10 Unexpected Foods To Try In Your Slow Cooker ASAP

Since they were first introduced in the 1970s, slow cookers and Crock-Pots have become a staple in kitchens all over the U.S. It's hardly surprising when you consider how easy and low-effort these handy appliances make dinnertime. If you're cooking up a stew or a soup, for example, you can just pop all of the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, and then by evening, it's ready to eat. It's not wizardry; it's simply slow, low-temperature cooking that utilizes condensation as a tool to add moisture and tenderness to food.

Most of us know we can throw ingredients like vegetables, stock, and tinned tomatoes into a slow cooker, but actually, when it comes to these popular kitchen gadgets, there aren't many limits on what you can put in them. Did you know you can slow cook chocolate, candy corn, Oreos, and even potato chips? Yep, it's all true. Keep reading to find out some of the most unexpected foods to try in your slow cooker.

If you've tried to melt chocolate down in a pan before, you'll know that the whole process can be a little bit stressful. Often, the texture ends up all wrong, or the pan gets too hot and the chocolate burns. Enter: the slow cooker. Yep, this appliance is a particularly easy and effective way of melting chocolate. One of the best ways to do this is to fill the slow cooker with water, then place a bowl of chocolate in the water. Turn up the heat, leave the lid off, and your chocolate will melt beautifully.

You can also use the slow cooker to make many chocolatey recipes, like cakes and even hot chocolate, too. In fact, if you're craving a gooey, indulgent chocolate lava cake, one of the best tools to use is the slow cooker. Baking it this way over the oven will give you that perfect melty texture.

Most of us buy bananas with the best intentions. We have visions of healthy snacks, fruit salads, and Instagrammable yogurt bowls. But then real life gets in the way, and the bananas can sometimes (okay, often) end up languishing in the fruit bowl, looking sadder and sadder every day. If you've got some bananas that need some love, popping them in the slow cooker is a really easy way to transform them into a simple, nourishing treat. 

Just mash up the bananas and combine them with ingredients like eggs (or egg replacer), flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla, and cook on low for several hours. It's minimal effort, and at the end, you'll have yourself a loaf of slow-cooked banana bread. 

You can also slow-cook banana peels. Just shred them up and combine them with ingredients like sweet onions, peppers, molasses, soy sauce, and maple syrup to create a delicious pulled pork-like sandwich filling.

We hear you: How is it even possible to make something that needs to be cold in a slow cooker? It turns out, slow-cooker ice cream is totally possible.

You simply use the appliance to blend together and cook the ingredients (like milk, vanilla, and eggs), and then when it's ready, you remove the slow cooker pot, wait for it to cool, and then pop it in the freezer. Take it out the next day and you've got yourself some velvety homemade slow-cooker ice cream. It works because the slow cooker cooks everything nice and slowly, which helps to achieve that silky, creamy texture. 

Of course, you could also invest in an ice cream maker. However, using a slow cooker, if you already have one, is considerably cheaper, as you don't need to spend any extra money. And the results are still pretty good.

Candy corn is a classic Halloween treat. Not everyone loves it, of course, but for the millions who do, fall is a great time to stock up and indulge. You can eat the candy corn straight out of the bag, of course, or even melt them down and turn them into your own homemade candy bars. Another option? Empty any leftover bags into your slow cooker with ingredients like chocolate chips, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Then, leave it to melt (stirring occasionally) to make your own ultra-sweet dip.

But that's not the only way to cook with candy corn in the slow cooker. You can also make indulgent treats like candy corn hot chocolate and candy corn bark. Next Halloween, make sure to buy some extra bags so you can start experimenting with slow-cooker candy corn recipes. You might even convert some candy corn haters at the same time (and if you don't, all the more for you, so it's a win-win).

Oreo cookies are far less divisive than candy corn. In fact, per Segmanta, more than 80% of Generation Z say Oreo is one of their favorite cookie brands. Of course, you can just eat Oreos straight out of the packet. We do. Regularly. But you can also have a little bit of fun with the beloved treat by popping it in the slow cooker. 

