If you are anyone like me who tries to find all one solution for everything, you may be wondering if you can deep fry in a slow cooker. The answer is no and here is why.
Slow cookers are built to cook food for a long amount of time e.g. up to 12 hours. The built-in heat system in a slow cooker is made to raise the temperature slowly and the highest it cooks is at 175 degrees F to 200 degrees F which is perfect for a boil or simmer.
But deep-frying requires a temperature between 350 to. degree F which is not compatible with a slow cooker. Even in its peak, the slow cooker’s temperature doesn’t rise beyond 200 degrees. Hence, the small answer if you are wondering about deep frying in your Crackpot is it doesn’t work.
Is it impossible to deep fry in a slow cooker?
Simply saying it is not. But you will find few recipes of fried food such as fried chicken, french fries made in a crackpot on YouTube or websites. But that generally takes nearly or more than 50 minutes of cooking. Can you imagine, fifty minutes for french fries? And, the result is always soggy and there will not be enough crisp even if you are to compromise on the timing. So, it’s just best to deep fry using your gas stove or an electric deep fryer.
Slow Cooker Usage Guide with Tips and Tricks:
Slow cookers are cheap, consume a low amount of power compared to the time. And, the best part is that you can throw in the ingredients, cuts of meats and leave it to cook and go to work. When you come back hot soup or stew with rich deep flavors ad great nutrients will be ready to serve. What can be more comforting?
Many Asian as well as western dishes e.g. slow cooker beef, slow-cooked meatballs, chicken curry, lamb curry, Slow-cooked ribs, Slow cooked chicken,, and vegetables, have been prepared by slow cooking for ages. There many modern dishes like slow cooker cheesecake, baked mushroom and ricotta pesto, Chocolate pudding, etc. Here are some tips and tricks to use the slow cooker to cook your favorite stews, soups, and desserts.
What meat to use?
There are a few cuts of meat that are more suitable for slow cooking than others. They are generally cheap cut with moderate fat to meat ratio. If you are using a bird-like chicken or duck you can also use them as a whole and they are also great to be pot-roasted as a whole. For seafood and fishes, you can almost use all the regular fishes, seafood. Slow-cooked meat always leaves a richer, deeper taste even without too many ingredients. Some meat dishes like beef bourguignon, slow-cooked Mongolian beef require
a little bit of preparation but they will make you smile as you chew and feast on them. There are thousands of easy flavourful meat recipes to prepare in a slow cooker. Some of the very easy ones where you literally throw in the ingredients are slow-cooked whole chicken stew Korean style, beef, and vegetable stew, braised pig trots, beef ragu, Braised beef.
How much liquid to use?
Depending on what recipe you are cooking the amount of water to use will vary. But never try not to overfill. If you think that the amount of water or broth will
reduce in a great amount you are mistaken. Even if it simmers for hours the liquid-vapor won’t escape as the lid is sealed. So, use half to two-thirds of the measure of
the pot but never more than that, or otherwise, it will leak through the lid.
How to bake food in a slow cooker?
Yes, you heard it right. You can easily use a slow cooker for baked food. Rather than deep-frying in a slow cooker, use multipurpose with baking. If you are used to baking with a non-electric pressure cooker there will be no problem also with a crackpot. You can easily cook baked or poached salmon with asparagus, bread.
The slow cooker may be one of the greatest appliances to bake a moist cake, bread as it tends to retain moisture as the temperature rises very slowly. You just have to line the base with two to three layers of parchment paper. As the heat in crackpots is circulated and the whole pot heats up evenly there is no
chance of burning. From cinnamon rolls to cheesecake, chocolate cakes, bread you can make them all. Baking lovers, cheers!
So, even you may not be able to satisfy your crunch cravings with a crackpot you can use it to advantage. For almost all cultures of foods, there is the usability of a slow cooker.
