Ain't the slow cooker grand? You can load it up at night or early in the morning with a few ingredients, then come home after work to a hot meal waiting for you. It's almost like having your own private chef. Well — not quite (you still do some of the work!), but it's still pretty great.
But the slow cooker isn't just for supper. You can make terrific breakfast grains, and great make-ahead lunch staples. Read on for 15 of our favorite slow cooker meals, from ginger pork and barbecue chicken that make great lunches, to spiced porridge for breakfast and chickpea stew for supper.
But first, some slow cooker tips!
• Want to convert a recipe to the slow cooker? Here's how. How To Convert Dutch Oven Recipes to Your Slow-Cooker
• No slow cooker at all? Use your oven. Technique: Slow Cooking Without a Slow Cooker
• New to the slow cooker? Back to Basics: How to Use a Slow Cooker
• A basic technique we use all the time: How to Cook Beans in the Slow Cooker
SLOW COOKER SUPPERS
• 1 Slow Cooker Recipe: Peppered Beef Shank in Red Wine
• 2 Slow-Cooked Bolognese Sauce
• 3 Slow-Cooker Black Bean Enchiladas
• 4 Curried Vegetable and Chickpea Stew
• 5 Rich and Meaty Lamb Ragù
• 6 Slow-Cooked Hoisin Pork Wraps with Peanut Slaw
• 7 Slow-Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken
• 8 Weekend Pot Roast
• 9 Collard Greens Stew with Chorizo and Garlic
• 10 Lemon Braised Chicken and Beans with Mint Pesto
MAKE-AHEAD LUNCH MEATS
• 11 Slow-Cooker Carnitas
• 12 Barbecue Shredded Chicken
• 13 Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef
HOT BREAKFASTS
• 14 Slow Cooker Spiced Porridge for a Crowd
• 15 Overnight Oatmeal with Apricots and Buttermilk
What's your go-to slow cooker meal?
(Images: See linked recipes for full image credits)
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I got a slow cooker for christmas! The first thing I made was this Urad dal with black eyed peas. Delicious!
i love my slow cooker and have also my dutch oven stovetop when i've wanted to adapt a slow cooker recipe to a faster finish. dutch ovens hold heat well and also double as a lovely vehicle to precook some veggies/other ingredients as desired.
i recommend Kathy Hester's 'Vegan Slow Cooker' for great slow cooker recipes!
Do you have any tips for combating dryness in meats cooked in a slow cooker? I've found that even with browning the meat head of time, a lot of slow cooker meat recipe results in dry meat (even if the recipe itself is soupy.)
I love to put some kind of beef roast in the slow cooker (whatever is on sale) and dump in a whole jar of pepperoncinis - juice and all. Cook on low all day long, shred, and you have delicious, flavorful pulled beef with a bit of a kick to use in tacos, sandwiches, in machaca, tostadas... the opportunities are endless and it takes all of 5 minutes!
@Courtney L, overcooking will dry meat out, not matter how much liquid is in the crockpot. And browning is not going to do much other than make the meat look prettier than it would if you just cooked it in the slow cooker. I know that my slow cooker runs hot, so I stop cooking it about 2 hours to the recommended cook time. It's just easier to save something that's undercooked.
sorry, that should " 2 hours before the recommended cook time".
On overcooking, yes, slow cookers run quite hot these days. I never cook on HIGH, only on LOW, and even that gets up to a simmer (which is why, on the whole, I prefer the oven, set to 200 or so, over my slow cooker these days). So cook on LOW, and stop cooking a little sooner than you might expect.
I have to disagree, though, on the browning! It does make meat look nicer, but much more importantly, it builds flavor in a way that you don't get otherwise in the slow cooker. Sometimes I even grill meat before putting it in the slow cooker overnight. Best of both worlds: Dark flavor, tender texture.
...it's not exactly an entire meal, but dried black beans cooked in the slow-cooker are SOOOOOO much better than stovetop or canned beans!
...and we often make pulled pork in the slow-cooker... you can make so many meals out of it if you use a dry rub instead of adding in bbq sauce in the beginning!
Well in the spirit of shameless self-promotion and SLOW COOKER BADASSERY AW HELLZ YES here are my favorites among the slow-cooker standbys that I've posted to my blog:
Smoky Slow Cooker Turkey and Bean Soup, or, A Crockpot Is Exactly Like a Vagina Hold On Hear Me Out On This
Smoky Slow-Cooker Cuban Black Bean Soup, or, Bad Mama Genny Will Force You To Have Free Birth Control and a Steak
Slow-Cooker Granola A Jillion Different Ways, or, I Didn’t Intend for this Post to Be About Drug Paraphernalia, But I Stand By It Nevertheless
Slow Cooker Lavender Beef Stew, or, Gather Round, Children, and I Shall Tell Tale of Big, Gay Muffin Cat
Slow Cooker “Get-Outta-Gym” Minestrone Soup, or, The Glamorous and Popular (HAHAHA) Childhood of Bad Mama Genny
Bad Mama Genny
you can get dried out meat by using the wrong cut. dont use super lean cuts like tenderloins etc. and yes, use low..
Saw a show on PBS this weekend, Cooks Illustrated?, anyway, they were making a porkloin roast in the crock. First try was a soupy mess and no taste, Second try was a should roast roll tied and then browned. After that, saute onions, garlic 1Tab tomato paste, a can of tomatoes well drained and 1/2c white wine. Cook all that down and pour over roasts in pot. Then they used carrots and parsnips cut into chunks. After 9 hrs on low or 4.5 on High, it came out lokking mighty fine and not soupy but did have a gravy.
sorry should be shoulder roast
Red beans and rice! Most people I know make em in their crock pots. My mom always did spaghetti sauce in ours since it had to cook all day. My favorite easy one my husband thinks is magic though is just a huge piece of the cheapest cut of pork I can find, toss it in with half a bottle of barbeque sauce and let it go all day. No browning, no liquids, nothing. Come home and all the fat is rendered out and its super tender meat. I'll pour off most the liquid and then shred the meat, add more bbq sauce and we have enough fast pulled pork for days. Not as amazing as properly cooked pulled pork but it gets the job done.