ranch-chicken/
Which has chicken (and I've made it with frozen chicken) and soup, as well as a couple of other convenience items. It is easy and my whole family eats it, which is a bonus for me. Is it the most delicious, elaborate meal I've ever tasted or even cooked? No. It is fairly one note in both taste and texture. But it is a great meal for when I've been out of the house and have only about 15 minutes to get everything on the table.
I use my slow cooker about once a week. It's not the only cooking technique I use, nor is pan frying or grilling or roasting or poaching or anything else.
It's amusing to me how strongly you feel about the slow cooker - that you feel this is going to be a flame baiting topic, that you are adamant you will never use one. It's just a small appliance. Get one or don't...
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OP it doesn't sound like you are particularly comfortable in the kitchen - so, I think a crockpot is a great tool for someone who isn't as experienced. It really is pretty hard to screw up most of the basic slow cooker recipes...
WTF - no, I can handle any white sauce (any sauce!), any pan-fried dish, any stew, any soup, any roast. My BBQing could improve, because I've never had a BBQ, and I've never used a bain-marie. But I can handle anything you'd find in a typical cookbook and am comfortable improvising.
I've just never touched a crockpot, and it's not going to happen.
The frozen chicken / soup etc. refers to how I've seen people describe meals here, when they cook for convenience.
My bad, sorry!
Again, crockpots are useful tools because they enable someone to prepare food and allow it to cook for an extended period of time unattended. This is not ideal for every recipe or every type of food. If someone is starting with frozen chicken, a raw onion, and a can of cream of whatever soup, you are pretty limited in what the outcome is going to be, regardless of your cooking method.
But again, I can point you to this recipe:
http://crockingirls.com/recipes/bacon-ranch-chicken/
Which has chicken (and I've made it with frozen chicken) and soup, as well as a couple of other convenience items. It is easy and my whole family eats it, which is a bonus for me. Is it the most delicious, elaborate meal I've ever tasted or even cooked? No. It is fairly one note in both taste and texture. But it is a great meal for when I've been out of the house and have only about 15 minutes to get everything on the table.
I use my slow cooker about once a week. It's not the only cooking technique I use, nor is pan frying or grilling or roasting or poaching or anything else.
It's amusing to me how strongly you feel about the slow cooker - that you feel this is going to be a flame baiting topic, that you are adamant you will never use one. It's just a small appliance. Get one or don't...
Lol, it's ok. I understand cooking for convenience, and no, not every meal has to be 10/10, but "is it convenient?" isn't the same question as "does it taste good"0 -
OP it doesn't sound like you are particularly comfortable in the kitchen - so, I think a crockpot is a great tool for someone who isn't as experienced. It really is pretty hard to screw up most of the basic slow cooker recipes...
WTF - no, I can handle any white sauce (any sauce!), any pan-fried dish, any stew, any soup, any roast. My BBQing could improve, because I've never had a BBQ, and I've never used a bain-marie. But I can handle anything you'd find in a typical cookbook and am comfortable improvising.
I've just never touched a crockpot, and it's not going to happen.
The frozen chicken / soup etc. refers to how I've seen people describe meals here, when they cook for convenience.
My bad, sorry!
Again, crockpots are useful tools because they enable someone to prepare food and allow it to cook for an extended period of time unattended. This is not ideal for every recipe or every type of food. If someone is starting with frozen chicken, a raw onion, and a can of cream of whatever soup, you are pretty limited in what the outcome is going to be, regardless of your cooking method.
But again, I can point you to this recipe:
http://crockingirls.com/recipes/bacon-ranch-chicken/
Which has chicken (and I've made it with frozen chicken) and soup, as well as a couple of other convenience items. It is easy and my whole family eats it, which is a bonus for me. Is it the most delicious, elaborate meal I've ever tasted or even cooked? No. It is fairly one note in both taste and texture. But it is a great meal for when I've been out of the house and have only about 15 minutes to get everything on the table.
I use my slow cooker about once a week. It's not the only cooking technique I use, nor is pan frying or grilling or roasting or poaching or anything else.
It's amusing to me how strongly you feel about the slow cooker - that you feel this is going to be a flame baiting topic, that you are adamant you will never use one. It's just a small appliance. Get one or don't...
Lol, it's ok. I understand cooking for convenience, and no, not every meal has to be 10/10, but "is it convenient?" isn't the same question as "does it taste good"
Ideally my meals that I prepare for my family, especially during the week when I'm at work, accomplish both of those things. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive?
There are lots of good slow cooker recipes. Your comments about chicken, onion and a can of soup tell me that you haven't spent a lot of time looking into different ideas for the slow cooker. People have given a lot of suggestions here for meals that are tasty, and don't require a ton of up front prep work. There are lots more good ideas on Pinterest and other sites. But if you aren't interested in the convenience, then no, I might not feel it necessary to have a slow cooker either.
