Trouble cooking meat/ chicken

[Savvy1966]

Hi all
Please help I have only had my thermomix for two weeks andI'm having trouble with cooking meat/ chicken in the bowl as example I made a stew  and was on the reverse cycle  the meat was chop up  to very small pieces (not the sizes I started with)and pieces that stayed the same size you could feel the blade cut texture in the meat , I also have made curry sausages reverse cycle and they also were chopped smaller than what I started with they were all different sizes so when serving up presentation was yuck same goes with chicken dish, please help as I'm feeling that I have wasted my money

[judydawn]

Hi Savvy1966, welcome to the forum with your first posting.   Which recipe were you using, if we can see the recipe it may help us give some further advice.  Have you tried any of the recipes from the forum?  I cut my meat/chicken into about 4 - 5cm pieces.  It will take you a little while to get the hang of things but please do persist, try some of our recipes here which have a lot of reviews.  You haven't wasted your money but the early days are learning curves - I was disappointed in mine too until I joined this forum.

[Cornish Cream]

Welcome to the forum Savvy1966.
As Judy said you haven't wasted your money and with our help and advice we can guide you through these teething problems.
Members have had success cooking Bolognese/Mince like this.
Another tip is to add your chicken pieces in the last 8/10  minutes of cooking in a recipe.See Chelsea's comment here in Honey Mustard Chicken ( second comment page 4)

[cookie1]

Welcome Savvy1966. You have definitely not wasted your money. I always add my chicken in for the last few minutes. Another alternative is to cook the chicken in the Varoma and add the sauce etc from the bowl as you serve it.
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=5526.0
This recipe, Baf's Chicken is a good chicken recipe that you may like to try. It has many variations. Do let us know how you go.

[Savvy1966]

The recipes are form community thermomix Beef and Red Wine Stew and curry sausage
Tried the Varoma way but found it to lack flavour as the meat isn't cooked in the sauce and this also worries me about add meat towards the end of cooking time that it will also lack flavour
Trying to stay positive and I'm guessing with all your help I will have this mastered
Kind regards Vicky

[judydawn]

So it was this recipe Vicky? http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-meat-recipes/beef-and-red-wine-stew/84842
I read a few reviews, no-one seemed to have any problems with it but I noticed the instructions didn't say how large to cut the cubes of beef. 

Here's a similar recipe on our forum http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=4535.0.  Have a look at that and compare the instructions.  The meat is only 2cm cubes but from the photos, you can see how it turned out.

I have a curried sausage recipe on the forum here - http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3099.0
The sausages are cooked in the varoma then added back into the sauce.  The taste isn't compromised with this method at all.

[gertbysea]

Savvy try cooking the meat in the basket in the sauce.

The Thermomix is wonderful do so many things so maybe try bread making next  or a desert like the  whole orange cake.



Gert.

[obbie]

Hi and welcome

[Bedlam]

I must confess I prefer to not cook meat in my thermie.  It gets heaps of use without. I attended a class recently where butter chicken was cooked, he used the butterfly when he put the meat in.  Have you tried doing that?
Welcome to our forum, I'm sure you will have no regrets with your purchase.

[Nicappleton]

Hiya, I almost always use the butterfly when cooking chicken in the TMX bowl as it helps stop the meat getting caught underneath the blades, even if it is on reverse. As for cooking a stew, like beef, my jury is still out on this one! The beauty of stew is that you generally use a cheaper cut of meat and cook it long and slow....I guess you could do all the donkey work, like initial chopping, sautéing etc in the thermomix (still using the butterfly) then transfer to a slow cooker?

Persevere - there are so many wonderful cooks who are very helpful people in the Thermie community!

[cookie1]

Hi and welcome to the forum Nicappleton. Do you have some more helpful hints or recipes for us?

[judydawn]

Thanks for your advice Nic and welcome to the forum. Are you a consultant or do you have a blog perhaps?

[hipcook]

Hi and welcome

I feel a bit the same way and need to experiment more. However, there are sooo many other wonderful things the Thermomix does. I came across this the other day which I am really looking forward to trying.

 http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/masterchef/recipes/chicken-and-apricot-curry

If you go to the master chef website, Gary also talks about doing something similar with beef. I haven't had a good look yet but really keen to try this method.

Luckily I have a cryovak machine, there was some debate, however, over whether you could use sandwich bags. I'm really looking forward to trying this method.

[cookie1]

It sounds interesting hipcook. Let us know how it goes.