How to get creative with your slow cooker – plus the best recipes to try Wine News

You can reduce moisture build-up a bit by putting a triple layer of paper towel on top of the jar (overhanging the edges) and locking the lid on top. The paper towels will absorb some of the steam and keep water from raining on the top of your dessert. But while you might be able to make something akin to pizza, it will be pale and soft compared to the baked version.

The same goes for roast chicken. The internet has hundreds of recipes for roasting a whole chicken in a slow cooker, but you will never get the golden, crispy skin that is a prerequisite for a good roast dinner. I tried all the methods, including browning the chicken in a pan first (the end result was an irregular brown bird, but not crisp), as well as baking it upside down and coating it with butter (result , a pale and flaccid mandrel) – none of this is working properly.

But if you are looking for very tender and juicy chicken meat, for a salad maybe, or a poached chicken dish, rub the bird with seasonings, herbs and butter, put it in the stove (not need to add liquid) and cook on it. high for four hours. Basically, what you do is gently steam it in its own juice, which will have collected at the bottom of the dish and you can eat with the bird or use as a concentrated broth.

Speaking of broth, this is one of the best uses for a slow cooker. Right after a meal is the best time to start a pot of simmered broth, but I draw the line leaving a pot on the stove overnight, and the next morning I lost the will to process a bowl full of frozen bones.

So instead, at the end of a long Sunday evening or lunch, I just throw the bones into the crock pot and cover them with water. Half an onion, carrot, celery stick, and bay leaf come in if I have them, but it’s not a disaster if I don’t, or just can’t be bothered. The slow cooker is turned on, and the next morning a perfectly clear broth is ready to be strained, chilled and refrigerated. If I’m in a hurry, I’ve been known to simply turn off the slow cooker (without lifting the lid) and let it cool during the day, before straining it at night.

And it’s that transformation of cheap cuts and scraps into baking gold that slow cookers excel at. According to Zoe McClean, senior economist at Crock-Pot, the brand that claims to sell one every two minutes in the UK only. More liquid released means you don’t need to add as much and you get a more concentrated flavor.

Like those bouncy cuts of meat, more robust grains do better than white rice and pasta, and so do vegetables, so kale’s tendency to roughness becomes a positive advantage in the field of the slow cooker. All with minimal intervention from me, the masterfully inactive chef.