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Holiday Cooking Hack: Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes!

November 27, 2015
171 Comments

slow cooker baked potatoes

Last week, while my husband and I were having a “date-day” (which means dinner and shopping when you’re our age) we were in a furniture store to check out the sofas. Drawn to the kitchen appliances, we pondered whether we needed a new oven (always how purchases like this happen, right?) After all, some ovens now have two doors offering even more cooking space! The thing is, we’re a family of 5 so the only time we’d make use of an oven like that is when we have company over for large holiday dinner. Certainly not often enough to justify the spend, even though the oven was gorgeous.

When we do have friends and family visiting during the holidays (I count that as November/December/January do you?) we have some creative ways to make more space in the kitchen. Because we live in Saskatchewan, it means that during the holidays we have a huge freezer with tons of space to keep beverages cold (provided you don’t forget them overnight) and food trays nicely chilled – it’s our deck!

We also free up space in the oven by cooking baked potatoes in the slow cooker. If you haven’t tried it, you’re missing out (on the ease and on the oven space!) It’s ridiculously simple to do winter or summer (it’s awesome in the summer to help keep the house cool, no need to turn on the oven for an hour!)

baked potatoes

  1. Wash potatoes and pat dry, then place on aluminum foil.
  2. Prick all over with a fork (great for taking out some aggression during the holidays, no?)
  3. Drizzle olive oil and salt and pepper on the potato, turning to coat.
  4. Wrap up in foil and place in the slow cooker.
  5. Place lid on slow cooker, adjust temp to high (5 hours) or low (8-10 hours) and walk away!

That’s it, that’s how crazy-easy it is to make baked potatoes in the slow cooker! We used our new Hamilton Beach 8 Quart Slow Cooker in Metallic Red recently when we had extended family visit for the weekend. As a family of 5 we don’t always have a need for a large capacity slow cooker, but certainly appreciate it when we have guests or when I want to make a large batch of something to freeze (more than once I’ve almost overflowed my smaller slow cooker with spaghetti sauce!)

This particular day, we fit 10 large red potatoes in the slow cooker and cooked them on high for 5 hours (you could easily fit a dozen). Nothing else is needed in the slow cooker, and the potatoes are soft and ready to add to the plate with whatever you’ve cooked in the oven with all that extra space. hamilton beach red metallic slow cooker

Of course, the Hamilton Beach 8 Qt Slow Cooker in red metallic also happens to look pretty awesome on my counter as well (who cares about that oven!) and offers a keep warm setting as well should the holiday festivities get a little carried away. I like that Hamilton Beach offers a 5 year warranty on this purchase, and the price tag at $59.99 is a huge win against that pricey oven. Of course, I’ll use my new slow cooker often giving that purchase price even more value (just check out my Recipes page for a look at how many slow cooker recipes are among our family favorites!) Also check out the Hamilton Beach blog everydaygoodthinking.com for more great recipe ideas!

Psst, if you live out west the Hamilton Beach 8 Quart Slow Cooker in Metallic Red is on sale for $49.99 at London Drugs!

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