15 Easy Recipes for your Casserole Slow Cooker (2024)

FAQs

What foods should be slow cooked? ›

Avoid overcrowding: For the best results, fill a slow cooker between one-half and two-thirds full. Go ahead and cook big roasts and whole chickens; just make sure you use a large crock and that the lid fits snugly on top. Trim fat: For silky sauces and gravies, take a minute or two and cut the excess fat from the meat.

Use More Spices and Aromatics

The flavors in a slow-cooker dish can become muted over the long cooking time. So we up the amounts of aromatics and spices in the recipes beyond what is normally used. But it's not just increasing spices that does that trick; you'll also want to increase their potency.

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.

Just plug in your slow cooker, add your chosen recipe's ingredients, set the cooker to low or high, depending on the recipe's instructions, add the lid and let it cook. Once your dish is done cooking, you can either switch the slow cooker off to turn off the heating element, or warm if you're not ready to enjoy it yet.

Yes, you can add raw steak to a slow cooker to cook it to your desired doneness level.

Due to the nature of a slow cooker, there is no need to stir the food unless it specifically says to in your recipe. In fact, taking the lid off to stir food causes the slow cooker to lose a significant amount of heat, extending the cooking time required. Therefore, it is best not to remove the lid for stirring.

It can be nice to cook the onions beforehand, as the flavour is different to when you put them in raw, but experiment both ways as you may find you prefer one. It can also be good to brown meat to give it some colour, but again, this is not essential.

Is it better to slow cook on low or high? ›

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.

Most appliances will automatically shut off after 20 or so hours on this setting, but you shouldn't leave food in a slow cooker for an extended length of time. The general rule of thumb is that 2-4 hours is the maximum length of time you can leave food in a slow cooker on warm.

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.

Slow cookers typically cost less to run than an oven. They won't necessarily save you money compared with using an induction hob, or even a gas hob. Making exact comparisons is difficult, because there can be lots of variables, such as the type of hob and how you use it.

These are foods like steamed or raw veggies and skim or low-fat milk that are good to eat almost anytime. Foods that are OK to eat sometimes are "slow" foods. Foods like hamburgers or pancakes aren't off limits — but they shouldn't be eaten every day.

A slow food restaurant will often serve regional cuisine with a focus on quality not quantity. This kind of restaurant will often source their ingredients from local farmers and artisans instead of using processed or imported goods.

The low heat helps less expensive, leaner cuts of meat become tender and shrink less. The direct heat from the pot, lengthy cooking and steam created within the tightly-covered container combine to destroy bacteria and make the slow cooker a safe process for cooking foods.