Cheap Crock Pot Meals are a dime a dozen. The interwebs is full of them, but not all of them deliver. Follow these tips and tricks so that your slow cooker recipes are worth your time and effort — every time.
From Slow Cooker Chocolate Cheesecake (yes, it’s a meal) to Crockpot Enchiladas, set yourself up for success with these foolproof strategies.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Do you have a love-hate relationship with the slow cooker? It can be nice to fix it and forget it, but often cheap crock pot meals end up tasting the same with a rather homogeneous appearance. As my friend Kay puts it, “Hey look! Brown.”
Unfortunate true story.
Many recipes do simmer down their ingredients to look the same, but they don’t have to. In fact, you can make quite a few dishes in the slow cooker that can actually be better than their oven or stovetop counterparts.
Benefits
There are innumerable benefits to using your crock pot to prep meals. Consider what takes a long time to cook? What does your family like? Which recipes can you make in bulk? What is designed for slow cooking or braising?
Not only does the slow cooker prep food when you’re busy doing other things, it also allows you the freedom to make many commercial pantry staples for just pennies.
Consider chicken stock or dry beans. Happily, the slow cooker does a fantastic job at prepping these so you can enjoy great meals for low cost without having to buy pricier convenience items.
Due to their large size, slow cookers make it easy to prep large batches of food and freeze extra for later. Soup, stews, chilis, beans, and sauces are cheap crock pot meals that can be made in bulk easily so that you can stash the extra away for another time.
Slow cookers also do well braising, which means you can load up on inexpensive, though tough cuts of meat, knowing that you’ll make them delicious in the slow cooker.
Tips for Success
Avoid dump and go. While dump dinners may sound nice, they don’t often deliver in terms of taste and texture. A quick sauté can give your slow cooker meat dishes a lot more flavor and better texture.
Don’t fill the pot more than ⅔ full. You want the machine to operate at its best. Over- or under filling it doesn’t allow it to do that. Use the size machine that matches the recipe.
Double check that you’ve plugged in the machine and set to the right temperature. No one wants to come home to a rotten, uncooked dinner. No one.
Don’t overcook it. Check it for doneness at the lower cook time. Use a meat thermometer to see how hot it really is.
Keep track. When you find a cheap crock pot meal that your family loves, take notes. Keep a catalog of recipes you love, noting where to find the recipe, how long it takes to cook, and if you can freeze it. Bonus points for taking a picture and tracking what your family likes best about the dish.
Recommended Recipes
Here on Good Cheap Eats, we care about the good, but we also care about the cheap. Slow cookers can help us do both.
Today I’ve rounded up these Good Cheap Crock Pot Meals to save you money:
Main Dishes
Meal Components
Desserts
This post was originally published on September 21, 2011. It has been updated for content and clarity.
robbie @ going green mama
Fabulous! I am a bit behind on my reading this week, but I’ve been on the hunt for good crock pot recipes. Will be bookmarking these!
Kristi
I’m not sure this is my favorite crock pot meal, but it is plain and simple. I put potatoes (whatever variety you prefer and for however many people you are serving) quartered in the bottom of the crock pot. Next, I add sliced onion, salt and pepper, sliced carrots, and boneless, skinless chicken pieces on top. Pour approximately 1 cup of chicken broth over all and cook on high for 4 hours. I like to put Italian seasoning on the chicken and sometimes I add green beans the last hour or so. We like to mash up the potatoes on our plate and put butter and salt on them. Nothing fancy, but it’s quick, economical, and my family loves it.
Christine A
The Crockpot is one of my favorite things!!!! Here is a real easy recipe I go to about once a week:
Crockpot Chicken Tacos:
1 – 16 oz jar of salsa (your choice)
2lbs chicken frozen
Cook for 6 – 8 hours.
You can experiment with the amount of salsa and chicken. The chicken just falls apart and shreds easily. I always make enough for tacos one night and save the left overs to make enchiladas.
Rivki Locker
thanks for sharing these recipes. I just increased my hours out of the house and I need to make more crock pot dinners. What a treat to come home to dinner bubbling and ready to serve!
Ellen
I’m waiting with great excitement for those slow cooker freezer packet recipes!
Signed,
Postpartum with a 5 week old and 2 boys under the age of 5 in N.C. =)
Courtney
Thanks for this! I just pulled my crock pot out this week – am craving fall food and can’t wait to try some of these.
Patti
I love crock pot cooking! Yesterday I cooked Lasagna in the crock pot for the first time. I am cleaning out my freezer so I used cut up meatballs with spaghetti sauce and spices in one mixture, mozzarella and ricotta cheese in another mixture, and the lasagna noodles (uncooked). I layered it all the night before, adding Parmesan cheese in the layers. I cooked it for about 4 hours on low. YUM!! I also love to make rotisserie chickens in the crock pot. And I cook up dried beans so I have packages of black beans and red beans in the freezer. I can’t wait to see the other recipes as I am in the mood for some slow cooking!!!
Tammy @ Skinny Mom's Kitchen
This is perfect timing…as usual!! I just bought a slow cooker and looking for a bunch of recipes to start crocking this month 🙂
Queen of the House
LOVE using my crock pot! 🙂 Thanks for simple recipes!
Aimee @ ShugarySweets
Yum, my favorite subject, crockpots. I love new ideas, thanks!!
Susie's Homemade
I love slow cooking! My Girl Scout service area made me their food editor for their newsletter and I publish all slow cooker meals. I called it “What to Cook on Meeting Nights”. At the end of the year, I put all the recipes in a cookbook and handed it out to the leaders. I get the same job this year too!
Jen Blacker
Mmm thank you for sharing. I love using my slow cooker!
Micha
Sometimes simple is best, especially when they are family favorites.
Debbie
These recipes look great!
I have noticed that stews taste MUCH better if you dredge the meat first in a salt/flour mixture, then brown it on all sides before adding it to the crockpot. I know this doesn’t help with the stew packet concept, but I think the difference will be worth it!