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TITLE :Crock Pot BBQ Pit Deluxe Slow Cooker |
| BRAND : Crock-Pot | |
| ASIN : B000AB9LTU | |
| PRICE: $94.14 |
| Image | Title | Price | Store | Action |
| Crock-Pot BBQ Pit Deluxe Slow Cooker w/Rib Rack & Recipe Book
Brand: |
88.00 | |
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Most helpful customer reviews
118 of 118 people found the following review helpful.
Indoor BBQ pit makes succulent BBQ a year-round reality!
By Dale Marshall
I got the Rival CrockPot BBQ Pit for my birthday in mid-December and I've used it several times since then, for chicken, ribs, and a decent-sized brisket.
First things first - read the instructions, which are brief and easy to understand, before using the BBQ Pit. One drawback to the instructions is that they just say the stoneware insert's easy to clean. Baked-on meat drippings, however, require significant effort to remove, and I advise you to spray the insert with a Pam-like product before each time you cook.
The BBQ Pit comes with a convenient reversable rack that can accomodate either ribs or a roast or chicken. I had a large brisket that I sort of had to shoehorn in, but after a few hours it had shrunk so that I could move it around easily. It's important to avoid letting the meat come in contact with the inside of the stoneware insert, because it might burn.
The BBQ Pit cooks meat at a low temperature, perfect for ribs or brisket which tend to be tough if cooked over 250 degrees. There's no substitute for time when slow-cooking, though - if you haven't got the time - several hours at least - this isn't the product for you. I was very pleased with everything I cooked in it over the past two weeks, but there are some drawbacks:
The electric cord, like that on most appliances, is pretty short - I measured mine at 32". If you can't locate the BBQ Pit near a wall outlet, you'll have to use an extension cord, which is someting I like to avoid in a kitchen.
The BBQ Pit has no external handles, so you need to place it carefully before cooking, because it gets too hot to move easily. In addition, the handles of the stoneware insert extend beyond the rim of the crockpot itself, making it easy to mistake them for handles with which you can lift the BBQ Pit - potentially a dangerous assumption.
You have to be extremely careful opening the lid when cooking is underway - along with a wonderful aroma comes a cloud of steam potentially hot enough to burn your hand.
Finally, because the meat drippings have a tendency to stick, I put a small amount of water in the bottom of the stoneware insert after the first time I used it, resulting in a moister cut of meat than intended - essentially I'd steamed the ribs and the brisket, although not to ill effect.
Overall, I'm tremendously pleased with the CrockPot BBQ Pit. I barbecue or smoke meat most weekends during the good weather (about 8-9 months here in Atlanta), and the addition of this appliance to our kitchen extends the BBQ season through the cold weather as well!
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
OK , But I Prefer My Smoker
By DJ
Just as I was about to get rid of this thing I took a few minutes and read what others on Amazon had to say about this item, decided to try some of the suggestions, and went and gave it a second chance.
Lining the bottom with aluminum and putting a sheet of aluminum over the cooking area before closing the lid made all the difference (as did leaving it alone and not lifting the lid for the first several hours, and only lifting a total of one time to baste) for both cooking the meat and cleaning the unit. I also only added a little bit of beer and water to the drip pan before cooking. This seemed to help keep the meat tender (without oversteaming it) and even helped brown it a bit.
Still, there are some lingering problems. I don't know why RIVAL did not put a "warm" setting on the switch like they do with the crock-pot, which we use all the time. Also, that meat rack is dysfunctional. If you try and put the ribs or chicken pieces in the "rack rows" created when you invert the rack, the meat would often slide out to the bottom of the pan. I used tooth picks stuck in the meat to keep the pieces in place and it was hard to baste. Recently I used string to make a "top" level on the rack and laid my ribs down flat and cooked them that way: they came out much better.
Still, for the amount of time it takes to cook using the BBQ Pit, a few hours more and an electric smoker will give you far better ribs and meat. The BBQ pit will do in a pinch, especially during the winter months, but if I had the choice to buy it again -- considering the space it takes up and few times I have a use for it -- I think I would have passed. So, it's not the clunker some think it is, but there are better ways to cook ribs if you have the room for even a small smoker.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Crock-Pot Pit BBQ
By S. Hudson
After reading reviews on this item on other sites, I decided that I wanted one.
I tried it with a whole chicken so far and it was "fall off the bone good". My next test will be ribs. Can't wait.
The only complaint I had was, that when I recieved it. It didn't come with any instruction manual. I assume it was just missed. But I came to Amazon.com and was able to print one out.