Reduce the liquid
When you cook something on the stove-top or in the oven, liquid condenses in your finished dish, meaning the sauce that you are left with is thick and flavourful. In the slow cooker this evaporation doesn't happen, so the liquid is thinner, and the taste will be diluted. The way to overcome this is to not add much liquid into your dish in the first place - so if your regular chicken casserole calls for 1 cup of stock, just use the powder and not the water.
Amp up the flavour
When I first started using the slow cooker I hated it, because it was so watery and diluted tasting. There was no flavour! This is partly caused by the lack of evaporation mentioned above, and also by not adding enough flavour in the first place. You can't rely on the oven to intensify the flavours for you, so it has to be done before hand. Don't be afraid to use lots of herbs and spices.
Brown the meat and onions first
There is a lot of flavour to be had by browning the meat before it goes in the slow cooker, possibly even coating it in seasoned flour before that happens. It's not so much sealing the meat to avoid 'stewing', it's more about the richness of the caramelized brown bark the meat takes on in the frypan, which doesn't happen by simmering alone. Cheaper cuts of meat, that traditionally have more connective tissue will dissolve into mouthwatering tenderness. Chicken thighs with the bone will be more tender and less likely to dry out than chicken breast. Onions will not caramelize unless they are cooked in a touch of oil first, so don't just chop them up and throw them in - allow them to brown slightly and collapse first.
Cook at the right temperature, for the right amount of time.
Cook on low. Maybe start it off on high for a while to heat it up and get it going, but then turn it down to low for the remainder of the time. Leaving the temperature on low is likely to give much more tender results. It's tempting to turn the dial to high and get results faster, but this is a slow cooker, not a microwave!
Go your own way
Experiment! We've all read those spooky slow cooker recipes that contain 2 tins of soup and a kilo of cheese, but there is no need to actually cook them. You can choose your own ingredients and devise your own recipe without relying on sachets or jars. Have fun!
Asian Inspired Slow Cooker Beef
Ingredients
- 2 kilos of chick steak, cubed, no bones (ask your butcher to do this for you)
- a tin of bamboo shoots, drained
- a big glug of soy sauce
- a big glug of fish sauce
- a few teaspoons of ground turmeric
- a whole lime, cut into quarters
- fresh grated ginger and garlic, a few tablespoons of each
- a few tablespoons of brown sugar
- a heaped teaspoon of cumin
- a small handful of dried curry leaves, if you have them.
- chopped fresh chilli, to taste, unless you have a fussy eater.
Method
- Chuck everything in the slow cooker, give it a good stir, turn on low, and leave for 6 hours.
- Serve with rice, and maybe some salted cucumber or chopped tomato.
Keen eyed people will have noticed that I did not brown the meat first! It's true, I was in a rush and couldn't be bothered. It still turned out really well, probably because there was a whole lot of flavour in there already. Rules are meant to be broken!