Slow Cooker Recipes & Ideas

It's packed with veggies and supremely satisfying.

The luscious pulled pork will please even the pickiest of eaters.

I'm looking at my slow cooker to feed us easy dinners without heating up the kitchen.

Clear out your crisper drawer with this forgiving summer soup.

You'll love them, too.

This chili is everything you want in your bowl from the slow cooker.

Popular on Reddit with the keto crowd, this is a recipe your whole family will love.

If you own a slow cooker, you may not know it, but you also own a free-standing, electric mini-oven that’s ideal for baking loads of things, from breads and brownies to fruits crisps and cheesecakes. If you think about it, it makes sense: The slow cooker is a heavy ceramic pot that heats from the bottom, with a lid that seals it tightly. It’s not so different from your oven — even if you can’t fit a sheet pan in it.

Here's where the slow cooker does its best work.

When was the last time you looked in the back of your liquor cabinet? Last week, when I pushed past the bottles of Bulleit bourbon and Gran Centenario tequila, I found some surprises including banana liqueur, black pepper-infused vodka, and an unopened bottle of Marsala wine. I pushed my previous dinner plans aside and resolved to put that bottle to use in a simple homemade chicken Marsala.

The craving: General Tso’s chicken from your favorite Chinese takeout spot. The problem: You’ve got different diners eating at different times. The best solution: General Tso’s chicken from your slow cooker. Yes, you’ll be investing a little more time than dialing for takeout, but you’ll make the best General Tso’s you can at home without stir-frying and you can feed your family in shifts as they stagger in the door tired and hungry.

When you think of oatmeal, you most likely think of weekday mornings — it’s a hearty breakfast that keeps you full on busy days. Weekends are reserved for pancakes and eggs, right? Well, I encourage you to set aside a Saturday for this particular oatmeal, as it’s as special as that short stack.

I’d argue that there is no occasion where a bowl of crunchy, salty, cereal-studded party mix isn’t welcome. We make big batches for birthday parties, game nights, and even our Christmas Eve celebration. So when it comes to Thanksgiving, chex mix should be on everyone’s holiday menu too.

The slow cooker is an ingeniously easy way to make spiced nuts for parties, gifting, and straight-up snacking.

Do yourself a favor and serve it with rice or bread to mop up all the extra sauce.

Dip is totally dinner.

They'll make weeknight dinners and weekend meal prep easier.

You’ll definitely want to save these for later.

Welcome to slow-cooked season.

In terms of bang for your buck, you can't do much better than a bag of lentils.

Beef, turkey, chicken, vegetarian, and vegan!

Warming, hearty, delicious — and also vegan.

Now that fall has settled in and a chill has returned to the air, it’s the perfect time for stocking up on hearty stews and curries to take you through the season. Meaty brown lentils star as the base of this wholesome and comforting vegan curry. It’s kissed with warm, sweet spices like garam masala and turmeric, laced with fire-roasted tomatoes, and finished with a can of creamy coconut milk for just a touch of richness.

I go back and forth on what I think is the most useful piece of equipment in my kitchen. My cast iron skillet is always high on the list, as is a good Dutch oven. But these days, as it gets colder, I think my slow cooker is definitely in the top spot. When you realize that you can make wonderful dishes like this vegan pumpkin curry while you are gone, it’s easy to see why the slow cooker is #1. See those lovely cubes of fresh pumpkin? That is seriously the hardest part of this recipe.

Swap the chicken for chickpeas in this deeply delicious vegan take on tikka masala.

This lentil chili tastes like everything you love about chili — filled with smoky spices and lots of rich tomato flavor — but it goes lighter than the meat-filled version, thanks to the addition of barely sweet butternut squash and hearty lentils. Lentils are the perfect candidate for a meat-free chili. They cook up earthy and meaty, and there’s no browning or precooking necessary. This hearty vegan chili comes together easily with the aid of a slow cooker.

Sweet potatoes, lentils, and kale make this a hearty main dish option.

It's perfect for meal prep.

Stroll the streets of Paris and the rich aroma hits you before the racks come into view: rotating rotisseries of browned whole chickens dribbling savory juice over a tray of potatoes, beckoning you from across the cobblestones. I daresay the best way to cook potatoes is nestled underneath chicken.

It's a colorful recipe that begs to be served over rice.

