Gravy's Cooking Thread

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Gravy

Gravy

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Super easy, and great flavor dinner tonight, chicken gyros. I just replaced the regular greasy/salty, but oh so tasty lamb gyro meat.

I cubed the chicken breast into smallish chunks and marinated the meat about 1/2 hour in garlic, greek oregano, salt, onion powder, black pepper, and greek ExVirOlOil.

Sauteed on med high with some sweet peppers, served with tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, pickled onion slices, and tomato. Kalamata olives are an option as well.

I chump out and buy tzatziki sauce, but you can make your own pretty easily. Mine just never turns out as good as store bought. I think it's the yogurt, or my lack of straining it. It needs to be thick.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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You should use dark meat next time. Or better yet, a stewing hen. The long required cooking time seems like it would fit a gyro much better. Obviously, wouldn't work on a short weekday meal.
 
Khane

Khane

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I've been using my slow cooker a lot but I think it cooks faster than it should. The other day I cooked a 3lb chuck roast in it on low. Most info I could find suggested a 6-8 hour cooking time and to cook it to 160 degrees. It was at 160 degrees in like 3.5 hours. I thought my thermometer might be broken so I left it in for a total of 5 hours and it was horribly overcooked (184 degrees when I took it out so looks like the thermometer is not the issue). Does this seem normal for a slow cooker with a cut of chuck roast that size?

This is the slow cooker I have. I've used it about 5 times since I bought it a few weeks ago:
Amazon.com: Delfino Digital Programmable Slow Cooker, 7-Liter: Kitchen Dining
 
Gravy

Gravy

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I like overcooked roast, especially chuck since it's pretty fatty, and has lots of connective tissues that break down with longer cooking. Folks around here have been doing it for years, though previously in very large cast iron kettles, lending it's name 'kettle beef'.

Having spewed all that, it does seem that 3.5 hours on low to reach 160 internal temperature is fast. And I'm having the exact opposite problem with my slow cooker. Even on high it's not getting food done.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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Any meat in a slowcooker should be purposefully overcooked. You can't ask for accuracy from a slow cooker. It will be cooked to hell and back and the gelatin -> collagen conversion is what will make it taste so good. If you have an application that might still burn, like rice pudding, you should stick around.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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And don't do what my wife did the first time she made a roast for me in the crockpot...trim off all the fat before she put it in. Was like eating shoe leather it was so dry. Leave the fat, and try to position it so the fattiest part is on top, so it melts down through the meat as it cooks.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Yeah, you're not supposed to cook a pot roast medium rare and you better have some strong teeth if you do. Don't worry about the internal temp, you're good as long as it doesn't dry out.
 
S

Superhiro

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Biggest attempt tonight at cooking multiple things all at the same time. Came out almost perfectly timed, only thing was the biscuits could have used a little more time to turn golden. Pork roast, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, buttermilk biscuits.
rrr_img_60318.jpg
 
Khane

Khane

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BrutulTM_sl said:
Yeah, you're not supposed to cook a pot roast medium rare and you better have some strong teeth if you do. Don't worry about the internal temp, you're good as long as it doesn't dry out.
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The problem is it wasn't medium rare. It was well done and it was tough and chewy. It isn't actually being slow cooked in my slow cooker. It's cooking it too fast and nothing is breaking down appropriately. Or at least that's my guess as someone new to trying to make something different than sauteed chicken breast and broccoli.

The first one I cooked in it came out perfectly but it was damn near 7 lbs. I took this one out at 184 degrees. I can't imagine leaving it in there any longer would have made it better.
 
Khane

Khane

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joeboo_sl said:
And don't do what my wife did the first time she made a roast for me in the crockpot...trim off all the fat before she put it in. Was like eating shoe leather it was so dry. Leave the fat, and try to position it so the fattiest part is on top, so it melts down through the meat as it cooks.
Click to expand...
I would never trim fat off any cut of beef period. Slow cooker or not.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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Takes time for collagen(I got the direction wrong above) to break down. I've taken pork shoulder out an hour or two early, and you could definitely tell a difference. You stopped at the wrong point. You got the classic well done overcooked and stopped before it reached the BBQ overcooked(BBQ is overcooked meat). Why are you using a thermometer for anything in a slow cooker?
 
Khane

Khane

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I'll try 8 hours next time to see if it makes a difference. I'm using a thermometer because for all the recipes I've found online have wildly varying suggested slow cook times. It's new to me, I don't trust it!!!
 
mkopec

mkopec

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Roast like that I usually sear the shit out of it on all sides and 4 hours in 350F oven covered.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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Oh yeah, 8 hours is a good start. Big hunks of low quality meat have always been put on low and go to work. Never temp it, don't care. You're not going to create enough heat to burn the fat.
 
Rezz

Rezz

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Gravy_sl said:
So, I bought some baby bok choy the other day. Anyone use this stuff in a recipe they like?

We've had it in salad, and IthinkI've cooked it before, but I can't remember how. Senility is not just a river in Egypt.
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Adding to previous suggestions, but baby bok choy is pretty standard in many stir fry/chop suey dishes. You add it basically at the very end since it cooks super fast, but it adds a nice counterbalance to the stronger flavors in the sauce/protein/bellpeppers-onions. It's like adding nappa cabbage at the end of anything that looks like it is asian. You almost can't go wrong.
 
Big Phoenix

Big Phoenix

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Pretty sure just dumping masa(which is pretty much corn meal) into it wouldnt turn out very well.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Khane_sl said:
The problem is it wasn't medium rare. It was well done and it was tough and chewy. It isn't actually being slow cooked in my slow cooker. It's cooking it too fast and nothing is breaking down appropriately. Or at least that's my guess as someone new to trying to make something different than sauteed chicken breast and broccoli.

The first one I cooked in it came out perfectly but it was damn near 7 lbs. I took this one out at 184 degrees. I can't imagine leaving it in there any longer would have made it better.
Click to expand...
If it wasn't dry then leaving it longer will make it more tender. It will eventually just fall apart on it's own.
 
Adebisi

Adebisi

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I did an even more ghetto sous vide just using a pot of water sitting on a quarter of the element (on min).

Same result. :p
 
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