Does It Crock Pot? Our Thanksgiving Recipe Experiment
Well, well well. We’re back yet again for another Thanksgiving post. In the past we’ve covered both a traditional Canadian Thanksgiving dinner and an American Thanksgiving dinner, and honestly thought we had officially run out of Thanksgiving-related angles. Turns out, we had at least one more in us!
We wondered, “What if we made Thanksgiving dinner, but only in crock pots?” Could we pull off an entire festive dinner using nothing but slow cookers (and the occasional pressure cooker pretending to be a slow cooker)?
Naturally, we used this extremely scientific question as an excuse to gather all our friends for a feast-slash-experiment. So we present to you: a slow cooker Thanksgiving that nobody asked for!
P.S. - The lighting is a bit wonky in these photos because Brittany’s kitchen lights were stuck on “orange” mode from Halloween. The app was being stubborn and would not change them to a nice natural warm glow. So enjoy the weird orange hue!
But First: Why You Should Have a Crock Pot Thanksgiving 🦃
Slow cooker recipes are set-and-forget. In theory you can just put everything in, set the temperature accordingly, and voila, your dish will be done in a few hours.
Other upsides are that your food stays warm, the recipes are typically easy, the ingredients aren’t overly complex for the most part, AND they won’t take up valuable oven or stovetop space.
When you’re the one in charge of making a whole Thanksgiving dinner, saving on time and oven space is a huge bonus.
Does It Crock Pot? Here’s What We Made:
Turkey (and Gravy) 🍗
Trevor here, breaking from the Mediocre Chef voice for a second to talk about the turkey.
So, here’s the thing: there were 15 people on the guest list for our Friendsgiving dinner this year. This is great because we love our friends, however, any turkey that’s big enough to feed 15 people is going to be waaaaaay too big to fit into a crock pot (unless you have some industrial sized slow cooker).
So, how did we solve this problem? Well, we ended up going with turkey breast roasts instead. We got our hands on two of them, covered them in a garlic herb butter and let them cook for about 4 hours on high.
🧑🍳 Mediocre Note: The box that the roasts came in had no slow cooker directions. It just said to cook in a 350F oven for 2.5 hours from frozen, so I had to guess my way around how to adapt it for a crock pot.
After the turkey was done cooking, it looked…not great. Very pale. Very anemic. Very Edward Cullen. (It did not sparkle, though. -Brittany)
So I ended up throwing it in the oven for about 20 minutes after the fact to crisp up the outside. Which leads me to the biggest part of this: if you have to finish it in the oven anyways, you may as well have just cooked it in the oven to start with.
Being turkey breast roasts there also weren’t really any drippings for gravy, so I just used a bunch of the melted garlic herb butter and some beef stock with a roux to make a passable gravy.
No, turkey does not crock pot.
Ham 🍖
Our friend Dylan made this slow cooker honey-glazed ham. The glaze was simple and delicious! The one thing to watch for when choosing your ham is to make sure that it’ll fit in your crock pot. You’ll likely want an 8-quart or 10-quart capacity slow cooker.
Yes, ham crock pots!
Probably should have gotten a photo of the ham sliced up. It looks bad, but trust us, it was delish.
Mashed Potatoes 🥔
These mashed potatoes were some of the thicccccccccest mashed potatoes that we’ve ever had. Our friend Lorisia used her dad’s adaptation of a cookbook recipe and boy did they ever turn out great. Lorisia pointed out that you had to boil the potatoes beforehand, which sort of defeats the purpose of the minimal dishes thing. Though, I don’t know how much we’re really complaining as they still turned out really good. (If you want a no-boil recipe and just want to dump your potatoes and everything else in a crock pot, you can! Here’s a recipe.)
Yes, mashed potatoes crock pot.
“Heck yeah- thick potatoes with nine c’s.”
Perogies 🥟
Kait brought perogies and they were really good! We ended up having to reheat them in the oven a bit which likely dried them out a touch (as they were not brought in the crock pot), but they still ended up being incredibly tasty. Perogies + kielbasa + dill sauce = a match made in heaven. If you’ve never had perogies with dill sauce, try it ASAP!
Yes, perogies crock pot.
(We may or may not have, but definitely did, forget to take a photo of the perogies, so, uh, just pretend that there’s photos of delicious, delicious perogies here.)
Mac and Cheese 🧀
Our friend Tim followed this recipe, and while we all agreed that it was tasty, it was a bit too dry! Instead of cooking for 2 hours like the recipe says to do, Tim says next time he’d try reducing the time to 1 hour. That being said, this could also be because he used a crock pot/pressure cooker combo (set to slow cook mode). YMMV! This recipe also recommended that you par cook the pasta, which ends up dirtying a dish, and again, if you’re already boiling the pasta, you may as well just continue with the traditional method.
Yes, macaroni and cheese crock pots (with some tweaks).
Cheesy Vegetables 🥦
Haylen & Kristen’s cheesy vegetables get a passing grade for being exactly the kind of crock pot recipe that we love: throw everything into the crock pot and let it go. We do have a few critiques on the specific recipe that was used though. Why are you whisking the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and then adding it to the crock pot? Why not just whisk it right in the pot? Also, leeks may not have been the right call for this recipe. They ended up being much tougher than the rest of the veggies and also had a strong leek taste. Maybe half the amount of leeks, and sub in some onion? Just a thought.
Yes, cheesy vegetables crock pot.
Stuffing 🍞
Full disclaimer, this crock pot stuffing recipe was made gluten-free by our friends Linnée and Zac. The stuffing tasted like stuffing, but it was very soggy. Could this be because gluten-free bread was used instead of regular bread? Absolutely. Making recipes gluten free is HARD. (We’ve tried making GF bread before, and we haven't been able to master it.) Or, it could just be that stuffing is not meant for the crock pot.
