Some people dismiss slow cookers as a tool for home cooks who don’t actually like to cook. Like the other “do the cooking for you” appliances out there (shout out to air fryers and Instant Pots) a slow cooker isn’t the sort of thing a pompous culinarian would add to their kitchen arsenal.
“Who needs a slow cooker, when you have a Dutch oven and a sous vide circulator?” your most annoying friend might say.
Well here at Bon Appétit, we don’t turn our noses up at the useful and versatile slow cooker. A slow cooker is a great extension of your stovetop when cooking for big events like Thanksgiving or Super Bowl Sunday. You can braise short ribs! You can make chili! You can cook a whole chicken! The list goes on!
We’ve tested several models of slow cooker, including the OG Crockpot, and have come up with what we think to be the best slow cooker out there. Read on for more details on our top pick, and keep scrolling for more on our methodology and the others we tested.
The best slow cooker: Cuisinart 4-Quart Cook Central 3-in-1 Multi-Cooker
Cuisinart 4-Quart Cook Central 3-in-1 Multi-Cooker
Pros
- Good temperature control
- Useful, versatile cooking modes
Cons
- No locking lid
What we loved about the Cuisinart Cook Central:
The Cuisinart Cook Central is a simple and well-designed slow cooker that produced batch after batch of succulent chicken and tender stewed vegetables. It excelled in our tests, and at a reasonably affordable cost, we consider it a consistent and dependable choice for both casual and frequent slow cooker cooks.
The Cook Central has a modest, functional suite of settings. The slow cook function has warm, simmer, low, and high settings—warm is for keeping already cooked food at a palatable 165°F for up to 8 hours, while simmer, low, and high cook at preset temperatures of 185°F, 200°F, and 212°F, respectively. The machine also features a brown/sauté function for searing meats prior to slow cooking, a key step if you want appetizing pulled pork and pot roast. That function brings the machine up to 350°F in roughly 6 minutes. If you’re into steaming (like a lot of chefs are lately) the Cook Central has a steam setting and comes with a steamer rack for when a craving for Pork and Shrimp Cabbage Rolls or Smoky Orange Chicken Thighs strikes.
In comparison to older models of slow cooker, the Cook Central gives the user greater control over time and temperature. You can set the cook time for up to 24 hours, and adjust the temperature anywhere between 150–400°F. In general, the more transparency a machine has about temperature, the better.
Build-wise, it has a nice stainless steel exterior that doesn’t get too hot. We like the compact dimensions of the 4-quart model, which weighs in at a reasonable 14 lbs. However, if that size isn’t quite right, it comes in 3.5-, 6-, and 7-quart volumes as well.
What we’d leave:
We wished that the Cook Central came with a locking lid, since transporting slow cookers for things like pot lucks and sporting events is definitely a thing. We also aren’t in love with the inner cooking pot, which has a PTFE-based nonstick coating.
Dimensions: 10.5″L x 16.5″W x 8.7″H
Weight: 14 lbs
Settings: Keep warm, simmer, low, high, brown/sauté, steam
Materials: Stainless steel, aluminum
How we tested slow cookers
Over the years we’ve tested slow cookers using a few different slow cooker recipes from the Epicurious recipe archive. Our principal test involved making batches of Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken in each machine. We did two rounds: first on the high setting for four hours, and again on the low setting for six. After each round we had a blind tasting of the chicken with a panel of other BA staffers, who provided feedback on any differences in texture or doneness.
Next, the vegetable test. We wanted to see how the machines performed with veggies because they tend to fall apart when cooked too long at higher temperatures. We did this by making our Slow Cooker Green Chicken Chili set to low for 6 hours, and assessed the quality of the end product.
To further investigate differences in end results, we also did a water test, to measure the changes in temperature throughout the cooking process of each machine. The ideal temperature for a low setting on a slow cooker should be around 185°F, according to the Michigan State University Extension. This test was useful in confirming a long-held suspicion that the programmable Crock Pots cook food at too high a temperature.
How we judged slow cookers.
