One fantastic cooking trick to learn is how to change a recipe so that it can cook in the slow cooker instead of the oven – or vice versa. Being able to do this with a recipe gives you so much more control over your time and schedule.
On Easter, I really wanted to make Black Angus Au Gratin Potatoes. I love this recipe. It’s all from scratch and the taste is so good. The problem is that the original recipe bakes in the oven for a medium amount of time – too long for doing after church and too short for baking the whole time we’re gone.
The answer, of course is to change up the recipe and make them in the slow cooker instead. And I also wanted to be able to do all the prep work the day before.
The original instructions call for boiling the whole potatoes till tender, slicing them hot, making the cheese sauce and pouring that over the hot potatoes, then baking for 20 minutes.
On Saturday I boiled the potatoes and cooled them before storing in the refrigerator. I also made the cheese sauce and put it in the fridge in a separate container.
Sunday morning it only took a few minutes to slice the cold potatoes and arrange them in a buttered crockpot, spoon the cheese sauce over the top and turn the heat to low.
I will say that the oven version has a slight edge over the slow cooker version for taste. However, it’s such a small edge that it doesn’t override the convenience of the slow cooker at all. We all really enjoyed this dish and I doubt that anyone else at the table even considered that they’d be better oven baked.
Here’s the recipe with the slow cooker instructions for you and here are 6 more tips on converting oven recipes to slow cooker recipes.
Au Gratin Potatoes in the Slow Cooker - Make an Oven Recipe Work in the Crockpot
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds potatoes unpeeled
- 2 Tbs. butter
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 2 Tbs. flour
- 1 1/2 cups hot milk
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 tsp. parmesan
- salt and pepper
- extra cheese for the top
Instructions
- Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until tender. Cool and store in the fridge for up to one day.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan.
- Add the garlic and cook it for a minute over medium heat.
- Whisk in the flour and cook for another minute.
- Whisk in the hot milk, stirring constantly. Stir in the cheeses and keep stirring until it’s all melted and smooth.
- Cool and store the finished cheese sauce in the refrigerator for up to a day.
- Butter the inside of a slow cooker.
- Slice potatoes into 1/4" slices and arrange in the crock.
- Spoon cheese sauce over the top.
- Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
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Can I use fresh potatoes or do I need to boil them first?