Outside chili, stew, and meatballs - what else can a slowcooker do?

December 29, 2009 10:32 AM

I got a new slow cooker for Christmas. I only know three maneuvers for using it though: Chili, Roast/Stew, and Meatballs. Any chicken or turkey recipes out there? Can I make casseroles inside it?

I like really simply dishes and I'm not the best cook in the world. Some recipes I would love to make in it:

Steak that falls apart in your mouth
Grits (I've seen people make steal-cut oats in crockpots, so I was hoping this was possible as well)
Chicken Pot Pie (erm, except maybe just the insides of the pot pie and I can bake up some biscuits?)

posted by royalsong to Food & Drink (26 answers total)

I'm making red beans and rice in mine right now. It works beautifully for things like stews and braised roasts. Steaks should be possible, but they'd have to be braised steaks as opposed to fried or grilled. Blade or some other tough cut should be what you look for.

There are loads of cookbooks out there specifically for crock-pots...
posted by LN at 10:38 AM on December 29, 2009

Super Easy Salsa Chicken: Throw a couple of chicken breasts in the crockpot, cover them with salsa, and sprinkle some taco seasoning on top. Sometimes I add a can of drained black beans as well. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove chicken from pot and shred with forks. Mix some sour cream into the crockpot, add chicken back in, and mix it all up.

This is great as a burrito filling or served over rice.
posted by something something at 10:40 AM on December 29, 2009 [6 favorites]

I guarantee you that Coolio's Fork Steaks are going to be awesome made in a crock pot.
posted by headspace at 10:45 AM on December 29, 2009

rapidsegue mentioned in The Budget Ethical Gourmet thread that her makes yogurt in her crockpot. Yogurt! I couldn't believe it, but I put in on my list of things to try. Maybe it will go on your list, too.
posted by Houstonian at 10:47 AM on December 29, 2009

Ribs.... overnight, delicious ribs.... ribs... ribs...
posted by jkaczor at 10:47 AM on December 29, 2009

Best answer: You will probably find much to like at A Year of Crockpotting.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 10:51 AM on December 29, 2009 [6 favorites]

Googling 'crock pot (chicken,turkey) recipes' or 'crock pot casserole recipes' gets thousands of hits...unless you're asking here because the number of Google hits was so overwhelming! Alternatively, recipe sites like cooks.com, epicurious.com, allrecipes.com, and recipezaar.com are quite popular and usually have flexible options for searching their site by entree, ingredient, preparation method, etc. and often include user ratings for each dish as well.

For instance: seaching this page by method 'slow cook' and ingredient 'poultry' gave a list of 32 recipes, 7 of them rated 4 out of 4 forks. Browse through a few sites in that manner and see what looks good to you. Happy crocking!
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:58 AM on December 29, 2009

In the morning, throw a whole chicken with onion, garlic, salt and pepper or other seasonings to taste, come dinner time you'll have lovely, falling apart, succulent chicken. From there jazz it up with mole sauce or curry paste and coconut milk or a little wine or such and serve it forth!

Or try my mom's pot roast/daughter's favorite meal: in the crockpot mix a package of lipton onion soup mix and can of mushroom soup, add potroast and go about your business til it's time for dinner. I'd make some kind of apology for the use of canned mushroom soup and onion soup mix but they make a dee-licious potroast!
posted by Allee Katze at 11:01 AM on December 29, 2009

Whole buncha veggies, water, cheese rind = great ministrone. Do not be tempted to use stock.
posted by bendybendy at 11:14 AM on December 29, 2009

Baked-ass beans! (not to be confused with baked ass-beans)

Put in the crock pot:

2 lb dried Navy Beans or pintos (each give a different texture, you can even mix 'em)
1/3 lb bacon, chopped (or really any leftover smoked meat & bones you've got)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup Frank's RedHot
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp thyme
pinch of nutmeg
Water (or ham stock, if you have any lying around) to cover by about 3 inches
salt (enough to make the broth taste about as salty as soup

Cook in the crock pot for a couple of hours until beans are cooked, then add:

5 tbs molasses

mix thoroughly.

Eat.
posted by Jon_Evil at 11:18 AM on December 29, 2009 [5 favorites]

Steel-cut oats work, but you better be ready to have to peel the inside of your crockpot when it's dishwashing time.

I put enough for four servings, producing two 1.5 serving servings, and one serving for peeling. If you add a few pecans and some cinnamon, the delicious smell will wake you in the morning with those cartoon beckoning fingers.
posted by Sallyfur at 11:20 AM on December 29, 2009

I occasionally make pudding cake in my crockpot - kind of a halfway point between cake and a puddle of delicious desserty goo. this book, but there are dozens of recipes online.
posted by Metroid Baby at 11:21 AM on December 29, 2009

(that should be "the recipe I use is in this book")
posted by Metroid Baby at 11:22 AM on December 29, 2009

Slow Cooker Congee
posted by mattbucher at 11:22 AM on December 29, 2009

THe best thing about crock pots in my opinion is that you can put meat in there frozen or partially thawed. A staple of mine is frozen chicken breasts, tomato/spaghetti sauce, frozen bell pepper strips, assorted seasoning. Set it on low all day and then make pasta when you get home.