We limited our scope to appliances that marketed themselves as slow cookers first and foremost. While there are a lot of multi-cookers on the market that offer a slow cooker setting, we’ve found that they tend to produce different results. We also found that recipes written for slow cookers don’t always translate well to multi-cookers. This was especially true for Instant Pot pressure cookers, which are just too different to compare. They certainly have a purpose, but if you’re wondering why we don’t recommend Instant Pots in this review, that’s why. This is what we looked for in the slow cookers we did test.
Slow cookers are all about convenience, so we looked for models that were simple, intuitive and easy to use. We appreciate programmable temperature settings and extra cooking features like brown/saute and keep warm, but don’t want too many.
Our ideal slow cooker wouldn’t take up too much space on the countertop and be reasonably lightweight for easy transport. We also made note of whether the cooking pots were stoneware or coated aluminum. While stoneware is typically heavier, we aren’t crazy about nonstick coatings that typically appear on aluminum pots, so we factored that into our decision as well. Glass lids are a fine alternative to metal ones, so long as they seal well to prevent too much moisture from escaping.
We wanted slow cookers that delivered tender, succulent meat, and soft-but-not-disintegrated vegetables and beans. Temperature control is important, not just for producing food that tastes good, but for food safety as well. A slow cooker should reach 185° on the low setting, and shouldn’t linger too long in the “danger zone” under 140° where bacteria can thrive. On the other side, a slow cooker on low should remain below 212° to avoid boiling any liquid and overcooking.
Others slow cookers we’ve tested
Greenpan 6 Quart Slow Cooker
Greenpan 6 Quart Slow Cooker
This slow cooker performed exceptionally well and is comparable to our winner. However, it costs nearly twice as much. It does come in a range of beautiful colors though, so if aesthetics are worth the higher price point, we say go for it.
Hamilton Beach Set & Forget Slow Cooker
Hamilton Beach Set & Forget Slow Cooker
We liked but didn’t love this slow cooker. It comes with a locking lid and a temperature probe to tell you when your meat is done. While the latter is nice, we found that the difference in end result during our tests between slow cookers with a probe and slow cookers without, negligible. The issues with this model were its dimly lit digital display, which one tester found to be very difficult to see, and the fact that this machine gets quite hot on the outside when cooking, making a bit uncomfortable to transport.
This is the original Crockpot design that most people are familiar with. A manual knob switches between a low, high, and warm setting. While it is a classic, we’ve come to the conclusion, after testing, that we prefer programmable slow cookers with temperature displays over manual slow cookers. In the Crockpot’s defense, we’ll note that many people prefer this model because they have found that programmable slow cookers get too hot. In testing, we did find that this slow cooker on the low setting stayed on the cooler side. After two hours on the low setting, the contents of this slow cooker reached 125°F, which for food safety reasons is not a temperature you want to linger around for two hours when cooking raw meat. While it did eventually reach a food-safe temperature of 170°F by the 4-hour mark, we preferred our winner, which got to a safe temperature much more quickly.
Crockpot Programmable Cook & Carry
Crockpot Programmable Cook & Carry
A problem consumers frequently voice about newer Crockpots is that they get too hot. Our temperature tests confirmed this: The low setting is calibrated to reach 212° rather than a more ideal 170°–190°F window. While meat turned out fine, we found that this Crockpot overcooked vegetables using the recommended cook times.
All-Clad Gourmet Slow Cooker
All-Clad Gourmet Slow Cooker
This slow cooker is huge, expensive, and heavy. Due to its wide dimensions, it requires a lot more liquid to submerge meats, and the lid did a poor job sealing in evaporation.
Proctor-Silex Slow Cooker
This was the cheapest model we tested. It consistently undercooked food to the point that testers felt uncomfortable eating the results.
Discontinued slow cookers we tested
While it had a nice, easy-to-operate interface, we found the KitchenAid heavy and its dimensions awkward. That made cleanup a hassle.
This is another discontinued model. It had a fussy locking mechanism that annoyed testers, but it otherwise cooked well.
Additional testing by Emily Johnson.
