My Top 5 Slow Cooker Meals
Parenting

My top 5 slow cooker meals

Some people may say it’s cheating but we are massive fans of slow cooker meals in our household. The appeal of slow cooker meals is you haven’t got to worry about it whilst it’s cooking, so there’s no risk of your child hanging from your leg whilst your trying to cook. It can then be left to cook whilst you carry on with your day or sleep. There really is nothing better than leaving it on overnight and coming down to the kitchen in the morning that smells like pulled pork. It’s making me hungry just thinking about it. So with that in mind, I wanted to share with you my top 5 slow cooker meals that we are enjoying at the moment.

All these meals require about 10 minutes of preparation to chop the meat or vegetables before lightly cooking them in the slow cooker pan on the hob before transferring to the slow cooker for between 4 to 8 hours. One of my top tips if you have time, is to slow cook them for as long as possible allowing the meat to tenderise and any excess liquid to boil off.

Beef goulash

My Top 5 Slow Cooker Meals

This is one of the first slow cooker meals we made, I used to make it in the oven before making it in our slow cooker. It’s really tasty and I would advise to cook it for as long as possible as it can be fairly liquidy.

What you need:

  • 1x pack of braising beef or casserole steak
  • 1x tsp flour
  • 2x peppers (Red or Yellow, or Red or Green)
  • 1x red onion
  • 4x large tomatoes
  • 400ml beef stock
  • 1tsp paprika
  • 2tsp tomato puree

How to:

  • First of all chop up all the vegetables into strips.
  • Then brown the beef in the slow cooker pan on the hob, adding flour to it as it browns. This will help to thicken the mixture once it’s slow cooking.
  • Add all the vegetables to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes or until just starting to soften.
  • Add the stock, tomato puree paste, and paprika.
  • Remove the slow cooker pan from the hob and transfer to the slow cooker, and cook for about 8 hours. It can be cooked in 4 hours, but you might need to boil off some liquid.
  • At the end of cooking the beef should be really tender and fall apart as soon as you touch it.
  • Serve with rice, a dollop of sour cream, and chopped parsley.

Chicken Thai Green Curry

My Top 5 Slow Cooker Meals

We love a Thai Green Curry. This is a meal I cook every single week, and the recipe can also make a Red or Yellow Thai Curry too, just swap out the paste.

What you need:

  • 3 or 4x chicken breasts
  • 1x courgette
  • 1x potato
  • 1x red pepper
  • 1x red onion
  • 1x red chilli
  • 2x garlic cloves
  • 1tsp of fish sauce
  • 2tsp of green thai curry paste
  • 400ml of chicken stock
  • 1x 400ml tin of coconut milk

How to:

  • First of all cut the chicken into strips, along with the courgette, onion and red pepper.
  • Then add all the vegetables to the slow cooker pan, and cook on the hob for five minutes.
  • Next add the chicken, thai green curry paste and fish sauce, cooking for a further five minutes.
  • Lastly add the coconut milk and stock before transferring the pan to the slow cooker.
  • Whilst this is happening chop the potatoes into small cubes and add to the slow cooker pan, it doesn’t matter if this happens whilst on the hob or in the slow cooker.
  • Cook for about four hours, or until you are satisfied with the amount of sauce in your curry. I quite like a liquidy thai curry which is perfect to be soaked up by rice or some garlic naan, I know that’s Indian but it works perfectly well with Thai too.
  • Serve in a bowl with rice.

Chilli Con Carne

My Top 5 Slow Cooker Meals

This is a perfect Winter warmer, and a brilliant batch cook meal that you can freeze into portions for a later date, or ready to whip out the freezer for your child after a day at school or nursery.

What you need:

  • 1x 500g pack of mince beef
  • 1x tsp of flour
  • 1x red onion
  • 2x garlic cloves
  • 1x green pepper
  • 1x 400g tin of kidney beans
  • 2x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
  • 1x red chilli
  • 1x tsp of paprika (this is optional, and I only add this if it’s just for my husband and I, as it can make the dish a little spicy)
  • 1x 400ml of beef stock

How to:

  • First of all chopped up all the vegetables into small pieces.
  • Then fry all the vegetables together in the slow cooker pan on the hob for about 5 minutes or until they have started to brown.
  • Add the mince beef, adding the flour and cook for about a further 5 minutes. You want to get everything mixed together and starting to brown.
  • Add the chopped tomatoes and beef stock. If you’re using plum tomatoes, that’s fine, just make sure that they are broken up.
  • Transfer the pan to the slow cooker, and ideally cook for 6 to 8 hours. This dish really benefits from a longer cooking time allowing the flavours to infuse, and any excess liquid to boil off.
  • The Chilli Con Carne can either be served with rice, with grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream, or in tacos, or wrapped in a tortilla. There are so many options with this dish.

Pork and Button Bean Stew

My Top 5 Slow Cooker Meals

This is a brand new dish for me, and I love it. It’s also been a hit with our daughter too, so I must have done something right.

What you need:

  • 1x 500g pack of mince pork
  • 2x carrots, peeled and chopped into small pieces
  • 2x cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
  • 1x red or white onion, chopped into small pieces
  • 2x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
  • 1x 400g tin of butter beans
  • 1x 400ml of chicken stock
  • 3x chopped up rashers of smoked bacon
  • 1x tsp of mixed herbs

How to:

  • Add the chopped onion and garlic to the slow cooker pan on the hob, and cook until browned.
  • Then add the chopped carrots to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.
  • Add all other ingredients to the pan except the chicken stock, mixing together and cooking for another 5 minutes.
  • Then add the chicken stock and transfer the pan to the slow cooker. I cooked this meal for 6 hours, but you will be able to get away with less time.
  • This meal is best served with rice on the side, and I’m sure that it would work equally well with mashed potato.

Pulled Pork

My Top 5 Slow Cooker Meals

Forget your traditional Sunday lunch, this is a winner. Who can say no to pulled pork. It’s so easy and you can literally just forget about it. I would recommend starting this early in the morning, so that it’s ready for lunch or late afternoon tea.

What you need:

  • 1x rolled boned shoulder of pork, this is really easy to find, either from your local supermarket or butcher, there is no need for any fancy cuts of meat here.
  • 1x tsp of paprika
  • 2x tsp of honey
  • 1x tsp of soy sauce
  • 1x tsp of olive oil

How to:

  • First of all score the top of pork with a sharp knife, and marinade with the paprika, honey, soy sauce and olive oil. It’s best to do this for 24 hours or overnight, but at least a minimum of 2 hours before cooking.
  • Then sear the pork in the slow cooker pan for about 5 to 10 minutes until the outside of the meat is browned.
  • Transfer the slow cooker pan to the slow cooker and cook for about 6 to 8 hours.
  • At the end of the cooking the pork should fall apart as soon as you put a fork to it.
  • Remove from the pan, and pull the pork apart with two forks.
  • Serve up with BBQ sauce in brioche rolls with either pickles or jalepenos. It also works well with coldslaw and chunks of corn on the side.

So there you have it, those are my top 5 slow cooker meals. I hope you enjoy cooking them as much as I do.

Have you got a fave slow cooker recipe? I would love to hear from you.

Claire x

5 Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet