Piggyback off Frozen Chuck Roast

You must add liquids. Any meat will be dry if they don't have broth or something added to it at the beginning. I cook a lot of stuff on the weekends and then freeze it to thaw after getting home. I do those huge bags of leg quarters, huge 5 lb chubs of HB meat, all kinds of things. Then when I get home late the meat is already cooked and ready to go in a moment or two. No bacteria, it's already cooked.

I am happy to report that my frozen chuck roast is doing wonderfully in the crock pot. The house now smells like fajitas. It has cooked just fine and should be fork fall apart in another couple hours.

As for chicken, I would only do boneless in the crock pot. I think if you put it in the crock with a good amount of liquid in the morning before you go to work it should be fine. Maybe you needed more liquid in it last time? Unless I am going to be home to check the moisture levels, I tend to over liquid my crock pock adventures.

Try boneless chicken (white or dark meat), some Pic Sweet seasoning blend, a clove or two of garlic, thyme, and a bay leaf, equal amounts of chicken broth and water to cover. Set it on low and go off to work. When you get home fork shred the chicken, put it on high (add more broth if needed), then when it heats up to high, drop spoonfuls of biscuit dough on top, recover and cook until the dough is fluffy. Yummy.

Not your question, I know, but how to use the crock pot. You can put the meat in as you're going to bed and turn it off in the morning. I bet you're not in bed longer than 8 hours. lol Then just heat it up that night.

Later: I think I'd refrigerate the chicken during the day to prevent the possibility of food poisoning.

No clue--too many variables to guess....weight of the chicken, "how" frozen is it, how your slow cooker cooks....

BUT I think if you cooked thawed chicken & it was dry after 10 hours, logically, you could try the same thing but with frozen chicken breasts.

Have you ever seen that Pampered Chef microwave chicken cooker?
That will cook an entire chicken FAST (30 min) in the microwave...my friend uses hers all the time!
It's the deep covered baker product I think:
http://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/prod_details.tpc?pro...=

Hi C.,
I actually had the same problem! I would burn things in my crockpot because my "shortest" work day takes me out of the house for 11 hours!!! Here is what I do now... yes, put frozen meats in with whatever seasonings or sauces your recipe calls for. Make sure that the crockpot you use is the right size for your family. When using a crockpot it should be at least 2/3 full. If it is less than 2/3 full there will be too much air space inside and it will dry your meats out even if you're home in time to tend to them. Okay, so frozen stuff in the crock pot, to 2/3 or more full... and then go to the hardware store and get one of those timers that you put in your plug socket, and then plug the crockpot into that!!! (I felt quite brilliant when I finally came up with this, if you can't tell!!). You know those timers that you use if you're going to be going away on vacation and you want random lights in your house to turn off and on at certain times to make it look like someone's home when you're away? Well, get one of those and set it to start 6-8 hours before you get home, plug your crockpot into the timer, and then set your crockpot accordingly (low, medium, whatever corresponds with when the timer will go off vs. the time you'll be home). So, for example, if I'm coming home at 6:30, I can put frozen stuff in my crockpot and set it up with that timer so that it doesn't start cooking until 12:30 p.m., even if I leave the house at 6:30 a.m.!!!! The fact that the food is frozen when I put it in helps to not let things spoil on the counter. It simply thaws the first few hours, and then cooks from thawed or semi-thawed state.
Having the right sized crockpot makes a world of difference too. Also, make sure your lid fits tight. If you notice steam escaping try folding foil or something around the lid, so that steam doesn't escape and make your food dry. Good luck!

if it was dry, you didn't use enough liquid.

When I do a roast, I cover it jsut over the top of it with seasoned broth and cook it thawed for the day (around 8 hours).

Same with Chicken. I put it in with anough broth and cook it all day then come home and do what ever I want with it.

If you're doing a crock pot chicken that doesn't need that much liquid, you should NEVER good anything for 10 to 11 hours. I'm suprised you didn't put your fork in it and a puff of smoke didn't come out of it, it being so dry. :)

Sorry -- can't answer your frozen chicken question but thought I'd check in anyway. ;)

I, too, have had mixed results with chicken in the crock pot, even with plenty of liquid. I have a crock pot recipe my husband loves for chicken cacciatore. I find that if I use boneless thighs instead of boneless breasts, I get much better results. I think the breast meat, especially if it's boneless, is just too dry to start with (much as it's my preferred cut for sauteeing and a number of other purposes).

Don't know if that helps. I'll be watching to see if anyone else has tried a frozen chicken!

I did not see the frozen chuck roast post but I don't understand how anything from a crock pot could be dry or tough unless you are not surrounding it with liquid.

I would really love to know how that happens.

One of these years I am going to use that thing more so I am just wondering.