The New Wave 6-in-1 Electric Multi-Cooker can be used as a slow cooker, pressure cooker, deep fryer, rice cooker, steamer, and for pan searing. I’ve used several of the functions so far and wanted to let you know how it’s working out in my kitchen.
New Wave 6-in-1 Electric Multi-Cooker – Rice Cooker
As a rice cooker, my 6-in-1 failed on my first attempt. I own a rice cooker with fuzzy logic that I adore. Add the rice, water, and seasonings and tell it if it’s white or brown rice and it cooks it to perfection. Because my electric rice cooker works so well, I expected the same results from the New Wave.
I added the ingredients, set the timer, and walked away. I was brought back into the kitchen about 20 minutes later by the smell of burning rice. Since then, I’ve tried it a few more times, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s just too hot to be a useful rice cooker, so I still use my electric rice cooker – so much for clearing out the kitchen appliance clutter.
New Wave 6-in-1 Electric Multi-Cooker – Slow Cooker
The slow cooker function of the 6-in-1 has a browning feature. The pot heats up to allow you to saute vegetables before slow cooking as you can see from the pic above where I sautéed the vegetables for soup before adding the liquids. Unfortunately, there’s no way to choose the temperature and it never really got hot enough to do a decent job of browning, so I use the stovetop for that.
It’s not a great slow cooker because it only has one temperature – no low or high like a traditional slow cooker. The temperature is quite high so use the time recommendations for the ‘high” choice in any recipe you cook.
New Wave 6-in-1 Electric Multi-Cooker – Pressure Cooking
Pressure Cooking is one place the New Wave Multicooker shines. Granted, I don’t own a traditional stove-top pressure cooker, and never have, because I’ve always been afraid of them. I put aside my fears to try out this electric model which is supposed to be safer. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the results.
My first test was to make soup in the pressure cooker. In less than 20 minutes I was rewarded with a creamy soup that would have taken hours on the stove to make. In the pressure cooker there was no stirring, just put in the ingredients, close the lid, set the timer, and walk away.
Pressure Cooker Poached Chicken Recipe
The second thing I tried in the pressure cooker was poached chicken. Simply place roughly chopped carrots, celery, onions, and any herbs you like (I used fresh tarragon) into the bottom of the pot, place the chicken on top, and fill the pot with water to cover the chicken (being sure not to add more water than recommended on the side of the pot). Seal the pot and cook on high pressure for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes let steam out of the pot and remove the chicken to a plate. Remove the skin and then use two forks to remove all the meat from the bird. You’ll find the chicken meat is falling off the bone and ready to eat – moist and tender!
Return the carcass to the pot, sealed it, and cook on high pressure again for 30 minutes.
Allow to naturally release.
Poached Chicken – yield about 1 cup of shredded chicken for every pound of bird
I used a slotted spoon to remove the carcass bits (by this time the entire bird is falling apart and it’s a second chance to get a little more meat off the bone which I reserved for the dogs). I also pulled out the vegetables. I tossed the onions and celery into the trash and mashed the carrots into the scavenged meat for the dogs. They love it!
I refrigerated the stock and skimmed off some of the fat (or it can be used right away). I’ll be using the stock and poached chicken in a Chicken Pot Pie with Dumplings recipe later today. The shredded chicken could also be used for BBQ chicken sandwiches, chicken tacos, and a myriad of other shredded chicken meals.
New Wave 6-in-1 Multi-Cooker – Final Thoughts
I’ll admit that I found the user manual confusing and it doesn’t offer enough information on all of the options. Plus the controls are not user-friendly and I had a lot of trouble getting it to recognize that I was pushing the buttons. Still, after using it a few weeks, I do recommend it for the homemaker that is tight on space and/or cash because it does function well and with practice, can be the one appliance you go back to time after time.
I haven’t used the deep frying or steam features and never will, but I expect them to work well. That’s because one thing this unit does well is attained and maintain a high heat – both necessary for these functions. It’s a great addition to my kitchen, and I’ll be working on learning to use it well enough to ditch my 1980’s crock pot and my standalone rice cooker. I love that all the pieces store inside the unit, the interior pot can be removed to clean, and it included all the accessories necessary to use it for all its functions.
UPDATE 9/28/16 – I finally upgraded to anInstaPot because it was so frustrating trying to use this multi-cooker. It continued to have issues with the pressure buttons and it always took 5-10 times to get it to accept the cooking mode and time – so frustrating! Plus the lid became more of a chore than it was worth. Since using the InstaPot, I realized I should have ditched this one long ago. I’ll be putting it up on Freecycle with a warning about the control panel.
A note about the name – you’ll find it listed online as NewWave, Nuwave, and New Wave at various retailers – it’s the same company. They also vary between multi-cooker, multi cooker, and multicooker.
I have used my 6&1 pressure cooker a few times, my major malfunction is the manual is miniaturized making it super difficult to read, even with a powerful magnifying glass and instructions extremely difficult to read. With not very many recipes but the manual can be found as written on line in pdf form, but still not much information or instructions on use. the company is impossible to contact by phone or on line, I really wish the had more guts to make themselves available to their customers, I know with a good customer service and cookbooks made available we could have a much better product to use. to use the deep fryer use the Maxi function and use the left <plus to raise the temp. to about 37 minutes, then quickly hit the start button just enough to get it started, while reading the manual in pdf form they advise against using canola oil and OVO oil and any thing similar. that will cause damage to the cooker, use peanut oil or sunflower oil buy a gallon or more and have the same fun I have using the deep fryer. like I said I wish he had better cook books for using the Nuwave presser cooker aka multi cooker
Thanks for the review Connie. I have just received my newwave 6 in 1 so haven’t had a chance to use all the features yet. I’m glad to hear the pressure cooker function works. I thought you might like to know I just tried the deep fryer function. The manual doesn’t provide any instruction at all for setting the temperature but it does advise that it takes 25 minutes to get the oil ( I used canola oil) to 190 degrees Celsius. I set it per the instructions to heat for 25 minutes after which I tested the temperature with my kitchen thermometer. It was at 105 degrees. Another 25 minutes and we were up to 160. 25 more minutes and it got to 180. At this point I put the food in and noticed the temperature immediately started dropping. The unit was not maintaining the temperature at all. After 5 minutes it was back to 160 and my food was pretty well ruined. I will try out the other functions but so far I’m not at all impressed.
Yikes. Good to know about the deep frying issues. I don’t think I’ve fried anything in 20 years so I doubt I’ll ever get around to using it. As a pressure cooker it’s downright amazing and I use it every single day.
Wowzer using a pressure cooker features sure have come a long way. I dreaded using my old pressure cooker during canning season. I would be making chicken salad more often with this baby. I am going to add this to my next years wishlist and watch for sales, I think I would use it quite often. I don’t know if I would use the deep frying feature, not into cleaning the oil out after each use. Would be great to make a pot beans with ham or Carnitas more often.