11 Epicly Delicious Crockpot Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What foods should be slow cooked? ›

The 'High' cook setting tops off at around 205°F after cooking for 4 hours. Always follow recipe directions for recommended slow cooker temperature settings and cook times.

Place dense vegetables in crock pot first, such as carrots and potatoes, since they take longer than meats to cook. Dry beans can be cooked in the crock pot by following these simple guidelines: Precook beans in the slow cooker overnight with just enough water to cover, then drain.

If a dish usually takes: 15-30 mins, cook it for 1-2 hours on High or 4-6 hours on Low. 30 mins – 1 hour, cook it for 2-3 hours on High or 5-7 hours on Low. 1-2 hours, cook it for 3-4 hours on High or 6-8 hours on Low.

Choose the right cut: Chuck roasts, short ribs, pork shoulders and lamb shanks (think fatty and tougher meats) become meltingly tender with the moist, low heat of a slow cooker. Leaner cuts like pork tenderloin tend to dry out. Likewise, dark meat chicken — thighs, drumsticks, etc.

However, Crockpots generally have ceramic or porcelain pots, while most slow cookers have a metal pot. As with a lot of cooking appliances, the biggest difference comes from the distribution of heat.

Foods take different times to cook depending upon the setting used. Certainly, foods will cook faster on high than on low. However, for all-day cooking or for less-tender cuts, you may want to use the low setting.

The difference between "High" and "Low" on slow cookers seems to differ with every brand and model. One thing that is consistent, though, is that food takes seven to eight hours to reach a simmer point (around 210°) on low; versus three to four hours on high.

Slow cooker recipes have (obviously) long cook times, and it's the meat—not the carrots—that benefit from it. By placing the protein at the bottom (closest to the heating element), and vegetables at the top, you can keep your plant parts a little more toothsome, while ensuring your meat is fall-apart tender.

Can you put raw meat in a slow cooker? ›

Yes, you can add raw steak to a slow cooker to cook it to your desired doneness level. Slow cooking steak is a convenient way to cook steak over several hours, tenderizing it and adding exceptional flavor along the way.

The best vegetables for a slow cooker are sturdier veggies like celery, carrots, tomatoes, onions, peppers and green beans, like we used in this recipe.

The only difference between the HIGH and LOW setting on a slow cooker is the amount of time it takes to reach the simmer point, or temperature at which the contents of the appliance are being cooked at. The LOW setting takes longer than the HIGH setting.

Is it safe to leave a slow cooker on for 12 hours? Yes, you can use your slow cooker for longer than eight hours, as long as you keep an eye on it. Many slow cookers do have an automatic shutoff after 24 hours.

On some occasions, you'll want to leave food in the slow cooker to keep warm, during Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner, for example, or any other event or holiday. While it's perfectly ok to use your crock pot in this way, try to avoid leaving food on the warming setting for more than four hours.

SLOW foods are more nutritious than WHOA foods but shouldn't be eaten as frequently as GO foods. Examples include plain 2% milk, refined-grain foods, and fruit with added sugars. To determine whether a food is GO, SLOW, or WHOA, it's compared to all the other foods in its category (row) of the food group/section.

SLOW FOODS can be eaten “sometimes, or less often.” Examples include veggie pizza, ice cream and 100% fruit juice.

Slow food is prepared with knowledge of where the ingredients come from, whether they're made fairly with respect to the workers and farmers, and how their production impacts the environment. It can often include free-range poultry and grass-fed meat, though much of slow food is plant based.