How to Convert Recipes to a Slow Cooker
It’s easier than you might think to adapt your favourite meals for the slow cooker – once you know a few basic rules. Every slow cooker works a little differently, so expect a bit of trial and error at first when converting recipes.
Our top tip? Don’t get frustrated if things aren’t going to plan straight away – practice makes perfect! For the best chance of success, make sure that you keep an eye on your food (especially towards the end of cooking).
Remember: you can always cook food longer if it’s undercooked, but overcooked food is trickier to save!
We’ve also included a handy conversion guide to help you switch-up oven, Instant Pot® and slow cooker timings at a glance.
This post contains affiliate links. Find out what this means.
Pinch of Nom: Slow Cooker is simmering away now
It’s no secret that we love our trusty slow cooker at Pinch of Nom! That’s why we’re bringing out a whole Slow Cooker book filled with delicious, one-pot wonders for you to try on September 25th.
Pre-order by tapping here (or on the image below) to grab your copy!
Pick the right recipe and ingredients
Any recipe that has a longer cooking time or needs to be slow-roasted is a good choice for popping in the slow cooker – that’s one-pot wonders like soups, stews or our Pulled Pork.
Bear in mind that there are certain types and cuts of meat that are better suited to being slow-cooked than others.
As a general rule, cheaper, tougher cuts of meat work best as they take time to break down, without losing their tenderness – even after hours of cooking.
That’s why we use ox cheeks in our Mexican-Style Chilli Beef.
It’s not totally necessary, but we like to take our flavours to the next level by browning meat before it slow-cooks. It does wonders to seal in the moisture!
It only takes 3-4 minutes to brown our Slow Cooker Cajun-Style Chicken Thighs before they go in the pot. Turn to pages 180-181 in our All in One book for the full recipe.
Your slow cooker may have a sauté setting that will allow you to do this, but if it doesn’t then you can simply brown your meat in a pan on the hob before putting it into your slow cooker.
Any vegetables should also be cut to roughly the same size so that they cook evenly throughout and make sure that you use fresh veg instead of frozen, as frozen vegetables can release extra liquid which will turn them soggy.
Add your ingredients at the right time
Some ingredients cook quicker than others so (although it might be tempting!), you can’t just throw everything in your slow cooker and expect it all to cook perfectly.
Fresh herbs and delicate vegetables like peppers or beans should be added towards the end of the cooking time. The same goes for dairy – you don’t want it in your slow cooker pot for too long, or it’ll split.
If you’re cooking pasta, you can boil it in a pan for a few minutes less than the time stated on the packaging and then pop it in your slow cooker near the end of cooking time.
We use this technique of adding cooked pasta in our Baked Spaghetti with Chicken recipe, but if you find it easier then remember you can always just fully cook your pasta and combine it with your dish before serving.
For rice, you can either add in an extra ¼ cup (60 ml) of liquid per ¼ cup of rice, or use parboiled rice and add it in around 20 minutes before the end of the cooking.
It’s also possible to add fully-cooked rice if you’d rather, or even microwave rice pouches!
How much liquid should I use?
Cooking liquid can’t really go anywhere inside a slow cooker, so you’ll need to adjust the amount of liquid that you add in order to avoid making your recipe too watery.
A good starting point is to halve all of the liquids that you would normally use when cooking the recipe in the oven or on the hob.
If you find that this still leaves you with too much liquid, then you can simply place it in a pot and simmer it on the hob at the end of the cooking time, or leave the lid off for the last couple of hours.
There’s also the nifty tea towel trick! Turn the slow cooker to high with the lid off, then place a tea towel on top to absorb the moisture.
It’s a trick we use in our Slow Cooker Cheesy Deep Dish Pizza video:
View this post on Instagram
General conversion times
Our at a glance conversion guide is the quickest and easiest way to figure out different timings when you’re converting recipes.
You can find more detailed information around converting recipes to be cooked in the slow cooker below, but remember that these are just some really rough guidelines, so please keep an eye on your dish as it’s cooking.
If you have a recipe that cooks in the oven for around 15 to 30 minutes, then you’ll need to allow between 4 to 6 hours on low, or 1 ½ to 2 hours on high in your slow cooker.
35 to 45 minutes in the oven would work out at around 6 to 8 hours on low and 3 to 4 hours on high, while longer cooking times of 1 to 3 hours will need to cook for 8 to 12 hours on low, or 4 to 6 hours on high.
If you’re not totally sure about the timing of your dish, we’d suggest erring on the side of caution: cook it for the lowest amount of time and then check on it to see whether it needs to be cooked for longer or not.
Looking for more info around converting recipes?
An Instant Pot® is like having a pressure cooker and slow cooker all in one, and our Instant Pot® conversion article is full of really useful tips and tricks to help you achieve Instant Pot® success.
Or, if you’re after more slow cooker recipes, then head over to our slow cooker category page to browse all of the slow cooker friendly recipes on our website.
Tell us if we’ve helped you create slow cooker wonders!
We’d love to hear all about what you’ll be making in your slow cooker. We’ve got almost 1 million lovely community members waiting to encourage you on your slimming-friendly slow cooker journey, or answer any recipe questions you might have in our friendly Facebook group.
You can also look for inspo in our Gallery. You’ll need to sign up to a free website account to upload and share your own photos (we’ve got a step-by-step guide on how to do that just here).
If you liked this article, there’s more where that came from:
- What Can I Cook in a Slow Cooker? The Best Ingredients and Our Top Tips
- The Best Slow Cookers to Buy: How to Choose the Right One for You
- Our Top Slow Cooker Recipes
- 10 Slow Cooker Recipes You Need to Try
- The Best Slow Cooker Recipes for Batch Cooking
- Easy Slow Cooker Fakeaway Recipe Ideas to Make on Busy Days