Soup is also a marvel: left over chicken, beef, pork etc., chicken stock, stewed tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce (if desired), frozen veggies, chopped garlic, salt, pepper, other seasoning to taste. Set on low and cook all day. Thicken with corn starch and water if desired, serve with crusty bread.

Chili is basically the same as above only definitely use the tomato sauce substitute beans and frozen pepper strips for the frozen veggies and add a bunch of chili powder, cumin, cilantro if you have it, coriander, garlic powder, and a jalapeno or two if you have them. You can also throw a beer in there if you're feeling really wacky.

(Seconding pot roast with mushroom & onion soup recipe from above. Delicious!)

I've seen a bunch of recipes at All Recipes for casseroles: enchilada, lasagna, rice, etc. There are desserts you can make too. They even have a mailing list that's just for crock pot recipes so go nuts!
posted by Kimberly at 11:27 AM on December 29, 2009

I got one for Christmas too, along with a recipe book. One thing that caught my eye was pumpkin chicken Thai soup. It requires a lot of things that I don't usually have (heavy cream, mango nectar, ginger...) and may be too complicated for you but it sounds good. If you're interested I'll post up the recipe.
posted by Bunglegirl at 11:32 AM on December 29, 2009

You like pulled-pork BBQ sandwiches? Super easy to make in a crock... cooked with diet coke (I know, sounds strange but it comes out delicious). Here's how I make 'em:

Ingredients: big hunk (4-5 lbs) of pork shoulder or pork butt, 2-liter bottle of diet coke, and 2 bottles of bbq sauce of choice (I use Sweet Baby Ray's). Also, get at least a dozen buns.

To cook: There may be a big slab of fat on one side of the meat; if so, trim that off. Then put the meat in the crock pot and cover it with the full 2-liters of Diet Coke. Cook on low all day (I've done up to 10 hours). With about an hour to go, open up the crock, and stir in a bottle or a bottle-and-a-half of bbq sauce. Let that stew another hour and then serve on buns. Add a little more bbq sauce to the actual sandwiches if you want.

Makes enough to serve 20 or more people. Also great as a leftover. Enjoy!
posted by Ike_Arumba at 11:34 AM on December 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Steel-cut oats work, but you better be ready to have to peel the inside of your crockpot when it's dishwashing time.

These have been a real time saver when cleaning my crockpot.
posted by govtdrone at 11:54 AM on December 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you've already roast (or slow-cooked) a chicken, a slow-cooker will make the easiest homemade stock in the world.

1. Remove remaining meat from chicken carcass you want to save.
2. Put carcass into slow-cooker. Add anything else you want to flavour your stock (a garlic bulb, a whole onion, carrot-tops, celery leaves, parmesan rinds, what-have-you).
3. Fill to top with water.
4. Cook on low until the stock smells lovely and soupy, and is a nice, golden colour.
5. Strain stock into a large bowl and refridgerate. Discard chicken carcass and whatever you put in there.
6. Once cool enough for the fat to turn solid and float to the top, skim the fat off and discard (or use in some other way, if you want).
7. Pour defatted stock into ice-cube trays, or freezer containers to freeze, unless you're using it for soup right away.

You can also do this with your Christmas turkey carcass. :O) I like to keep a bit of frozen stock on hand all the time to flavour rice, sauces, or to make up a quick soup-from-scratch.
posted by Kurichina at 12:22 PM on December 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Seconding these. My parents love them, and when we were there last week for Christmas we made beans with ham and they seemed to work well.
posted by I am the Walrus at 1:57 PM on December 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you have a Kindle, there is a free cookbook available with slow cooker recipes here.

There are of course plenty of slow cooker cookbooks you can pay for, Kindle or not.
posted by freezer cake at 2:34 PM on December 29, 2009

My dear old Mum used to do a slow cooked Chicken Cacciatore that was delicious. Use skinless chicken!.
posted by Duke999R at 2:44 PM on December 29, 2009

I made lasagna in mine this week. You can adapt tons of recipes to it.
posted by saffry at 2:52 PM on December 29, 2009

I think that lamb shanks are the #1 best slow cooker dish. There are plenty of recipes around.
posted by damian_ at 11:13 PM on December 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Turkey or chicken curry is really easy. Take pound of poultry of your choice (cut in chunks or strips), add assorted frozen veg you like in curry, add one to two (depending on how much veg you use) jars of curry sauce of your choice, add a bit of water to jar and shake to get last of sauce out and add this to the pot as well, stir, put on low, go to work and come home to lovely curry. Cook some rice when you get home and eat. One pot of this lasts me all week and you could freeze portions as well if you don't like eating the same thing all week.
posted by koahiatamadl at 8:58 AM on December 30, 2009 [1 favorite]

Allrecipes has a quick video on how to make a whole slow cooker chicken.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 7:45 PM on December 30, 2009