I had my second crock pot failure yesterday. The first one was in 2009. I don't remember what recipe it was, but I do remember that it was from the same cookbook that I used yesterday.
At least I did learn a lesson from it that served me well this time. Back then I had made recipe that completely filled my crock pot, and it hurt me to have to throw the entire thing away. So, when I tried this "Healthy Chicken" recipe from Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly by Phyllis Pellman Good, I decided to cut the recipe in half and use the smaller crock pot. And it was a good thing I did. I would have hated throwing away four pounds of chicken.
For starters, the chicken was overcooked. But it called for 3 1/2 to 4 hours on high, and I had it on high for 2 hours and then I turned it to low since we were leaving the house for a while. So it was only in there for a total of 3 1/2 hours. What I was surprised to see was how much liquid was in the pot considering I didn't add any in the first place. It literally sucked the juice from the chicken thighs and left them really dry. We ate it, but it wasn't a very appetizing meal.
I suspect I need to learn a bit more about how crock pots cook food.
I just got The gourmet vegetarian slow cooker : simple and sophisticated meals from around the world by Lynn Alley out of the library. Lot's of choices for my next slow cooker experiment.
