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Welcome to The Cheater’s Guide to Thanksgiving. While there are plenty of tips out there for folks making scratch desserts and artisan loaves, the Cheater’s Guide focuses on the person who could use a helping hand—even from some unconventional sources. Some might call it “cheating” (like that’s a bad thing), but there’s nothing wrong with using modern technology and supermarket know-how to help you make a bangin’ traditional feast—with much less of the traditional work.
Cooking an epic Thanksgiving meal requires a lot of moving parts and planning. You can’t do it all yourself, but it’s also annoying to have others fumbling around in your cooking zone. Since cloning yourself isn’t an option (yet), you should consider leaning on your slow cooker—the queen of hands-off, set-it-and-forget-it appliances. Delegating the right things to this machine can be your ticket to a less stressful Turkey Day.
What is a slow cooker?
If you’re unfamiliar with this clever contraption, a slow cooker consists of two parts: the heating element and housing, and the inner ceramic container. There’s a lid, and maybe yours came with some plastic spatulas, but those two parts are the major players. The ceramic container sits inside the greater appliance housing, which is mostly lightweight aluminum, and the heating element is inside the base. You use the control panel to choose the cook time—usually in increments of two hours—and temperature—usually along the lines of low, high, and “keep warm.” It’s also worth mentioning that a dependable slow cooker can easily be under $80 and last you a decade or more.
Slow cookers ready to undertake the honor of Thanksgiving cooking:
Why a slow cooker can help
Let’s begin with cleanup because that’s the dark side—but reality, nonetheless—of every Thanksgiving. The slow cooker’s simple build is clutch for cleaning. Unless you experience some sort of horrible overflow, everything is contained in the ceramic vessel. Once it’s empty and cool, you can easily wash it with soapy water. The ceramic is smooth and should wipe down like any dish or bowl. The rest of the slow cooker remains clean and ready for the next batch.
Besides cleanup, there’s ease. This is the original appliance that lets you dump stuff in and magically unveil a scrumptious dish six hours later. Slow cookers come in a variety of sizes, so this can be the sort of thing that keeps your two-person stuffing warm, or cooks 18 servings of gooey mac and cheese. It’s hands-off cooking that frees up stovetop burners and leaves oven space available for other dishes. The results are reliable every time, but I recommend practicing a recipe once or twice before Thanksgiving so you can really feel comfortable.
The cherry on top is that a slow cooker is good-looking enough to be service-worthy, if you so choose. You can scoop straight from the slow cooker, or take the ceramic container out of the slow cooker housing (it’s extremely hot, so use mitts or pot holders) and put it on a trivet on the table.
What can you make in your slow cooker for Thanksgiving?
Once you get the wheels spinning, you’ll realize there’s a lot you can cook in the slow cooker. You might even start to think you need more than one slow cooker—and that’s OK, too. Use the slow cooker to take care of anything that will fare well with humidity and long cooking times. Vegetables that need to break down, or dishes that should be soft or creamy work best in the slow cooker. Here’s a list of popular Thanksgiving sides to start things off:
What you probably shouldn’t put in the slow cooker
You shouldn’t use a slow cooker for any side dishes that should be crispy on the outside or edges—like roasted vegetables, rolls, or the turkey—or vegetables that should maintain a bit of crunch—Brussels sprouts, green beans, or broccoli. Any greens that’ll get sulfur-y or break down too much under long cooking times should stay out of the slow cooker. As you can see, I put green bean casserole on the “yes” list and plain green beans on the “no” list. Thanksgiving is a time to eat comfort food, so if green beans that are reduced to a pudding-like consistency with crunchy onions on top is your safe place, by all means. I’m on Team Crunch, so I blanch, or even faux blanch.
Really tough leafy greens like collard greens, mustard greens, and kale are good candidates for slow cooking. True, they’ll dull in color, but they also become more digestible after slow cooking, and will certainly be easier on the teeth.
Some recipes will develop lovely crisp edges in the slow cooker, but anything that you’d like to put a crispy top on before serving, like mac and cheese or sausage stuffing, can be spooned into an oven-safe dish and either popped under the broiler, or lightly blow-torched.