A Complete Slow-Cooker Dinner with Rebecca from a Pleasant Little Kitchen

The definitive guide to how to cook using a slow cooker. The Complete Slow Cooker builds on the test kitchen’s work testing and retesting slow cooker recipes and pushing the limits of what a slow cooker can do. Packed with 400 recipes for everything from traditional classics to unexpected new favorites.

Rebecca from A Pleasant Little Kitchen received her copy of The Complete Slow Cooker at a serendipitous time.

“I was incredibly excited,” she writes. “My husband was due for a week of travel, and my work schedule was slammed. It was apparent that this week was destined for slow cooking—and The Complete Slow Cooker would be my guide.”

When it comes to convenience, the slow cooker is a true lifesaver. Do some prep work in the morning, then come home after a long day and know you have a home-cooked meal awaiting you. It's the best way to deliver tasty meals no matter what else you have going on (like a traveling spouse and packed work schedule).

One of the first recipes Rebecca prepared from the book was Southern Chicken and Dirty Rice, which transforms this duo into a scaled-down slow-cooker casserole. For the chicken, we selected bone-in thighs, which stayed moist even after a few hours of cooking. Onion, bell pepper, and garlic, plus some chili powder and thyme, provided a flavorful backbone to the mix. The result? A well-balanced dish that's so good you won't want to share.

"While I wanted to pass on this meal to another friend, I couldn’t part with it," Rebecca writes. "The chicken was cooked perfectly, the rice had just enough heat and it satisfied my craving so well that I couldn’t wait to repeat the next night. . . which I did."

What’s your favorite slow-cooker meal? Let us know in the comments! For the full review, read Rebecca’s post. To learn more about the book and to preview three recipes—including Southern Chicken and Dirty Rice—head here.