Abandoned my slow cooker after a 10 hour shift left me with mushy mush

I used to swear by dumping everything in the crock pot before work. Then last Tuesday I came home to chicken that just fell apart into a sad paste. My neighbor Deb at the laundromat said she switched to a $25 rice cooker with a timer for quick meats and rice in 30 minutes flat. Has anyone else gone back to something simpler after a slow cooker disaster?

2 comments

2 Comments

mary_wells3d ago

I read somewhere that slow cookers actually need the lid off for the last hour to thicken stuff up, but who has time for that after a 10 hour day? My buddy told me he just uses a pressure cooker now and it comes out perfect in 20 minutes.

wendy9781d ago

Gently open that lid and let me save you some heartache with that pressure cooker idea. It's not exactly 20 minutes unless you're doing something like chicken breast or small chunks of meat. A big pot roast or chuck roast still needs like 60 to 90 minutes in a pressure cooker to get tender. And if you're doing beans or something with a lot of liquid, you still need to let it naturally release for 10-15 minutes or you'll get a mushy mess. Slow cookers are more forgiving for the whole "set it and forget it" thing, so maybe just spoon some of the liquid out and use a cornstarch slurry at the end instead of taking the lid off. That's what I do when I'm too tired to babysit dinner.