No, stuffing does not crock pot. That being said, we don’t like stuffing in a turkey either (because it’s also sog city). It’s best in the oven where you can crisp up the top layer a bit!
Soup 🍲
When we asked for dishes, we just said “soup, dealer’s choice”. D and Abby chose to make cheeseburger soup (they combined these two recipes) and also modified them a bit by adding garlic, cayenne pepper, paprika, half and half (instead of milk), and pepper jack and marble cheese.
Yes, soup is the perfect crock pot food.
“I realized that when I moved I also lost my whisk, so we tried to make the roux with chopsticks and we were not successful.”
Cabbage Rolls 🍅
Brittany here (the other half of Mediocre Chef) talking about the cabbage rolls. My Grandma taught me how to make these, so I essentially adapted her recipe for the crock pot.
Cabbage rolls are done a little bit differently by everyone, but it all starts out the same — cutting out the core of your cabbage, removing the outer leaves, and then boiling your cabbage and slowly taking off the softened cabbage leaves. Then, you’ll make your filling. My Grandma’s was simple with cooked rice, beef, onion, salt, and pepper, along with some Campbell’s tomato soup. I decided to add some garlic because I like garlic and think it’s an A++ addition. If you don’t want to add tomato soup to your cabbage roll filling, then you could use some diced tomatoes if you wanted (I did both) for extra tomato-y flavor.
To assemble, you’ll first want to cut out the thick stem part of your cabbage leaves. Then add your filling, fold in the sides, and roll, placing them seam-side down in your crock pot. Put a little bit of tomato soup/sauce on the bottom to prevent them from sticking.
Now, normally at this stage you’d layer them in a pan and cover each layer in tomato sauce (my Grandma uses 100% tomato soup, I did a mixture of sauce + soup), and cook it in the oven. But this is Thanksgiving: Crock Pot edition, so I layered them in a crock pot instead!
Yes, cabbage rolls crockpot, BUT it’s obviously not a “dump” recipe. However, if you need to free up your oven to cook the turkey on Thanksgiving, then yes you can definitely put your cabbage rolls in the crock pot. (You just may need to add a bit more sauce if they start looking a little dry on top.)
Apple Crisp 🍎
Justin made this slow cooker apple crisp recipe. If you want to speed up this recipe, using a johnny apple peeler is nice. (Or just leave the peel on if you don’t mind it.)
“peeling apples is ass lmao”
Justin chose to cook it on high for 2 hours (vs low for 4 hours) and the dish didn’t turn out crisp. HOWEVER, it was delicious and we’d definitely make it again.
“Very apple, not crisp.”
Coconut Pecan Sweet Potatoes 🍠
This slow cooked dessert is approved by Nikki and Graham (who brought the dish to the party), and the rest of our friends! It’s also a simple “combine all ingredients and put them in the crock pot”-type recipe which is the best kind of slow cooker recipe. No other steps required. Just cook on low for 4 hours and BOOM. You have an A++ dessert.
Yes, these two desserts were delicious! They crock pot.
Sidenote: this crock pot is ancient and still works great!
What We Learned From Hosting a Crock Pot Party
You will need a ton of counter space and outlets.
For real. There were 8 crockpots needing counterspace and outlets. Bust out your extension cords (and surge protectors), and maybe a folding table.
Not every dish is meant for the crock pot.
Any food that needs to be crispy, or anything that you don’t want getting mushy, should probably not be made in a crock pot. Additionally, if the crock pot recipe requires you to do most of the work of cooking before throwing it in the crock pot to heat up, then maybe consider just sticking to the conventional way?
Simple tricks for better slow cooker results.
Avoid mushy food with these tips:
Use the minimal amount of liquid required.
Add things that need to be kept crunchy/firm later in the process if possible.
Cook on the low setting for longer vs high setting for shorter.
Though, again, if you don’t want something mushy, maybe don’t cook it in a crock pot.
Transporting your crock pot is an adventure.
A few of our friends used a combination of towels (the outside is hot!) and duct tape to keep it safe for transporting.
If you’re fancy and you have a slow cooker with the clips to help secure the lid, then use that, otherwise get some towels and duct tape.
If it works, it works.
The best crock pot is…
The one you have, obviously. A crock pot is a crock pot. Don’t buy a new crock pot just to go to a crock pot party.
But like we said above, the ideal crock pot for transporting food is one that has the clips to help secure the lid to prevent it from spilling all over your vehicle during transport. Bonus points if it has a stay warm function, as leaving it on low could overcook your dish.
You’ll always need more dessert.
This one is pretty self-explanatory. We had 15 people attend Friendsgiving and the two desserts we had went fast! We should have asked for at least one more dessert, and one less side dish. Lesson learned for next time!
For a balanced meal, add a salad (or two).
A crock pot party is 98% carbs. A green salad or two will save your palate (and your body will thank you).
Don’t forget the drinks.
We provided mulled wine and a non alcoholic apple cider.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we think that this was an interesting experiment and we’re glad that we did it. We learned that there are definitely some things that we’re happy to let slow cookers deal with, and some things that are probably better left to the more traditional cooking methods. We also learned that, for the recipes that are okay to slow cook, they are a great way to free up the very valuable oven space that is at a premium when preparing a large festive dinner.
Also, a massive, massive shout out to our friend Tim for taking all the photos that you see here. It was a godsend having someone else on camera duties that night. (We were busy hosting!)
What’s your favorite slow cooker recipe? Let us know!