Yep, it turns out, you can make everything from Oreo fudge to Oreo bark to Oreo lava cake in the slow cooker. That last one is particularly simple to do. It involves simply combining crushed cookies with other classic cake ingredients, such as flour, milk, and baking powder, and then placing the mixture in the slow cooker with the homemade chocolate syrup. After that, you just wait for the slow cooker to do its thing. By its thing, we mean create a perfectly indulgent chocolatey Oreo-laced lava cake. Extra Oreos crumbled over the top are a must.

Popcorn is great for many things. It's the perfect movie night snack, but it's equally as good when you're standing in the kitchen, dissociating, with an open bag in hand. Popcorn is tasty as it is, sure, but you can arguably take it to the next level by adding it to the slow cooker. In fact, if you melt ingredients like butter, sugar, vanilla, and baking soda in the slow cooker, mix in some popcorn, and then leave it all to cook on high, you'll have your very own DIY caramel popcorn.

If you've got a bag of kernels, you can also use the slow cooker to pop them. Just make sure to slather the bottom with coconut oil first. Of course, you can always opt for microwave popcorn, but making slow-cooker popcorn from scratch is still easy, and it's a healthier alternative. We don't want to diss microwave popcorn, but the truth is, it has been associated with PFAs and high levels of saturated fat and sodium.

Pretzels are the ultimate savory snack. They're always a good idea, but especially if it's game day and you've got a selection of dips lined up to enjoy them with (looking at you, beer cheese).

Of course, you can just serve store-bought crunchy pretzels as they are, straight out of the bag. But if you've got some time, you can level up this humble snack by emptying the bag into the slow cooker with ingredients like butter, garlic, and onion soup mix. Cook it all on high for a few hours, and you'll end up with pretzels that are infused with a nice garlicky, buttery flavor.

You can also use the slow cooker to make the pretzel dip, or even the actual pretzels themselves. This works particularly well if you're after larger, soft pretzels, rather than the small, crunchy kind you find in a snack bag from the store.

Bananas aren't the only fruit that you can put in the slow cooker — you can also use this handy kitchen appliance to cook grapes. This works particularly well for jam recipes.

In fact, making grape jam in the slow cooker is easy. Just pop the grapes into the slow cooker (maybe with another fruit, like cherries) with a sweetener, like honey or syrup. Let it all caramelize together for a few hours and then blend up the mixture to make a spread. You can then use the jam to make everything from sandwiches to grape jelly meatballs (which you can also make in the slow cooker). 

Not a fan of jam? You can also use the slow cooker to make your own hot grape cider. This is a great option for the festive season, if you're looking for a warming alternative to hand out alongside mulled wine, for example.

Alongside bananas and grapes, slow cookers are also a good way to use up your sad-looking strawberries before they reach the point of spoiling. In fact, if you just pop some strawberries in a slow cooker with some sugar and lemon juice and let it all cook away for a few hours, you'll have made a versatile strawberry jam-like liquid that you can spread on toast, pour over ice cream, or even freeze to make popsicles.

There are many, many ways to cook strawberries in the slow cooker. In fact, you can use the appliance to make everything from strawberry crisp and cobbler to strawberry jam and compote.

Simply throwing your fruit in the slow cooker to make an indulgent dessert or a spread is an easy, low-effort way to reduce food waste. According to Recycle Track Systems, food is the single largest source of waste in all of America's landfills. Keep your fruit from adding to the pile by popping it in the slow cooker before it goes bad instead. It's a bonus for your taste buds, too.

Yes, for real, you can cook potato chips in the slow cooker. One recipe we found on social media, for example, involves pouring two bags of Lay's into the pot and covering them with milk and sour cream, before mashing them all up together. Then you add other ingredients like cheese and seasoning, before cooking it all and adding more ingredients, like green onions and more cheese.

The resulting texture of the above recipe is kind of similar to mashed potatoes. And it's not the only way to cook with potato chips in the slow cooker, either. In fact, another popular recipe involves using potato chips to make a crispy topping for slow-cooked funeral potatoes, for example.

Listen, neither of these recipes is going to win healthy eating awards, and some may think putting potato chips in the slow cooker is a waste of a good snack. But, if you're in the mood to experiment, slow-cooked potato chips are fun and, some say, pretty tasty, too.