How to Convert a Casserole Recipe to the Slow Cooker

Choosing a recipe that has an hour of cooking time makes it easier to convert to a slow cooker time.

Recipes that are fairly low maintenance and don't demand a lot of attention also make good candidates for converting to the slow cooker.

Meat - Ground meats, such as beef, chicken, or pork, should be browned before they are added to the slow cooker. If you don't precook ground meat, it will not be as flavorful and might have a rubbery texture. Precooking the meat will also help remove a lot of the fat, which will help create a healthier dish.

Chunks of beef, pork, or chicken don't have to be precooked - adding them in raw may actually make them more tender. However, browning the meat in a skillet may give it better flavor.

Not sure about the best way to brown ground beef? Watch our video!

Onions and Garlic - While not completely necessary, onions and garlic will have better flavor if you saute them in a skillet before adding them to the slow cooker. It will give them a milder and richer flavor.

Other vegetables are fine as is! They will only get mushy if they are overcooked.

The first time you convert a casserole to the slow cooker, you will want to keep an eye on it. It is essentially a trial run, so you want to make sure the ingredients don't burn, dry out, or turn to mush.

When deciding on a cooking time, you'll want to look at the cook time for the original recipe. If the original recipe is supposed to be baked for an hour, 4 hours on HIGH is a good place to start. If the original recipe is baked for more than an hour, try setting your slow cooker to 8 hours on LOW.

It can also be helpful to take the original oven baking time and double it for the HIGH setting and triple it for the LOW setting. However, trial and error is important, especially when converting a recipe for the first time.

You will get the best results if you cook baked goods on the HIGH setting because it more closely resembles the temperature of a conventional oven. To avoid sogginess, place a paper towel under the lid to soak up condensation.

If your recipe is topped with cheese or a crunchy topping, add it at the end. You could even broil it in the oven to get a crispy or browned topping.