Crock-Pot Chicken Tacos (Recipe + Video) | Valerie's Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep taco meat from drying out in a Crock-Pot? ›

Try not to leave the slow cooker on the warm setting for a really long time or the taco meat may begin to dry out. It should be fine for a few hours at a party!

Don't Overcook the Chicken.

You can overcook chicken in a slow cooker. If the chicken is cooked too long, it will become dry and tough. Check your chicken for doneness early, especially if it is one of your first times making it.

Chicken becomes rubbery/chewy when it's overcooked. So in general, including in a slow cooker, don't cook as long. There are lots of recipes online, they can give you a good place to start. Cooking also involves a lot of trial and error.

We found that the only way to cook chicken (and turkey) in a slow cooker is on the low setting and for a relatively short amount of time.

Perhaps the biggest tip is to make sure to sear the chicken, even if it's just on one side, prior to cooking. That's because it helps to not only enhance the chicken's visual appeal with that golden color but also makes the meat more flavorful, which won't happen if you just toss it in the Crock-Pot.

Aside from accidentally overcooking the meals, the most common reason we see for tough, rubbery, or overdone chicken is customers using a Crockpot that is far too big. Each of our meals comes with a recommended slow cooker size.

Yes, you can totally cook raw beef in a slow cooker. Many slow-cooker chili recipes have a step for browning the beef before it goes into the Crock-Pot. While this step isn't necessary, caramelizing the meat creates richer, bolder flavors.

For a whole chicken – Place it in your slow cooker breast side down. Cover with the lid and cook on High for around 4-5 hours or Low for 6-8 hours. For bone-in pieces - Arrange chicken pieces in a single layer in the slow cooker. Cover with the lid and cook on High for around 3-4 hours or Low for 4-6 hours.

Rubbery chicken is usually an indicator of overcooked chicken. The longer the chicken cooks, the more moisture it loses, and without moisture, the protein fibers become elastic, AKA rubbery.

Yes, you most certainly can cook raw meat in the slow cooker! You put it in “cold”, with whatever liquid your recipe calls for, turn it on either “low” or “high” depending on your recipe (I usually start it on “high” for a couple hours, then turn it to “low”), and in 6–7–8 hours, it's now COOKED meat!

How to know when chicken is done in the crockpot? ›

Cover your crock pot and cook chicken breasts on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Chicken is done when the internal temp reaches 165 degrees F. Use chicken in your favorite recipes. Perfect for shredding!

This moist environment allows you to leave food to cook for hours without risking it drying out. But because there is no evaporation, the liquid isn't able to reduce and thicken naturally in a slow cooker, often resulting in watery sauces and loose gravies.

Mushy, mealy, stringy chicken, which is sometimes the result of cooking low and slow for an extended period of time. I've learned this the hard way, after many attempts at cooking chicken in the crockpot on a workday, for 8 plus hours at a time.

If possible, turn the cooker on the highest setting for the first hour of cooking time and then to low or the setting called for in your recipe. Foods take different times to cook depending upon the setting used. Certainly, foods will cook faster on high than on low.

Most appliances will automatically shut off after 20 or so hours on this setting, but you shouldn't leave food in a slow cooker for an extended length of time. The general rule of thumb is that 2-4 hours is the maximum length of time you can leave food in a slow cooker on warm.

Question: When I cook chicken, it always comes out tough. Am I cooking it too long, too short, too high or too low? The slower you cook chicken, the better. That's the overall rule for cooking protein.

However, washing raw poultry, beef, pork, lamb or veal before cooking it is not recommended. Bacteria in raw meat and poultry juices can be spread to other foods, utensils and surfaces. We call this cross-contamination.

The slow cooker acts as a sealed environment, trapping the moisture and flavors and preventing them from evaporating. As the temperature rises slowly, the pores in the chicken open up, allowing it to soak up the marinade more effectively than in high-heat cooking methods.

Yes, chicken breast will become softer and more tender the longer it is cooked, provided it is cooked at a low enough temperature. If it is cooked at too high of a temperature, the chicken breast will become dry and tough.

To keep a pot roast from drying out, your slow cooker needs liquid to create a moist environment, and that can include meat or vegetable stock, wine or water. This doesn't mean the meat should be submerged; a cup or two of liquid will be enough, since the cooker is covered and liquids stay trapped inside.

How do you make slow cooker meat not dry? ›

Brown Meat Before Putting It in the Slow Cooker

This helps seal in the juices. Don't lift the lid during cooking unless absolutely necessary. It increases the cooking time and lets precious moisture escape. Also, make sure you are putting enough liquid in the cooker to keep things moist.

To serve immediately, place beef mixture in slow cooker; keep warm on Low setting. If beef mixture is frozen, thaw before heating. Place beef mixture in slow cooker; cover and cook on High setting for 1 hour or until hot. Reduce heat to Low to keep warm.

According to the magazine's food experimenters, the baking soda treatment will definitely keep the meat tender and juicy when cooked. I'd heard my own dad make mention of this “secret” treatment with steaks, but it also sounded like a genius way to optimize the taste and texture of ground beef.