3 easy slow cooker recipes you didn’t know you could make, from our new cookbook
Published: November 5, 2026 at 9:30 AM
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With over a hundred reliable and delicious recipes in this book, both sweet and savoury, now is a good time to get your slow cooker out of the cupboard and put it to use in your kitchen.
Our new cookbook, Good Food Best Ever Slow Cooker Recipes (published by Hamlyn), is out now!
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Slow cooking ensures that you always have something nourishing, delicious and ready to eat when you need it – while you go about your day. Good Food: Best Ever Slow Cooker Recipes will help you make the most of this genius appliance with clear instructions and over 100 recipes from classics you know and love, favourite fakeaways, and desserts to indulge in.
Recipes include:
- Breakfasts such as protein-rich breakfast beans and Turkish breakfast eggs
- Meat, poultry and fish such as ham with sticky ginger glaze and puttanesca squid
- Veggie dishes such as mushroom risotto and velvety mac ‘n’ cheese
- Fakeaway dishes such as easy enchiladas and Thai beef curry
- Soups and stews such as rustic chicken soup and vegetable stew with cheddar dumplings
- Bakes and desserts such as muscovado cheesecake with hazelnuts & blackberries and hot chocolate fondant cake
Every recipe uses simple-to-source ingredients, is written using easy-to-follow steps, and is accompanied by full nutritional values and a photograph of the finished dish.
Get the cookbook now:
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To give you a taste of what's inside, we've shared three recipes from the cookbook...
Butter chicken curry
Make this butter chicken curry for a guaranteed family favourite. It has a creamy, lightly spiced tomato sauce and juicy chunks of chicken thighs.
Prep 25 mins, plus marinating
Cook 6 hrs and 15 mins–7 hrs and 15 mins
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 500g (1lb 2oz) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 3 pieces
- 2 tbsp butter, ghee or vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
- thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 2 tsp ground fenugreek
- 3 tbsp tomato purée
- 250ml (9fl oz) chicken stock
- 50g (13/4 oz) toasted flaked almonds
For the marinade
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1–2 tsp hot chilli powder
- 200ml (7fl oz) natural yogurt
To serve
- basmati rice
- naan
- mango chutney or lime pickle
- coriander
- lime wedges (optional)
Method
1 In a medium bowl, mix all the marinade ingredients with some seasoning. Toss the chicken with the marinade, cover and chill in the fridge for 1 hr or overnight.
2. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the butter, ghee or oil. Add the onion, garlic, green chilli, if using, ginger and some seasoning. Fry on a medium heat for 10 mins or until soft.
3. Add the spices with the tomato purée and cook for a further 2 mins until fragrant, then add the stock and marinated chicken. Tip everything into your slow cooker, then cover and cook on low for 6–7 hrs until the chicken is tender.
4. Sprinkle with the toasted almonds and serve with rice, naan, chutney or lime pickle, coriander and lime wedges for squeezing over, if you like.
Gochujang short ribs with apple slaw
Tuck into gochujang short ribs, perfect for relaxed entertaining. Featuring tender, juicy meat and tangy apple slaw, it makes a comforting winter warmer.
Prep 30 mins
Cook 4 hrs and 50 mins
Serves 4–6
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 large beef short ribs (about 2kg/4lb 8oz)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 5 tbsp gochujang
- 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tbsp dark brown soft sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 star anise
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 5 tablespoons Shaohsing rice wine
- 2 red onions, quartered
- thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 400ml (14fl oz) beef stock
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced
- rice, to serve
For the slaw
- 2 apples, cored and cut into thin matchsticks
- juice of 1 lemon
Method
1. Heat the oil in a medium frying pan over a high heat. Season the short ribs all over with salt, then cook in the pan, in batches if necessary, for 8–10 mins until deep brown on all sides. Add a small splash of water to the pan in between batches, scrape up any bits stuck to the pan and pour the residual liquid into a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Lightly bash the garlic cloves with the skin still on. Mix the garlic with the gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, cinnamon, star anise, coriander seeds and rice wine. Tip into your slow cooker along with the red onions and ginger. Add the ribs, then pour over the stock. Cover and cook on low for 4 hrs 30 mins or until the meat is falling off the bone.
3. Towards the end of the cooking time, mix 1 tbsp of the reserved cooking liquid with the cornflour to make a smooth paste. Add this to the slow cooker when there is just 10 mins of cooking time remaining and mix well. Taste the sauce for seasoning and add more soy sauce, if needed. Cover and cook for the remaining time.
4. Meanwhile, make the slaw by mixing the apples with the lemon juice and season to taste.
5. Scoop the garlic cloves out of the slow cooker, discard the skins and stir the garlic back in. Serve the ribs with the spring onions sprinkled over, alongside rice and the slaw.
Campfire stew
Enjoy this easy stew made with gammon and plenty of veg – it’s full of goodness, delivering four of your five-a-day.
Prep 15 mins, plus soaking
Cook 6 hrs and 25 mins– 8 hrs and 25 mins
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 600g (1lb 5oz) gammon joint
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 celery stick, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 yellow pepper, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional)
- 2 × 400g (14oz) cans chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 × 400g (14oz) cans haricot beans, drained and rinsed
- baked potatoes topped with butter, to serve
Method
1. Remove the skin and fat from the gammon, then soak in a pan of water in the fridge overnight – this will remove some of the salt.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium–high heat and cook the onions, carrots and celery for 10 mins, stirring regularly, until the veg start tosoften. Stir in the peppers, garlic, tomato purée, paprika and chilli powder, if using. Cook for another 2 mins, then add the tomatoes and stir. Season well and stir in the Worcestershire sauce, sugar and bay leaves.
3. Transfer the stew to your slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 6–8 hrs. Turn the heat to high and add the beans, then cook for a further 10 mins. Shred the gammon using two forks, stir into the beans and serve immediately with baked potatoes topped with butter.
4. To store, leave to cool completely and chill in an airtight container for up to three days or freeze for up to two months. Defrost thoroughly in the fridge before reheating until piping hot.
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