Food Network Slow Cooker Chicken

The Best Slow Cookers, Tested by Food Network Kitchen

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Slow cookers have come a long way since their heyday in the early '70s. No longer just for cooking stews and tough cuts of meat, slow cookers are used to make everything from overnight oats to authentic Indian curries. In fact, there are dedicated slow-cooker cookbooks for all kinds of popular cuisines and diets: Mexican, Thai and Indian, as well as paleo and keto diets.

Slow cookers have also stepped it up when it comes to special features. In the past, your only cooking options were High, Low and Warm. Now, you can steam meat and vegetables, make rice, saute — some even stir the food for you! With all of the options out there, we're sure we found a slow cooker that suits your needs.

How We Tested

We tested 10 popular, well-reviewed slow cookers. One of the most-important aspects of a slow cooker is the temperature. You need it to heat high enough that the food will cook safely but not too high to scorch or overcook over a long stretch of time.

We made stew and checked both the exterior temperature (with an infrared thermometer) and the interior temp of the food at one-hour intervals throughout the cooking time. We then checked to see how quickly the slow cookers dropped the heat once switched to Warm — a good indicator of the likelihood of overcooked food.

We also checked how easy they were to clean and how user-friendly their controls (interfaces) were. We eliminated four models based on poor cooking results, chemical smells, poorly sealing lids and basic programming.