Slow Cooker Recipes & Ideas

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious.From here on out, creamy chicken soup from the slow cooker shall be known as change-your-life chicken soup. Try to imagine all the goodness of chicken soup — moist, tender chicken, bites of sweet carrot and peas — but wrapped in a creamy broth flecked with black pepper.

Hot mulled cider is a must-have at all our fall and winter shindigs. It’s a great non-alcoholic drink option for holidays like Thanksgiving — guests of all ages never seem to turn down a mug, but grown-ups can also take the opportunity to do a little self-spiking and mix with their alcohol of choice. Slow-cooker mulled cider is the easiest way to serve a crowd.

Yes, you really can make baked ziti (well, “baked” ziti) in your slow cooker. And the result isn’t just good — it’s amazing. What it lacks in the crispy-edges department it gains in the ooey-gooey comfort-food department: tender noodles coated in marinara sauce and mixed with a double dose of melty cheese. Pasta in the slow cooker has a reputation for being overcooked and soggy — a result of too much liquid in the slow cooker or too long of a cook time.

Behold the single food that has revolutionized my weekly meal plan – shredded chicken! The very best thing about cooking up a batch of shredded chicken are all the possibilities it brings to mealtime. It can mean a week’s worth of dinners — everything from chicken tacos and chicken burritos to chicken salad are made more satisfying with shredded chicken. It’s an easy solution for make-ahead lunches and weeknight dinners the whole family will love.

Meet your new favorite party recipe: slow cooker baked beans. Long loved for their sweet, tangy flavor and tender, creamy texture, baked beans for backyard barbecues, summer cookouts, and game day parties used to mean heating up the whole house to slowly cook the dried beans for hours upon hours. Here the slow cooker saves the day by doing all the work and keeping you cool at the same time.

Pork shoulder is one of my secret weapons in the kitchen. Slow-cooked, it can become a thousand different meals. I can mix in some barbecue sauce and make pulled pork sandwiches, scatter it on top of tortilla chips for pulled pork nachos, or use it as a filling for pulled pork lettuce wraps. And that’s just to start! Here’s everything you need to know about pork shoulder — from choosing the meat to transforming it into a fork-tender meal that can last all week.

There are no shortage of ways to cook up a really great chicken dinner, and one of my absolute favorite ways is in the slow cooker. That’s right — your slow cooker isn’t just for big, tough cuts of meat. It’s also perfect for cooking up tender, juicy chicken. Whether you’re starting with a pack of meaty chicken thighs, lean chicken breasts, or even a whole chicken, your slow cooker is the secret to turning it into an easy, family-friendly dinner.

There's nothing your slow cooker can't do — and these recipes prove it.

The ultimate winter dinner.

So rich, so savory.

You've never had creamed corn like this.

And it's so easy!

They're easy to pull off and easy to transport.

The slow cooker makes easy work of this creamy, comforting classic.

No time to make a meal? Dump dinners to the rescue!

Comforting and easy — what's not to love?

From shredded chicken and carnitas, to brisket and pot roast, here are 10 easy ways to cook meat in your slow cooker.

No meat, no dairy, no problem.

Whether your goal is more meatless meals or more vegetables, these recipes are for you.

According to you!

Time to add these to your meal plan ASAP.

Easy and comforting is exactly what we need right now.

These toss-and-go meals do all the work for you.

We love the slow cooker all year round, but winter is when it truly shines. Here are our 10 favorite recipes for the coldest days of the year, from French onion soup to A+ brisket.

Cook, carry, and keep your potluck dish warm until it's time to eat.

Set it and forget it.

From comforting soups to hearty braises, there's plenty to choose from.

Chicken night is about to get even better.

If you think you detect a hint of chocolate in your chili, you're not wrong.

A savory breakfast that takes two minutes to prep for the slow cooker.

This recipe takes less than five minutes to pull together and then rewards you with a delicious, healthy dinner at the end of the day.

Raise you hand if you agree that every night should be pasta night.

The slow cooker does it again!

Pounding chicken breast into thin, even pieces will make you a better weeknight cook.

Chicken biryani is a dish for celebration. If you need to feed a crowd or host a dinner party, choose this biryani which will excite your guests with the aromas of the dish made in a slow cooker. The biryani is made with par-cooked rice and marinated chicken before they go into the slow cooker. The traditional method for cooking biryanis includes covering a large brazier with dough to trap the heat. In this recipe, the slow cooker is sealed with foil to produce a similar steamed effect.

And it comes together with three basic ingredients.

All the flavor of hot wings without any of the fuss.

A crock of slow-cooked grits is a dream to wake up to and an easy, no-fuss base for weeknight dinners.

Toss it on a grain bowl, salad, or even over pasta all week long.

It steals the scene at every party.

Based off a soup so good, its memory outlasted the memory of the person I ate it with.

This is a curry dish that benefits from a nice, long simmer anyway, so why not let that happen while you're off doing other things?

You only need two ingredients.

It doesn't get much easier than this.

Ratatouille, the classic French vegetable stew, is a perfect candidate for this hands-off cooking method.

The slow cooker is what brought homemade chicken stock into my everyday life. It’s just so easy! Throw everything — chicken bones, carrots, celery, onions, and maybe a bay leaf if you have one — into the slow cooker and let it do its thing. Hours later, you have beautiful, golden stock that’s guaranteed to be better than anything you can buy at the store. Here’s what to do.

On vacation? Let the slow cooker do the work.

Slow cooker breakfasts are culinary superheroes. They work through the night to save the day.

Get out your slow cooker and make a huge batch (you can freeze most of it to have on hand for future meals!).

Yes, you can make bone broth without beef — here's how to do it.

A fragrant dal for those who love lentils and spice.

The classic pasta sauce just got a whole lot easier.

Pile it onto buns, drape it over nachos, roll it into burritos, spoon it over rice, or simply eat it straight-up. You will be overjoyed.

More tender than Bubbe used to make.

Imagine waking up to the aromas of breakfast — sweet maple and warm cinnamon — wafting up from the kitchen.