Converting Recipes For Slow Cooker Use

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

When the summer sun really warms your house or apartment up, the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven. Even cooking over the stove in my little kitchen heats up the entire apartment, and makes me want to go on a cooking hiatus until autumn rolls around. If you want a meal that tastes like it has been cooking all day without all the heat, you can simply pull out the crockpot. There are a lot of recipes out there that are adaptable to slow cooking. You could consider converting any recipe that involves braising, stewing, or any long cooking at all with moist heat.

The grid shown below gives general guidelines for converting a recipe from a standard stovetop or oven format to slow cooker use.

For example, I will describe how to convert a recipe for Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic, a classic and flavorful French recipe that comes from Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris cookbook. Forty cloves of garlic may sound like a lot, but after the long period of cooking, they really develop a sweet and mellow flavor. To save some time peeling, I would suggest looking for fresh, already peeled cloves of garlic that come in a jar from the refrigerated section of the market.

The first step in the recipe is to take cut up pieces of chicken, season them with salt and pepper, and brown them in a mix of butter and oil large pot or Dutch oven. You could choose to skip this step altogether (although browning the chicken will impart more flavor to the finished dish) or begin your preparation early in the morning before it becomes too hot out. Once the chicken is browned in batches, drain it and place it in the crockpot. You can then sauté the garlic over lower heat, and deglaze the pot with a little cognac, scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pan (a classic French cooking technique.) Add everything to the crockpot with some fresh thyme leaves.

Now rather than cooking over the stove for 30-40 minutes, the entire mixture is cooked in the crockpot on low for eight to ten hours. The final step is the remove the cooked chicken from the slow cooker, and to make a savory sauce with the juices by adding flour and cream right into the crockpot over high heat. Once the sauce is thickened, you can season it to taste and then serve it over the chicken. Voila! With a nice crisp green salad and a fresh baguette, you have an excellent and flavorful meal.

Another recipe that makes a light and easy summer meal is Coconut Beef Curry. The fragrant coconut curry mixture can be cooked all day to give it a deep flavor. This recipe is easily converted by adding all ingredients to the crockpot at once in the morning, rather than cooking on top of the stove for two hours at the end of a long day. Once you arrive home, you can prepare some fresh cooked rice (if you have a rice cooker, all the better), some freshly chopped basil and cilantro, and dinner is served. And remember, in many cultures hotly spiced foods are said to help cool your body down in the summer heat, so the hotter the better!

So spend a little less time slaving over the hot stove this summer, keep the kitchen cool, and try converting some of your own favorite recipes to the slow cooker.

Stovetop or Oven Cooking Time	Crockpot Cooking Time
	High Temperature	Low Temperature
15-30 minutes	1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours	4-8 hours
35-45 minutes	3-4 hours	6-10 hours
50 minutes - 3 hours	4-6 hours	8-16 hours

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1 1/2 pound beef round steak or lean stew beef
• salt and pepper
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons curry paste (such as Thai Red Curry Base)
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cups canned whole tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups well-stirred canned unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup sliced scallion greens
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro sprigs
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped basil or Thai basil leaves

Serves/Makes: 4

• 40 cloves garlic
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 2 sprigs sage
• 2 sprigs Italian parsley
• ground black pepper to taste
• 3 pounds roasting or fryer chicken
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 Loaf French bread, optional