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Ideally my meals that I prepare for my family, especially during the week when I'm at work, accomplish both of those things. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive?
There are lots of good slow cooker recipes. Your comments about chicken, onion and a can of soup tell me that you haven't spent a lot of time looking into different ideas for the slow cooker. People have given a lot of suggestions here for meals that are tasty, and don't require a ton of up front prep work. There are lots more good ideas on Pinterest and other sites. But if you aren't interested in the convenience, then no, I might not feel it necessary to have a slow cooker either.
They don't have to be exclusive, right, sorry - I was trying to work out what the tradeoff might be (from people who've actually used a crockpot, vs. recipes). And it sounds like, yes, you can get a great or good-enough dish out of a crockpot, if you do the same kind of preparation as you would otherwise. And you're right, there are suggestions for meals with less prep too, true. But since I already have a good thick-bottomed, heavy pot to use for stews etc., and a good casserole dish, I personally don't see the point of getting a crockpot (for myself).0 -
Ideally my meals that I prepare for my family, especially during the week when I'm at work, accomplish both of those things. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive?
There are lots of good slow cooker recipes. Your comments about chicken, onion and a can of soup tell me that you haven't spent a lot of time looking into different ideas for the slow cooker. People have given a lot of suggestions here for meals that are tasty, and don't require a ton of up front prep work. There are lots more good ideas on Pinterest and other sites. But if you aren't interested in the convenience, then no, I might not feel it necessary to have a slow cooker either.
They don't have to be exclusive, right, sorry - I was trying to work out what the tradeoff might be (from people who've actually used a crockpot, vs. recipes). And it sounds like, yes, you can get a great or good-enough dish out of a crockpot, if you do the same kind of preparation as you would otherwise. And you're right, there are suggestions for meals with less prep too, true. But since I already have a good thick-bottomed, heavy pot to use for stews etc., and a good casserole dish, I personally don't see the point of getting a crockpot (for myself).
Are you always home when you want to cook your meal? Again, I have nice, cast iron Le Creuset casserole's and dutch ovens - and on a Sunday afternoon when I am home I love nothing more than doing the prep work to chop veggies, sear short ribs, then braise them with the aromatics, finally taking the time to reduce the stock to a beautiful, thick rich red wine sauce to serve over polenta or noodles. However, if I end up not being able to make those same short ribs on Sunday when I'm home, it is also nice to throw them in the crockpot on Monday morning and make this, which will be essentially ready by the time I get home from work at 6:30 that evening...
http://www.recipe.com/beer-braised-beef-short-ribs/
I don't usually use my crockpot when I am home for the cooking process. That's what it is good for, convenience in the sense that you can make good (sometimes great) food even without a lot of hands on cooking time. Not in the sense that you can do no prepwork, throw in random, average ingredients and come out with something gourmet (although that certainly happens too).
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Yeah, I'm generally always home for the cooking part. If I don't have a lot of time, I make something that doesn't require a lot of cooking time.0
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Ok, this all makes sense. I was contemplating *maybe* getting a crockpot expressly for convenience, but I think I'd be unhappy with the results if I treated it that way.
I bet all of you are fab cooks
Not necessarily. You do need to be choosy about the recipe - I've had many an overcooked and dry meat out of the crockpot. Also many overcooked and mushy meals (rice pudding coming out like congee, etc). I've noticed that the cooking times need tweaking for many crockpot recipes, at least for my machine.
I have a superb crockpot recipe for pork shoulder. All you do is put a dry rub on the shoulder, brown it (in the crockpot insert if you get one that's metal), add broth and chopped onions, celery, carrots. Let it go for about 10 hrs and meat will be meltingly tender and falling off of the bone. The trick here is to make vegetables separately to serve with the shoulder - you do NOT want to eat the vegetables from the crockpot, or use the juices for gravy/sauce.
I have another recipe for butternut squash soup (more of a chili) that is also delicious. Every ingredient is from a can except frozen cubed butternut squash, and the ground beef that you need to brown.0 -
Without my crockpot I'd be seriously SOL with all my dried beans. I am not cooking those on the stove.0
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Ideally my meals that I prepare for my family, especially during the week when I'm at work, accomplish both of those things. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive?
There are lots of good slow cooker recipes. Your comments about chicken, onion and a can of soup tell me that you haven't spent a lot of time looking into different ideas for the slow cooker. People have given a lot of suggestions here for meals that are tasty, and don't require a ton of up front prep work. There are lots more good ideas on Pinterest and other sites. But if you aren't interested in the convenience, then no, I might not feel it necessary to have a slow cooker either.
They don't have to be exclusive, right, sorry - I was trying to work out what the tradeoff might be (from people who've actually used a crockpot, vs. recipes). And it sounds like, yes, you can get a great or good-enough dish out of a crockpot, if you do the same kind of preparation as you would otherwise. And you're right, there are suggestions for meals with less prep too, true. But since I already have a good thick-bottomed, heavy pot to use for stews etc., and a good casserole dish, I personally don't see the point of getting a crockpot (for myself).
so you're saying a crock pot doesn't involve a recipe??
if you don't want one- don't get one- but don't rag on people who use one- you make it sound like those of us who have one are inept and have poor taste in food.
Seriously? I eat pretty well- and I use my crock pot weekly- from beans- to chicken to applesauce to desserts.
Get down off your high and mighty none crock pot using horse. It's just silly.
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You've heard of grass widows? I've got a starving husband. My new lifestyle means I may not be around for suppertime, and the way we've negotiated chores is I'm the designated cook. (There are compensations. I haven't touched laundry in fifteen years). He's been making do with peanut-butter sandwiches and single serve meals but he's been looking a little peaked.
So the slow cooker is brought out once a week. He's getting cheaper home-cooked meals once in a while.0 -
I make ribs in the crock pot that are delish. I also make chili, carnitas, oatmeal, baked potatoes, sweet potato casserole and a plethora of other things. Skinnytaste.com has some great recipes for the crockpot/slow cooker. Another easy thing to do is throw a bunch of chicken thighs in there at night before bed. When you get up in the am, they are ready to get into your lunch box. I do not have a lot of time to cook so this little device helps me a lot.0
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I enjoy Slow cooker roast, with a little butter and onion soup mix and just enough liquid to cover the bottom of the slow-cooker0
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Ideally my meals that I prepare for my family, especially during the week when I'm at work, accomplish both of those things. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive?
There are lots of good slow cooker recipes. Your comments about chicken, onion and a can of soup tell me that you haven't spent a lot of time looking into different ideas for the slow cooker. People have given a lot of suggestions here for meals that are tasty, and don't require a ton of up front prep work. There are lots more good ideas on Pinterest and other sites. But if you aren't interested in the convenience, then no, I might not feel it necessary to have a slow cooker either.
They don't have to be exclusive, right, sorry - I was trying to work out what the tradeoff might be (from people who've actually used a crockpot, vs. recipes). And it sounds like, yes, you can get a great or good-enough dish out of a crockpot, if you do the same kind of preparation as you would otherwise. And you're right, there are suggestions for meals with less prep too, true. But since I already have a good thick-bottomed, heavy pot to use for stews etc., and a good casserole dish, I personally don't see the point of getting a crockpot (for myself).
so you're saying a crock pot doesn't involve a recipe??
if you don't want one- don't get one- but don't rag on people who use one- you make it sound like those of us who have one are inept and have poor taste in food.
Seriously? I eat pretty well- and I use my crock pot weekly- from beans- to chicken to applesauce to desserts.
Get down off your high and mighty none crock pot using horse. It's just silly.
What's this about recipes? No, I just mean I can't tell from the recipes themselves whether they turn out in people's kitchens, that's why I made this post, to see what people thought. So people use them in a bunch of ways, ok, it's just not for me.0 -
My favourite crockpot chicken recipe is cubed chicken with salsa, mushrooms and carrots. Then when it's done, stir in a half cup of peanut butter and you have satay stew. So good over rice
But I kind of agree you almost have to double the spices when using the slow cooker. Just needs something a little extra. And usually, I find chicken is the worst kind of meat to put in there. But chili is amazing!0 -
I have a Ninja slow cooker, it has a stovetop and roast setting, so I can sear meats, then put the lid on and slow cook, and can also slow cook then turn the stovetop setting on to boil the sauce to thicken it (like for broccoli beef stirfry) I don't think I ever just put stuff in and let it go anymore.....0
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If you like oatmeal you can make a great steel cut oats breakfast in the crock pot. As other people posted - its' just another method of cooking: great for pulled pork, ribs, soups, chili things like that.0
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We use the crock pot quite often and have had very tasty meals. Still requires prep but what the heck then you can just let er go and all ready at the end of the day.0
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there are a lot of really good recipes out there now a days that are neither tasteless or bland. I own a ninja cooking system and I use it a lot of days for cooking things but I don't have time to make when I get home everything is good but the secret is to make sure To preseason any meat before placing it in the pot. You can brown meat in the ninja before adding other ingredients. One of my favorite recipes is a spaghetti recipe in my ninja cookbook. I use homemade spaghetti sauce. I make pulled pork, lamb stew, I've slow cooked tougher pieces of beef, split pea soup, shredded chicken for lettuce wraps, fish, etc etc0
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