Slow Cooker Mistakes That May Be Ruining Your Meals
- Easy fixes
- Removing the lid too often
- Adding too much liquid
- Not reducing alcohol first
- Curdling dairy products
- Forgetting to brown meat first
- Overspilled food
- Lacking “herby” flavor
- Mushy vegetables
- Overcooked food
- Uneven cooking
- Lacking flavor
- Tough, chewy meat
- Rubbery, tough chicken skin
- Forgetting to sauté onions first
- Food is consistently over-cooked
- Sauce is too fatty
- Dry, overcooked meat
- Soggy cheese and breadcrumb topping
- Using the wrong cut of meat
- Thin, watery sauce
- Converting a recipe incorrectly
- Unevenly-cooked meat and poultry
- Add fresh herbs at the end
- Soggy pasta
- Hard to clean
Easy fixes
The slow cooker is a fantastic kitchen tool. Add ingredients to the pot in the morning, press a few buttons and by the evening, you’ll have a warm, comforting dish. It’s ideal for dinners on colder nights, when you want hot soups, hearty casseroles and meaty meals. Although it’s a relatively straightforward piece of kit, you could be making some common mistakes. To ensure you’re getting the most out of your slow cooker, here’s how to avoid these errors.
Removing the lid too often
It’s an easy mistake to make, but do avoid removing the lid to take a peek, unless your recipe tells you to do so in order to add an ingredient. All the heat that has built up inside will be lost, so your recipe will take longer to cook.
Adding too much liquid
If you add too much liquid to your recipe, it will become very hot and cause excess condensation, which will drip from the lid back into your dish and make the recipe too watery. Ladle out the excess before cooking, if you find there’s too much.
Not reducing alcohol first
If your recipe includes wine, a slow cooker doesn’t get hot enough to boil off the alcohol, leaving a strong taste. Bring your wine to the boil in a saucepan on the hob first, and let it bubble and reduce slightly, before adding it to the slow cooker.
Curdling dairy products
If your recipe includes dairy, such as cream or yogurt, add them right at the end, long enough for them to heat through fully, around 30 minutes. This also applies to coconut milk or coconut cream. Cook them for too long, the fats will separate and curdle.
Forgetting to brown meat first
Some slow cookers have a browning or sautéing function built in. Older models may not. Browning meat adds texture, color and flavor, so remember to brown the meat over a high heat first, whether on the hob or in your slow cooker.
Overspilled food
Don’t overfill your slow cooker if you want evenly-cooked food and a clean kitchen! When you cook meat and vegetables, they’ll produce more liquid than you started with, so ensure your cooker is large enough to accommodate it. Think about the average amount of portions you generally cook, and buy the appropriate-sized slow cooker to begin with.
Lacking “herby” flavor
When cooking a dish for such a long time, you may lose the flavor of any dried herbs you have added, especially if using a recipe which hasn’t been written specifically for a slow cooker. As a general rule, add half the amount in your recipe again. So, if it asks for a tablespoon of oregano, add an extra half tablespoon.
Mushy vegetables
Vegetables which are relatively quick to cook on the hob should be added towards the end of the cooking time in a slow cooker, around 30 minutes. This applies to zucchini, mushrooms, peas, broad beans and French beans, and any other more delicate vegetables. Otherwise they’ll be totally overcooked, mushy and soggy.
Overcooked food
This problem may be down to a couple of issues. Firstly, don’t forget to set the timer! It could also be your recipe. Some slow-cooked recipes call for a certain amount of time on low, then extra time on high. This is to firstly tenderize, then to speed up the cooking process for less dense ingredients. So you may need to experiment but as a general rule, the slower cooked, the better.
Uneven cooking
If your ingredients are unevenly cooked, you didn’t layer them correctly. Begin with root vegetables at the base, which will be closer to the heat of the slow cooker. Adding meat on top of the vegetables will ensure the meat juices drip into the vegetables, adding more flavor to your sauce.
Lacking flavor
There’s a very good chance that if your dish lacks flavor, you’ve over-filled your slow cooker. The food ends up steaming and becoming watery. As a rule, aim to fill your slow cooker no more than two-thirds full for optimum results.
Tough, chewy meat
You were so looking forward to that meltingly tender, slow-cooked piece of meat, but it’s as tough as old boots. Luckily there’s a simple solution to this problem. You probably cooked it on too high a setting for insufficient time. Remember, long and slow is the key here. Try our smokehouse ribs recipe – beef ribs are cooked in a spiced marinade for around six hours, for perfectly cooked meat.
