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Browning Meat
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Some crock pot recipes call to brown the meat in a pan first. Now while this makes the meat a nice colour – it is definitely NOT necessary.
A very rare day when I bother with messing around with that. Just chuck the raw meat in the Crock Pot as is.
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Browning Roast Chicken
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Chicken chucked in the Crock Pot raw, does tend to produce a rather anaemic looking roast. So you could brown it first.
But .... why not? Just cheat a little.
Rub butter and paprika on it at the beginning and this will help give it some colour. Couldn’t be simpler.
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Vegies Cook Quicker
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So put the Vegies on the bottom. Chuck them in first and the meat on top.
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Give Your Roast Meat A Lift
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A tip from Neil – stir a teaspoon of your favourite dried herbs with a nob of butter and rub over the raw meat. The flavour will spread through the meat and certainly adds to the aroma of the kitchen.
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Cut Up Vegies
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Ensure your vegies cook by cutting them up into small pieces about, inch square size.
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Flour The Meat
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Put some plain flour in a plastic bag (freezer bag) and then put in your stewing meat and shake around. Ensure the meat has a good coating of flour.
This helps keep the meat moist and helps in thickening up the sauce.
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Lifting The Lid
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Now if you are at home while it is cooking, it can be tempting to lift the lid. But don't. Not until it should be about done. As lifting the lid lets out all the hot air and it will take longer to cook, than the recipe indicated.
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Frozen Meat
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To make the preparation time even quicker, we often use frozen meat or chicken when cooking a stew/casserole. It just adds about 2 hours to the cooking time (on low).
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