Method · Wet and slow
Slow cooker
Put dinner on in the morning and come home to it done.
A slow cooker is a braise that looks after itself. It holds a low, steady heat for hours with the lid on. It is the right tool for a long workday. It also has rules a Dutch oven doesn’t, and most bad slow-cooker meals come from ignoring them.
This lesson is free, start to finish. So is every other one.
At a glance
- Best for
- Chili, stews, pulled pork, chuck roast, chicken thighs, beans
- Heat
- Low or high. Low is better for meat.
- Time
- About 8 hours on low, about 4 on high
- Level
- Start here
What you need
- A slow cooker, 6 quarts
- Big enough for a roast. Fill it between half and two-thirds.
- A skillet
- For browning first. This is the step that makes it taste good.
- Instant-read thermometer
- To check the finish.
Why it works, and where it doesn’t
It works for the same reason a braise does: low heat and moisture melt the collagen in tough cuts. What it can’t do is brown, and it can’t boil anything off. The lid traps every drop. So food cooked in it comes out soft and wet, with all the liquid it started with and more.
That tells you how to use it. Brown the meat on the stove first. Use less liquid than you think. And fix the sauce at the end.
The safety rules
- Thaw meat fully in the fridge before it goes in. Frozen meat stays too cool for too long.
- Fill it between half and two-thirds. Too empty or too full and it doesn’t heat right.
- Keep the lid on. Every look drops the heat and adds time.
- Hard vegetables go on the bottom, where it’s hottest. Meat goes on top.
- Dry red kidney beans must be soaked, then boiled on the stove for at least 10 minutes before they go in. A slow cooker doesn’t get hot enough to make them safe. Canned beans are fine as they are.
- Don’t reheat leftovers in it. Reheat on the stove, then use the cooker to keep food warm.
The cook, step by step
- Salt the meat and brown it in a skillet. Put it in the cooker.
- Soften the onion and garlic in the same skillet. Pour in a little stock and scrape up the brown bits. Pour it all over the meat.
- Add liquid to come about a third of the way up. It will make more as it cooks.
- Lid on. Low for 8 hours, or high for 4.
- It’s done when the meat pulls apart with a fork. Pork shoulder and chuck are there at about 195 to 205°F.
- Lift the meat out. Pour the liquid into a pan and boil it down, or thicken it.
- Stir in anything fresh at the very end: herbs, a squeeze of lime, a spoon of yogurt.
Turn a braise or a chili into a slow-cooker meal
- Do all the browning and the deglazing on the stove, the same as the recipe says.
- Cut the liquid by about a third. Nothing boils off.
- Three hours in a 325°F oven is roughly 8 hours on low.
- Leave out dairy, fresh herbs and quick vegetables until the last 15 minutes.
- Thicken at the end. A teaspoon of cornstarch stirred into cold water, then into the hot liquid.
When it goes wrong
- Watery and bland
- Too much liquid, and no browning. Use less, brown first, and boil the liquid down at the end.
- Mushy vegetables
- They cooked for 8 hours. Cut them bigger, or add the soft ones in the last hour.
- Dry chicken breast
- Wrong cut. Lean meat dries out in a slow cooker. Use thighs, or cook breast for 2 to 3 hours on low and no more.
- Still tough after 8 hours
- The cooker was too full, or the lid kept coming off. Give it another hour with the lid on.
- Curdled sauce
- Dairy went in at the start. Add it in the last 15 minutes.
Practice on these