The superstar slow cooker strikes again with this tasty combination of brown rice, white beans, chicken, and broccoli florets.

As the weather gets warmer, I like to lighten up my family’s menu with fewer savory winter dishes and more recipes that show off the lighter tastes of spring. But there are still a few dreary, rainy days left, so we appreciate a nice soup somewhere in that mix. This white bean soup makes its own broth with some help from a Parmesan rind as it cooks in the slow cooker. It’s an easy dish for a busy weekday and manages to be satisfying without being too heavy or rich.

Part bread stuffing, part French Onion soup, 100% delicious.

They're packed full of bacon and sausage.

If what you crave in a soup is pure comfort, perhaps with a side of childhood nostalgia, then you should get out your slow cooker right now. With a medley of shredded chicken, wild rice, thick-cut veggies, and a creamy broth, this easy soup nails cozy and comforting. As much as I love the nutty bite of wild rice, it is far too easy to grow impatient waiting for it to cook. But it’s slow cook time is actually a quality that makes it a prime candidate for a slow-cooker soup.

The slow cooker is a mainstay of modern American cooking — but it’s not just you and me firing up the Crock-Pot on a weeknight. Famous chefs and celebrities are not above its charms, and this week we’re bringing you five recipes from five kitchen stars that show off their favorite ways to put the slow cooker to good use. First up: Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman herself, with a classic broccoli cheddar soup that is kid-friendly and good for any cold night.

The herby, brothy, gorgeously green soup we cannot get enough of.

This soup is both energizing and restorative, but not fussy.

A bag of beans, a smoked meaty bone, and a slow cooker turn into a simple and delicious dinner.

Give black bean soup time to simmer low and slow, deepening and building flavor with every minute, and you’ve got a delicious meal on your hands. That’s why the slow cooker is always my top choice for making this warm, smoky classic. Drop everything in the cooker in the morning and by the end of the day you’ve got a full-flavored broth loaded with soft, tender beans and all the spiced undertones you expect from black bean soup.

I was uninspired. “What do you want for dinner tonight?” I asked my eight-year-old, who always has an opinion. He thought for 30 seconds. “Celery and bacon soup, ” he said. Though I had never made it before, and I’m pretty sure he thought he invented it, it sounded like a fine idea. I even had everything but the bacon already in the fridge. I threw everything in the slow cooker — a perfect tool for inventing a soup — and hoped for the best.

When I think of my travels in Germany, I think of beers, brats, and mustard, and it’s still that satisfying trinity that I crave when the weather starts to cool down. Throwing everything into a slow cooker means I can come back to tender sausages that have been gently braising in beer, with a pile of sweet peppers and onions coated in grainy mustard right on top.

This recipe very handily fed almost a dozen people at a recent weekend get-together; there were even leftovers. It’s also a very easy and delicious recipe with terrific flavor. And yet it takes less than half an hour to put it all together. Perfect menu for company! This recipe is basically a riff on Elizabeth’s slow-cooked pork shoulder. Pork shoulder, also known as pork butt, is a relatively fatty and inexpensive cut of meat that is excellent for slow cooking and braises.

Pulled pork is one of those magical meals that every self-respecting meat-eater should be able to prepare by heart. And when you say pulled pork to any Southerner, you’ll hear descriptions of luscious pieces of tender meat rubbed with secret spice mixes and doused in sauces of spice and vinegar, tangy mustard, or sticky-sweet tomato and molasses. Although those classic smoky flavors are satisfying, sometimes you need a new spin on an old classic.

Talk about easy! This “poached” salmon recipe isn’t necessarily about long cooking but it definitely highlights a slow cooker’s other abilities — like putting something into the pot and walking away. What you get is a moist, flavorful salmon without the usual worries of dry, overcooked fish. Just like in my recipe for slow cooker “baked” rigatoni, this poached salmon recipe is all about ease.

There's a reason why many steakhouses and chain restaurants have warm spinach-artichoke dip on their appetizer menu.

I speak from experience when I tell you that once you make a batch of saucy BBQ shredded chicken in your slow cooker, you’ll never make it another way again. If you’re already doing this, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a weeknight win that delivers juicy shredded meat infused with a smoky-sweet sauce. You get all that by tossing some chicken and BBQ sauce in the slow cooker.

Want the cheesy, tomato-y goodness of chicken Parmesan without all the breading and frying? With the help of ground chicken and the slow cooker, you can make these juicy meatballs instead. You’ll end up with all the comforting flavors of chicken Parm, in cute meatball form — ready to be stuffed into rolls as subs or ladled onto pasta or soft, creamy polenta.

If I could urge you to make one meal in your slow cooker this month, these chicken enchiladas would be it! We don’t eat enough enchiladas in my house, mostly because my brain equates rolling enchiladas with too much work for a weeknight, but these slow cooker enchiladas are layered, not rolled, and each layer is stacked with delicious flavor.

With these beans stocked in your fridge or freezer, endless delicious meals await.

Welcome to Snapshot Cooking, the home of Kitchn’s easiest recipes. These mini recipes are so simple you can practically cook from the before-and-after snapshot itself. There are few things I love more than meals wrapped up in a tortilla. But despite my deep adoration, I often find myself in a taco rut. To bring new life back into the easy dinner favorite I turned to my trustiest kitchen appliance: the slow cooker. I tossed in just three ingredients — a protein (or veg!

Collard greens are one vegetable I just can’t resist. Their thick, meaty leaves, propped up by huge center ribs, are monsters in the world of leafy greens. I love their beauty, so big and elephantine, leathery and deep blue-green. I cut away those middle ribs and slice the leaves into ribbons, and braise them until they are tender and juicy.

Full of chickpeas, potatoes, and cauliflower in a rich coconut milk broth.

When you get a craving — especially if it’s for beef and barley stew when snow clouds are building outside — it’s best to just give in and make it. Stew is more of a technique than a recipe, so gather your ingredients and jump right into the kitchen. By late afternoon, you’ll have one mouthwatering pot of stew. Since we didn’t follow any particular recipe for this stew, feel free to modify it as you see fit.

Come home from work, take a bowl from the cupboard, and proceed immediately to the table without even needing to turn on the stove.

Chile verde is more than a simple stew. Pork shoulder is rendered into supple, tender meat after a slow simmer in a sauce of roasted tomatillos, peppers, cilantro, and oregano. The resulting meat and sauce can be poured over rice or tucked into a tortilla. While the salsa verde requires a little prep work up front, the rest of the cooking is hands-off, thanks to the trusty slow cooker. This is a perfect dish to perfume your house when the weather gets crisp this fall.

With minimal effort and several hours of hands-off cooking, you're gifted with a robust meal that feeds a crowd.

Basically, the coziest meal you'll eat all winter.

Despite what some Texans believe, the best chili is one where beans take center stage and vegetables get some of the spotlight. So for this number, pinto and kidney beans kick things off by spending the day simmering in a warmly spiced tomato broth. By the time you lift the lid after a long day, you will find the beans tender and the liquid thickened.

Like any great stew should, the aroma of this hearty pork and apple stew will make your kitchen smell amazing.

Giada dresses it up with rustic sun-dried tomatoes, a red wine reduction, fresh herbs, and kobocha squash.

A good excuse to flex those knife skills.

Let me guess — when chili is on the docket, you blindly reach for a can of diced tomatoes and the jar of red chili powder. I’m no different, but this time around we’re going to shake things up with a vibrant chili verde from the slow cooker. Fill your shopping basket with tomatillos, jalapeños, poblanos, cilantro, and oregano, and set aside the ground beef to reach for a pork shoulder instead.

We know you’ll fall in love with how easy it is to pull off this hearty, protein-packed dinner. But what will really win you over is its savory, smoky flavor, which leaves just the faintest hint of spice on your tongue. It’s inspired by sausage and white bean soup, but we gave it a Southern twist by adding a pack of Andouille chicken sausage. Best of all, there’s next to no prep work needed, meaning your slow cooker does all the heavy lifting to bring dinner to the table.

The key ingredient is in the freezer aisle.

It doesn't get easier than this.

A cozy dinner that requires barely any work? Sign us up.

Classic cranberry sauce is a must for any Thanksgiving spread. Amid the turkey and sea of sides, it brings a sweet-tart bite that balances this savory feast. This subtly sweet slow cooker version is made to feed a crowd. It’s got just enough sugar to balance the puckering bite of the cranberries so they still serve as a bright spot on your holiday plate. This recipe gives you the foundation for a basic, traditional cranberry sauce.