Rubbery, tough chicken skin
Even if you cooked chicken pieces in a casserole on the hob, you won’t have that deliciously crisp skin you find with a roast or grill. There are two options here – remove the skin before cooking and blast in an oven separately or once cooked, put the chicken under a grill until the skin has crisped up.
Forgetting to sauté onions first
You’ll have a much better flavor if you sauté the onions for your recipe first, before adding them to the slow cooker. Otherwise you may end up with the taste of boiled onions, rather than the soft sweetness you are looking for. In this recipe for eggplant masala, the onions are sautéed with spices to intensify the flavor, before being slow-cooked.
Food is consistently over-cooked
If all your slow cooker recipes are coming out over-cooked, it’s highly likely your slow cooker is operating at too high a temperature. It happens with domestic ovens too, which often have hot spots. Experiment by turning your slow cooker down to a lower setting than stated in the recipe, and your problem should be solved.
Sauce is too fatty
If you have a large slick of oil on the surface of your finished dish, there are a couple of options to remedy it. Firstly, you could skim it off with a large spoon. Otherwise, if you’re using a fatty cut of meat, such as lamb shanks or brisket, trim as much of the fat off as you can before cooking. Or try a leaner cut which lends itself to slow-cooking, like the leg of lamb used in this Lebanese recipe.
Dry, overcooked meat
If you have this problem, it’s likely you under-filled your slow cooker to less than half full. Try to always keep it two-thirds full. Your slow cooker may also be too big for the recipe, so think about doubling up the recipe, then freezing half of it.
Soggy cheese and breadcrumb topping
As condensation or steam builds up on the lid, it drips back onto the surface of your recipe, making the topping soggy. To avoid this, line the lid of your slow cooker with two layers of kitchen towel to absorb the steam. You may need to replace it during cooking if it becomes too wet. Alternatively, leave off the topping, add it when the dish is cooked and flash it under a hot grill instead. You’ll have a better texture this way.
Using the wrong cut of meat
Keep your fillet and sirloin for the grill! The beauty of the slow cooker is that you use cheaper cuts of meat, such as beef chuck or shin, or chicken drumsticks, which need long, slow cooking to become tender. Expensive cuts will just dry out and become tough with an extended cooking time. Try our recipe for slow-cooker beef chili made with braising steak.
Thin, watery sauce
There could be a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, you may have added too much liquid which dilutes the flavor. Remember that the vegetables and meat release their juices too. The condensation builds up on the lid and goes back into the dish. If it is too watery, try adding an extra stock cube at the end. You could also thicken it with cornflour mixed with cold water – bring it to the boil on the hob to thicken it. Tossing meat in flour before browning will also thicken the sauce.
Converting a recipe incorrectly
If you want to use a classic slow-cooked recipe from the oven to make in your slow cooker, as a general rule you would reduce the liquid content by about half. Otherwise the result may be too watery. Until you gain confidence, try to use recipes specifically written for a slow cooker. Our recipe for fall-apart beef short ribs in Vietnamese pho, with spices and aromatic herbs, is a great place to start.
Unevenly-cooked meat and poultry
If you consistently have this problem, your ingredients haven’t been equally layered and not submerged in sufficient liquid to just cover them, to ensure they will be cooked evenly. Try our recipe for barabcoa beef tacos, where brisket is slow-cooked in stock for meltingly tender, perfectly cooked meat.
Add fresh herbs at the end
Adding fresh herbs too early in the recipe will take away that delicate, aromatic flavor. So wait until your dish is fully cooked then stir them in. The only exception is if your recipe asks for a bouquet garni – a bunch of bay leaves, thyme and parsley with stalks, tied up and cooked in the sauce to add more flavor, and removed at the end of cooking.
Soggy pasta
Not all foods are cooked to perfection in a slow cooker and pasta is one of them, along with asparagus and fillets of fish. Instead, cook pasta on the hob until it’s al dente, then drain it and run under cold water to prevent it cooking. Add to your slow-cooked sauce just at the end to heat it through. Or, follow a specific slow cooker recipe, like this chicken fajita pasta, which is cooked quickly, on a high pressure.
Hard to clean
Long, slow cooking can takes its toll when it comes to washing up. Either use an oil spray or kitchen towel dipped in oil to fully coat the inside bowl of your slow cooker to prevent sticking.