Our Favorite Slow Cooker Recipes for Comforting Meals
The appeal of slow cooker recipes is obvious: Throw some ingredients into your pot and come back to a hot, ready-to-eat meal. How does it work? Slow cookers employ a method known as moist heat cooking. The food cooks at a steady temperature, and as the ingredients cook they release steam. The steam condenses on the lid and travels back down into the pot as liquid, keeping the dish moist throughout hours of cooking. Read on for the best slow cooker recipes, including Slow Cooker Glazed Pork Ribs with White Beans and Easy Chicken and Dumplings.
Filipino Chicken Adobo with Bacon and Bay Leaves
Frederick Hardy II / Food Styling by Melissa Gray / Prop Styling by Christina Brockman
Chicken Adobo is a traditional Filipino stew consisting of chicken that has been marinated and cooked in a mixture of garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar. This bright and deeply savory preparation is considered the unofficial national dish of the Philippines and has roots in indigenous traditions.
Slow Cooker Coconut Pork Curry
Grace Parisi cooks pork shoulder with bold ingredients like fresh ginger, garlic, curry powder, cumin and turmeric. The flavors intensify and penetrate the meat after four hours in the slow cooker.
Slow Cooker Korean Beef Stew with Napa Cabbage and Pickles
Napa cabbage and thinly-sliced sour pickles add texture and tang to this hearty stew. Searing the pieces of beef chuck before putting them in the slow cooker gives the stew a rich flavor.
Slow Cooker Chicken Curry with Potatoes and Cauliflower
Looking to warm up after a cold day? Throw this savory chicken dish in your slow cooker before you face the say and you'll come home to the ultimate comfort-food meal.
Dutch Oven Classic Beef Stew
There’s nothing better than coming home to a simmering pot of this hearty stew on a cool fall or winter day. Hearty chunks of beef turn tender after a low and slow trip in your favorite Dutch oven; potatoes join the party during the tail end of cooking to retain their texture. Cut potatoes into similar-size pieces to guarantee they cook evenly.
Stuffat Tal-Fenek (Maltese Braised Rabbit)
This cozy and rustic Maltese stew is studded with carrots, potatoes, sweet garlic confit, and perfectly cooked rabbit. A combination of fresh thyme and rosemary add complexity and stand up to the robust red-wine-and-tomato-based braise. Serve this saucy stew with a large piece of crusty bread for optimal sopping.
Slow-Cooked Duck with Green Olives and Herbes de Provence
By slow cooking duck with aromatics until it's as tasty and tender as confit, then broiling it until the skin is shatter-crisp, this recipe plays to all of the bird's strengths. If you're feeding a crowd, you can cook three ducks in a large roasting pan, increasing the onions and aromatics slightly and allowing just a little more cooking time.
Pork Chile Verde
Frederick Hardy II / Food Styling by Melissa Gray / Prop Styling by Christina Brockman
This pork chile verde recipe from Guy Fieri is chock-full of meltingly tender pork shoulder braised in a tomatillo and chile-infused broth. Fieri uses pasilla, poblano, anaheim, and jalepeño peppers as the chile base for this comforting stew. It’s a warming, cozy dish for a winter gathering and perfect for any game day gathering.
Cola-Braised Short Ribs with Risotto
Frederick Hardy II / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
If you love the television show The Bear as much as we do, it’s likely you were also excited about the short ribs Sydney works on perfecting during the entire first season of the show. On television and in real life, nothing is cozier than a Dutch oven filled with braised, fall-off-the-bone tender short ribs served over risotto.
Slow Cooker Barbecued Pulled Pork
Julia Hartbeck
Serve the pulled pork with coleslaw and pickles, or mound it on hamburger buns and top with coleslaw and thinly sliced onion and dill pickles.
Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder with Roasted Apples
This cut takes a long time to cook, but the prep is minimal and the results are outstanding: super crispy skin and meltingly tender meat.
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore with Linguine and Caper Berries
Adding tart caper berries to a cacciatore go a long way toward brightening the flavors.
Slow Cooker Glazed Pork Ribs with White Beans
This warming eastern European short rib stew is best served in deep bowls over buttery noodles. And, with less than half an hour of active cooking time, this recipe couldn't be any better.
Chicken in Red Wine Vinegar
For Paula Wolfert, this rustic Lyonnais dish is comfort food. Slow cooking transforms red wine vinegar, tomato, shallots, garlic and a touch of honey into a perfectly balanced sauce for chicken.
Slow Cooker Classic Beef Stew
Make your next beef stew in a slow cooker for all that long-cooked, rich flavor with none of the fuss. Adding a few ingredients near the end of cooking helps the dish stay fresh and bright with plenty of texture. Be sure to use boneless chuck roast, which has excellent marbling and flavor.
Slow Cooker Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
These meatballs can be served simply in a bowl, but they are equally delicious with spaghetti or on a hoagie roll. Either way, we love them.
Slow-Cooked Pork Belly with Potatoes, Onions, and Garlic
Pre-seasoning the pork belly with salt not only flavors the meat itself, but creates a crispy crust, while dry white wine helps balance the richly fatty meat. Save rendered fat for searing vegetables or making onion confit.
