Autumn is my favorite time of the year. It’s the anticipation of cozy winter evenings, Christmas around the corner, and the fire roaring in the grate. I just love it. And, of course, it’s the time my crockpot makes a triumphant return to the kitchen.
On those busy days when you feel like your feet don’t have a chance to touch the ground, the crockpot, or slow cooker as we call it in Europe, comes into its own. There’s nothing better than coming home to a house full of wonderful aromas, knowing you don’t have to spend the next hour or so cooking.
Plus, where I live, it’s the time when I come home to find my wonderful French neighbors have left me something from their garden on the kitchen counter. I should add, nobody locks their doors around here; it’s old-fashioned living at its best, and the perfect excuse for crockpot meals.
9 Set and Forget Crockpot Meals
If your week is one of those weeks where you’re out the door early and not back till late, these recipes are ones you can either prepare the night before or do quickly first thing in the morning. They’re quick, easy, and healthy, too, but they’ll also spice up your dinner time a little, providing something new and fun to tickle your taste buds.
1. Thai-Style Yellow Chicken Curry With Rice
When you want something warm and spicy, a good old curry usually hits the spot. I love making my own curry spice mix and then whacking everything into my crockpot and waiting for the delicious smell to assault my nostrils.
This recipe uses spices, coconut cream, fresh ginger, and lime, and it comes together with almost no chopping. And if you add some garlic to the rice, it gives it a little extra punch.
Get the Thai-Style Yellow Chicken Curry Recipe
2. Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup
This is the one I turn to when I want something warming with a bit of a kick, and it uses pantry staples I nearly always have on hand.
Black beans, fire-roasted tomatoes, corn, and chicken breasts with cumin and chili powder; you shred the chicken right in the pot at the end.
All you need to do is add the crushed tortilla chips, a squeeze of lime, avocado, a spoon of sour cream, and you’re ready to eat.
Get the Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
3. Red Wine Braised Pot Roast
There’s something about a pot roast that makes the whole house smell fabulous. In France, wine is a staple in our cooking along with butter and garlic, so this one is a winner for me.
The one step worth doing before you leave the house is searing the beef in a hot pan for a few minutes on each side. The crockpot can’t brown meat, so you have to give it a head start, and that browning is where a lot of the flavor comes from.
Serve it over mashed potatoes with the pan juices spooned over, or, if you want to do it the French way, with a crusty baguette to mop up.
Get the Red Wine Braised Pot Roast Recipe
4. Marry Me Lasagna Soup
If you love marry me chicken and all the other recipes in the “marry me” family, then you’ll love this soup.
Plus, who doesn’t love lasagna, especially with a creamy sauce that has half a pound of cheese in it? This recipe delivers all the flavor of baked lasagna with about a tenth of the effort. Sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, garlic, and a dollop of ricotta.
It’s absolutely delicious and perfect for an autumn evening when the nights are starting to draw in earlier.
Get the Marry Me Lasagna Soup Recipe
5. Cider Braised Short Ribs with Butternut Squash
I can never resist ribs, and the crockpot is the easiest possible way to cook them. This recipe is with sage butter mashed potato, but for a more autumnal version, try it with some seasonal butternut squash.
By dinner time, the meat is falling off the bone, and the sauce is glossy and rich. Mash underneath a green vegetable on the side, and a glass of whatever cider you didn’t cook with.
Get the Cider Braised Short Ribs Recipe
6. Chipotle Pineapple Pot Roast Bowls
This recipe convinced me pot roast doesn’t always have to mean gravy and mashed potatoes. This recipe cooks beef in chipotle peppers, pineapple juice, and spices until it shreds, then everything gets piled into bowls with rice, black beans, avocado, and lime wedges.
The pineapple does two things at once. It tenderizes the beef as it cooks, and it balances the smoky heat of the chipotles. You end up with beef that’s sweet, smoky, spicy, and rich all at once.
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7. Spicy Queso Beef Chili
Crockpots were made for chili, and you can spice it up or down according to your tastes. This recipe combines ground beef, black beans, tomatoes, green chiles, and a good hit of cheese stirred through at the end so it goes creamy without being claggy.
It also freezes well in portions, which your future self thanks you for on a night when you can’t face cooking at all.
Get the Spicy Queso Beef Chili Recipe
8. Greek Chicken Meatballs with Creamy Tomato Orzo
A lighter, brighter option for when you want the cozy factor without the heaviness. This recipe uses ground chicken or turkey mixed with feta, garlic, fresh herbs, and lemon zest, cooked in a tomato sauce all day, with orzo stirred in near the end and a swirl of cream to finish.
Mix the meatballs the night before if you can. They only take 10 minutes to shape, but that’s 10 minutes you don’t have at 7 am, and the flavors are better after they’ve sat overnight in the fridge.
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9. White Bean and Sausage Stew
Rounding this out with a rustic, deeply savory stew that costs almost nothing to make, it’s quick and feeds a hungry crowd. This recipe uses smoked turkey sausage, cannellini beans, fresh herbs, stock, garlic, onions, and a green bell pepper.
This one is best served with some crusty bread, a drizzle of olive oil, cracked black pepper, and a glass of red.
Get the White Bean and Sausage Stew Recipe
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Kylie Lang is a nationally syndicated travel journalist with bylines on the Associated Press Wire & more, a lifestyle writer, and the founder and editor of Your Lifestyle Library (yourlifestylelibrary.com). She holds a BA (Honours) in History from the University of Kent and is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers.