Around two months ago, I began a quest to find the best slow cooker recipes for kids. The fall schedule was my main motivation. My motivation was mainly our fall schedule.
I wanted to create a list of slow cooker recipes that kids would like to use. This was so I could refer to it when planning my weekly meals. In the last 60 days, I have tried over 40 slow cooker recipes. While not all of them were winners, it was still worth the effort!
You can learn a lot from slow cooker recipes and tips.
Here are my criteria for a recipe that I consider a “keeper”.
- No restrictions on diet. This list includes meals that are vegan, paleo, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Not all of these meals follow a particular diet guideline.
- I wanted to make sure that the dinner was healthy. I say “lean” because Mississippi pot-roast is included, and it uses a whole stick of butter. When it is put in a bun and rounded off with vegetables, then it qualifies.
- I needed the meal to be “set and forget” – that is, to have it ready for dinner by the time the evening came. No need to add ingredients at different times of the day.
- The recipe needed to be able cook for the entire day (or to work when set to “stay warm” mode for a few hours). It was important that I could be away all day and still have the recipe taste good. It was surprising how many recipes were ruined by this.
Here are some of the most important things I learned during this trial/experiment.
- These are kids favorites. David and I both ate them and enjoyed them. It’s important to remember that my children ate them all and not because I ranked them high.
- After a while, many recipes start to look the same. This is especially true for anything that involves chicken and Mexican flavors. Due to this, I only shared my favorite recipes per “category.”
- Slow cookers are great for certain things, but my family prefers to cook from scratch. Even my pickiest eater gave these a thumbs-up for use once or twice per week.
- The slow cooker does a better job with chicken thighs than breasts, but the chicken still tends to get dry no matter how much liquid or sauce is added. To combat this, I cooked the chicken for 3-4 hours instead of the 6 recommended and set the slow cooker to “keep warm”. This method prevented the chicken from drying out. The chicken was more than cooked, but it did not dry completely.
- Each pork recipe that I tried was a success. Each one. It was a new discovery for me. I now add pork tenderloins in all my Butcher Box deliveries.
Which slow cooker is the best?
After using several slow cookers, I now use the Dutch Oven. It is made of enamel-lined, cast iron. I’m confident about its safety and how easy it is to use. I can also sauté ingredients in the same pot, before switching over to slow-cooking.
If I ever bought a new slow-cooker that was just a slow-cooker, I would choose something with a stainless inner pot, like this.