The slow cooker earns its place in my kitchen on the days I have ten minutes in the morning and nothing left in the evening. Every one of these slow cooker dinner recipes, or crockpot recipes if that is what you call yours, is mostly waiting.
They run from my two Polish bigos to a Jamaican lamb curry and a Mexican pork that shreds with a fork. Pick the one that matches the meat you have. Smacznego!
1. Slow Cooker Marry Me Chicken
Pin itChicken in a creamy sun-dried tomato sauce that thickens itself while it cooks. Ten minutes of work, then you leave it. I make it for my better half when I want to please her, and the kids like it too, which takes some of the romance out of it. The card has a switch for breast or thighs, and the post explains why the cream goes in at the start if it is a rich double cream and at the end if it is lighter. Get the recipe →
2. Jamaican Lamb Curry
Pin itBoneless leg of lamb marinated in a Jamaican curry powder I mix from scratch, then six to eight hours in the slow cooker with coconut milk, potatoes, carrot and okra until it falls apart into a whole dinner. Six whole spices are toasted in a dry pan before grinding, and allspice is the one that makes it taste Jamaican rather than Indian. One Scotch bonnet goes in whole for its perfume rather than its fire, and the card has a hob version if you would rather not use the slow cooker. Get the recipe →
3. Bigos Królewski (Polish Hunter’s Stew)
Pin itBigos was always in the house when I was growing up and I did not like it as a child, too much going on in one bowl. It is exactly what I like about it now: sauerkraut and fresh cabbage slow-cooked with three meats, smoky sausage and dried mushrooms until everything runs together, better on the third day than the first. It goes in the slow cooker on purpose, because bigos catches on the base of a hot pot and one scorched patch turns the whole batch bitter. A slow cooker has no hot spot, so there is nothing to stir. Get the recipe →
4. Bigos Hultajski (Slow Cooker)
Pin itThe rogue’s bigos, the everyday one next to my more rounded Królewski: sharper and more direct, built on undrained sauerkraut, beef, smoked kielbasa and a cup of dark beer, with potatoes and carrot cooking alongside so the whole dinner is done in one pot. It has no mushrooms, wine or dried fruit, which is the whole difference between the two. Six hours later, lift the lid on supper, and drink the rest of the bottle of beer yourself. Get the recipe →
5. Slow Cooker Chilindrón
Pin itChilindrón is a stew from Aragón in northern Spain, and I met it a long way from home, in a small family-run place in a Mallorcan village, the sort locals eat in rather than tourists. Chicken, lamb and chorizo go soft together in a deep red sauce of peppers and tomato, and this slow cooker version is how I hold on to that memory. It cooks until the three meats stop tasting like three separate things. Good with saffron rice, the way it arrived at my table. Get the recipe →
6. Cochinita Pibil Tacos
Pin itPork shoulder marinated in achiote and citrus and cooked until it shreds with a fork, Yucatán style. The marinade does the work and the slow cooker does the waiting, so there is little to do while it cooks. Pile it into warm tacos with pickled onions. Get the recipe →
7. Beef Madras
Pin itI cook a lot of curry alongside the Sri Lankan and Thai chefs I work with, and a proper madras is meant to hit hard, so I keep mine a touch lighter so the spices come through. You mix your own blend from the cupboard, marinate the beef overnight, then slow-cook it until it pulls apart. Slow cooker timings are not hob timings: the hob takes two to three hours and the slow cooker takes longer. Get the recipe →
8. Quesadilla Con Carne
Pin itBeef shin slow-cooked with chipotle and tomato until it shreds, then folded into a flour tortilla with melted mozzarella and crisped in the pan. It is a quesadilla worth making from scratch, with the shin doing its slow cooking while you are out of the kitchen. Get the recipe →
9. Birria Tacos (Quesabirria)
Pin itCrispy cheese-filled tacos with slow-braised beef and a rich consommé for dipping. The slow cooker method is the easy one: sear the beef, then six to eight hours on low. The card also gives oven and Instant Pot methods, and the consommé is as much the point as the taco. Get the recipe →
10. Polish Gołąbki (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)
Pin itCabbage leaves wrapped round pork and rice, braised on a bed of bacon and served with tomato or mushroom sauce. The card gives an oven method and a slow cooker method if you would rather leave them for the day, plus a freezer trick for the cabbage so you do not have to blanch the leaves. Get the recipe →
Which one is going in the slow cooker first?
If you are not sure, start with the Marry Me chicken for the easy one, or the bigos for a pot you will still be eating from on Thursday. Smacznego!
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