12 Weeknight Dinners You Can Make in Your Slow Cooker on Busy Days
These are perfect for busy weeknights!
Dinner is a lot easier to love when you don’t have to start making it at dinnertime! That’s the beauty of slow cooker meals—you can chop, stir, and get everything going earlier in the day, then leave the pot alone while the flavors get better and better. By the time dinner rolls around, the hard part is already done!
“My favorite slow cooker recipes are ones where you literally throw in the ingredients, turn it on, and walk away,” Ree Drummond says. That’s pretty much the dream on a busy weeknight. And the recipes here give you plenty of ways to pull it off, from cozy soups and stews to saucy chicken, hearty beef dinners, tacos, and even pasta. Some need a few minutes of prep before the lid goes on, while others are wonderfully close to dump-and-go.
Of course, it never hurts to have plenty of easy dinner recipes in your back pocket, along with 30-minute meals for true dinner emergencies and make-ahead dinners for the weeks when you’re feeling unusually organized. But on a busy weeknight? Let the slow cooker have this one.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ree and Betsy didn’t grow up in a slow-cooker house, but Ree has certainly made up for lost time. This soup is one of her favorites: chicken, peppers, tomatoes, black beans, and chipotle cook together until all that’s left to do is add the toppings.
Get Ree’s Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe.
Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli
This one turns a takeout favorite into an easy slow-cooker dinner. Thin slices of beef spend the day cooking with a sweet and savory sauce, then broccoli joins the party for the last 30 minutes so it doesn’t turn to mush.
Get Ree’s Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli recipe.
Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo
Chicken Alfredo is, according to Ree, “one of the most wonderful things in life.” She’s not wrong! For this version, the chicken cooks in cream, broth, butter, and garlic, then the rigatoni goes straight into the slow cooker for the last half hour—no separate pasta pot required.
Get Ree’s Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo recipe.
Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes
“There’s nothing fancy or gourmet about ’em,” Ree says of sloppy Joes. “And that’s exactly why I love ’em!” Brown the beef ahead of time, then let the sweet-and-tangy sauce cook down; the finished filling freezes beautifully, too.
Get Ree’s Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes recipe.
Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs
Here’s one for the nights when making a main and two sides sounds like entirely too much responsibility. The chicken thighs cook right on top of everything else and a little butter makes a savory sauce underneath. Ree sears the chicken first for that golden skin, but after that, the slow cooker is in charge.
Get Ree’s Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs recipe.
Slow Cooker Taco Soup
The Drummonds are a taco-flavored-anything family, so no surprise that this soup has made it into Ree’s regular dinner rotation. There’s seasoned beef, black beans, pinto beans, fire-roasted corn, tomatoes, jalapeño, and plenty of room for everyone to go wild with the toppings. Ree says it tastes even better the next day.
Get Ree’s Slow Cooker Taco Soup recipe.
Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken
Five minutes of prep is hard to argue with! Store-bought BBQ sauce gets a little help from some pantry staples, then the chicken cooks until it’s ready to shred. Pile it onto buns tonight and use the rest for tacos, baked potatoes, pizza, or salads later in the week.
Get the Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken recipe.
Slow-Cooker Drip Beef Sandwiches
Mauricio once called this the “best sandwich in the entire world,” so expectations are appropriately high. Chuck roast cooks for hours with beef broth, pepperoncini, and rosemary, then gets piled onto toasted buns with caramelized onions and provolone. And yes, you get a little bowl of the beefy cooking liquid for dipping!
Get Ree’s Slow-Cooker Drip Beef Sandwiches recipe.
Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings
When Ree says this is one of the dinners she turns to when “life gets a little wild,” believe her. The shortcut is canned biscuits, but she presses cheddar and chives right into them before they puff up in the creamy chicken broth. Cozy, cheesy, and no dumpling dough to roll out!
Get Ree’s Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings recipe.
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Pot roast may feel like a Sunday dinner, but the slow cooker makes a very good case for weeknight. (Who wouldn’t want an entire meat-and-potatoes meal waiting at the end of the day?!) And Ree has one important bit of pot-roast wisdom: If the meat is still tough, it probably needs more time, not less.
Get the Slow Cooker Pot Roast recipe.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
Ree makes a lot of chicken here—enough for 16 to 20 servings—and that’s the beauty of it! After “a few hours of zero work,” she stuffs it into tacos, presses it into quesadillas, rolls it into burritos, and tosses it onto salads and nachos. Just freeze whatever you won’t eat right away!
Get Ree’s Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos recipe.
Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Now here’s a true set-it-and-forget-it dinner! There’s no need to brown the beef first, so you can get everything going in the morning and let it cook on low all day. Come dinnertime, spoon the hearty stew over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.
Get the Slow Cooker Beef Stew recipe.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
Buffalo Chicken Sloppy Joes
Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo
Slow Cooker Freezer Meals Make Dinner So Easy
