13 Canned Ingredients To Elevate Slow Cooker Meals

When it comes to weeknight timesavers, the slow cooker is the unsung hero of the kitchen. The set-it-and-forget-it appliance has been a staple of busy households for decades for its minimal prep and mouthwatering results. From soup to barbecue and even French toast, there's not much this multi-use appliance can't handle.

Of course, there are a few tips and tricks to cooking with a slow cooker. For the ultimate dump-and-go appliance, a programmable model is a must. You'll also want to pre-heat your slow cooker to coax maximum flavor out of your ingredients. And yes, there is a difference between a Crockpot and a slow cooker. But, at the end of the day, what matters most is what you put into the pot.

Soups, stews, and slow-cooked meats are all perfectly delicious one-pot wonders, but sometimes they seem to be missing that extra oomph that comes from cooking on a stovetop or in the oven. Tips like searing meat or sauteeing vegetables in advance can take up precious prep time that not every busy cook has in abundance. Often-overlooked canned goods can provide a wonderfully easy shortcut to maximum slow cooker flavor. Take your next weeknight dinner from bland to bold with minimal effort by adding one of these under-the-radar canned ingredients.

Who would've thought your slow cooker concoction could achieve a rich depth of flavor with the addition of one simple canned ingredient? Overlooked by many home cooks who may be unfamiliar with the product, canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce should be part of your flavor arsenal, especially when whipping up a south-of-the-border-inspired slow cooker dish.

Smoky and savory with a touch of warming heat, chipotle peppers packed in adobo sauce are the product of a long culinary journey that comes to you in the form of a grocery store staple shortcut. Fresh jalapeño peppers are smoked, dried, and then rehydrated, producing a plump, juicy pepper that melds beautifully into slow-cooked dishes like soups, stews, and roasts. But the real kicker here is the adobo. This complex sauce hits all the most mouthwatering notes thanks to spicy dried chiles, tart vinegar, sweet tomato paste, savory garlic, and a variety of spices. The smokiness from the chipotles rounds out the sauce nicely, producing a one-stop shop for maximum slow cooker flavor.

So, which dishes would best benefit from the flavorful power of chipotles in adobo? Truthfully, the sky is the culinary limit. The smokiness of the canned ingredient makes it an ideal accompaniment to meats like beef for slow-cooker birria tacos or a mole-inspired sauce for chicken.

Inexpensive and underutilized, tomato paste deserves a permanent spot in your pantry for its flavor-packed punch. Thanks to its highly concentrated nature, canned tomato paste imbues a deep tomato flavor into almost any slow cooker dish without adding additional liquid.

Before you go throwing just any tomato product into the slow cooker hoping to achieve a similar result, it's important to note the differences between tomato sauce and tomato paste. While tomato sauce certainly has a place in your pantry, its high water content and pre-seasoned nature make it a poor substitute for the pure tomato flavor found in its pasty sibling. Similarly, a can of crushed tomatoes can add a significant amount of unneeded liquid without imbuing much tomatoey taste. Pound for pound (or in this case, tablespoon for tablespoon), tomato paste packs in the most flavor without altering the consistency of your final dish.

The key to unlocking maximum flavor potential from this pantry staple is to cook it briefly in fat before adding it to your slow cooker. Carmelizing the sugars in the concentrated paste releases a deep umami flavor. Try this simple kitchen trick in slow cooker chili, pasta sauce, or even butter chicken to enjoy a mouthwatering epicurean upgrade.

Spice up cold-weather comfort food with a handy can of store-bought enchilada sauce. A mouthwatering blend of roasted chiles, spices, and stock, the canned sauce adds a well-rounded heat to soups, stews, and braised meats without the hours of prep needed to whip up a homemade batch.

While enchilada sauce straight from the can is perfectly delicious, you can up the flavor ante of your next slow cooker creation with just a few quick tips and tricks. Elevate red enchilada sauce with a dash of adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers or freshen up the green variety with an extra dose of garlic. No matter which sauce you choose, adding a squeeze of lime just before serving will be sure to brighten up those smoky flavors.

The simplest dish to liven up with a can of enchilada sauce is a Southwest-inspired soup. Combine chicken, stock, beans, corn, some smoky spices, and a can of enchilada sauce in your slow cooker and let it simmer away over low heat for several hours. Top with a dollop of sour cream and a squeeze of lime for a warm bowl of comfort that's ready to consume the minute you walk through the door.

Give slow cooker staples like chili a seasonal twist with the addition of a can of pumpkin purée. A time-saving alternative to using a whole gourd, pumpkin purée (also known as canned pumpkin) contains cooked and mashed orange squash without any additional flavorings — in other words, the perfect fall flavor booster.

The precise kind of squash found in your can of pumpkin is harder to discern. While cans bearing the label "100% pumpkin" are easily sourced from your local grocery store, these cans might actually contain a blend of gourds, including butternut and other heirloom squash. But this mislabeling isn't such a bad thing. While great for carving, traditional field pumpkins don't bring much to the table in the way of flavor, whereas other orange squashes provide that nostalgic autumnal taste you're likely looking to add to your slow cooker chili.

When choosing the best can of pumpkin purée, you might notice a variation in taste between different brands based on the blend of squashes each recipe uses. No matter which brand you pick, just be sure to reach for pumpkin purée or canned pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling. The sickly sweet and spiced dessert mixture probably won't mesh well with that simmering pot of savory chili in your slow cooker.

Add a Mediterranean twist (and an extra dose of veggies) to your next slow cooker dish with a simple can of artichoke hearts. The hearty vegetable stands up well to a long simmer over low and slow heat and imparts just enough savory flavor to roasted meats or vegetable-forward stews.

With their seemingly endless layers of spiky petals, fresh artichokes are notoriously difficult to prepare and are, frankly, not worth the effort in everyday cooking applications. While there is certainly a time and a place for fresh produce, canned artichoke hearts are a weekday timesaver that ensures you can squeeze in a little extra nutrition with as much effort as it takes to operate a can opener. According to Healthline, one cup of antioxidant-rich artichoke hearts adds a healthy dose of fiber, vitamin C, and potassium (among other vitamins and minerals) and 5 grams of protein — an impressive amount for a purely plant-based food.

While artichoke hearts can easily be added to any slow cooker dish, their most famous application is likely party-favorite spinach and artichoke dip. Easy enough to whip up in your slow cooker, the cheesy crowd-pleaser can be lightened up with tangy Greek yogurt and fresh rather than frozen spinach so you can enjoy all the mouthwatering flavor.

A popular plant-based meat substitute, jackfruit is the perfect vegan alternative for barbecue and carnitas slow-cooker recipes. The imposing produce is the world's largest tree-born fruit, weighing up to 40 pounds. When harvested before it's ripe, the fruit maintains a firm, stringy flesh akin to a mushroom that keeps its form well when cooked. Luckily, you don't need to worry about breaking down the mammoth meat substitute — with the fruit's growing popularity in recent years, it's easy enough to find canned.

As convenient as it is, canned jackfruit still requires a little bit of prep before it's ready for experimentation in the slow cooker. Jackfruit is typically canned in brine in order to preserve freshness, a salty mix you'll want to rinse off before using. You'll also want to chop larger chunks into more manageable pieces — as with any recipe, it's best to keep everything about the same size to ensure even cooking.

Now that your canned jackfruit is prepped, it's time to get cooking. Thanks to its stringy texture, the produce is the perfect meatless substitute for pork in your favorite slow cooker recipes. Similarly to tofu or tempeh, jackfruit is a flavor sponge that soaks up just about any sauce you want to throw on top. Try it piled high on a bun in a meatless jackfruit barbecue sandwich or packed into tortillas for a vegan twist on tacos.