15 best slow cookers for making curries, paellas and casseroles (2024)

Score: 94/100

The name of this slow cooker isn’t misleading, it truly was superior in our tests. Its 7.1-litre capacity means there’s ample room to cook plentiful and tasty meals, and its intuitive design makes mealtimes easy. It’s lightweight despite its large size, boasts an effective non-stick that's a cinch to clean, and if you’re in a hurry (which is often the case when turning to a slow cooker for aid) , you can pop its pot and lid in the dishwasher. What’s not to love?

It aced our beef stew and chicken curry tests, scoring near perfect marks. The beef dish in particular stood out for delicious, moist results; our experts measured a tiny 0.03% moisture loss, a number so low they weighed it multiple times to make sure it was correct! That said, our vegetable soup (slow cooked on a low setting) lost a little more moisture than our testers would have liked, but not enough to substantially impact the finished dish. It’s a deserving winner.

Key specifications

Score: 91/100

If you want to splash out, this multi-cooker would make a smart buy – it does a lot more than most, from dehydrating to air frying. It shone in our slow cooker tests, retaining an outstanding 99.27% of moisture during cooking.

The intuitive design comes with clear instructions too, and it cooked our meals consistently. We also found it impressively energy efficient.

It is a bulky bit of tech that will take up a lot of room in your kitchen and the cooking pot isn’t easy to lift out, but its 7.5-litre capacity will easily feed a crowd. During cooking, we found bits of beef that weren’t entirely submerged in our sauce ended up drying out, so be sure to make sure your meat is covered.

Otherwise, the outside stayed cool throughout and the accompanying recipe book is filled with handy cooking tips.

Key specifications

It scored full marks on our curry, soup and stew tests, and cooked meat and vegetables to perfection. We also liked the hinged lid, as it allowed us to stir or add to our dish with ease. The bowl and lid are both dishwasher-safe too, for extra convenience.

Key specifications

Score: 91/100

Like its fellow Crock-Pot above, this easy-to-use slow cooker is large enough to feed a family of six. It comes with a 4.7-litre removable ceramic inner pot, which is also dishwasher-safe. It has the added bonus of an integrated programmable timer too, which will automatically switch the setting to ‘keep warm’ when cooking finishes.

The results didn’t disappoint either – it scored highly when making curry, soup and stew, with meat and veg cooked through. Our only qualm is that it doesn’t have an auto-cook function. If that’s not a priority for you, though, it’s a top buy.

Key specifications

Score: 90/100

Compact, fuss-free and intuitive, this slow cooker achieved full marks for ease of use – you simply turn it on, pick between the low or high setting and you’re good to go. It also scored highly for its design, instructions and ability to produce a tender, flavourful chicken curry.

The only downside of this model’s simplicity is that it lacks a delay timer, so you won’t be able to schedule it to start cooking later in the day. However, there is a ‘keep warm’ function and our tester noted that cleaning it is a doddle, with the ceramic pot requiring minimal scrubbing. Overall, it’s very reasonably priced for such a high-performing machine.

Key specifications

Score: 90/100

With a 6-litre capacity, this is a great slow cooker for feeding a family or bulk cooking. Our experts said it retained moisture excellently and produced a particularly delicious beef stew, which was full of tender, flavourful meat.

It’s a doddle to use, with a choice of four cooking modes – sauté, slow cook, steam and roast – and an easily adjustable timer. Plus, its non-toxic, non-stick coating was easy to clean, and the cord wraps up for neat storage.

Handles would have been appreciated, as removing the pot was fiddly and fingerprints were quite visible on the exterior, but for mouth-watering dinners, this machine delivers.

Key specifications

Score: 89/100

This multi-functional machine, another one from market-leaders Crock-Pot, allows you to schedule your cooking up to 12 hours in advance, with plenty of customisable manual and auto-function options. It won top marks for design and scored highly in our cooking tests, too.

The beef in our stew came out tender and succulent, while the chicken in our curry fell off the bone and absorbed plenty of flavour from the other ingredients. Testers were also pleased with the energy efficiency, and the clear digital display panel meant it was easy to know when our dish was ready.

Key specifications

Score: 88/100

This premium machine produced good results and was economical during testing. There’s a range of useful pre-set options, including ‘pressure cook’ and ‘slow cook’, which allow you to rustle up a variety of foods at set cooking times and at the right temperature or pressure level to get the best results.

There’s a ‘keep warm’ function too, and you can save your favourite settings to its memory. On the downside, the hinged lid is a little fiddly to operate and it’s a bit bulky to store, but now we’re being picky.

Key specifications

Score 87/100

While it didn’t score quite as highly as our runner-up Ninja model, this 8-in-1 slow cooker can still hold its own and impressed our testers with a particularly moist and tender chicken curry that only lost 0.92% of its moisture. It also scored strongly for its ability to slow cook meat and vegetables on high; however, it seemed to struggle a little when we tested for low and slow cooking, leaving a few lentils in our soup a little harder than we’d have liked.

Our testers found the timer, which beeps to tell you when cooking has finished, a little tricky to hear too. However, thanks to the handy, automatic ‘keep warm’ function, it will still keep your food toasty until you’re ready to serve.

It’s also dishwasher-safe and easy to clean thanks to its non-stick coating, so overall it’s a reliable option if you don’t want to splash the cash on the more premium Ninja slow cooker.

Score: 86/100

This robust, multi-functional slow cooker is another one that's ideal for large families with its 6.5-litre cooking pot, which can accommodate enough food for eight people – plenty for mid-week dinner parties or if you like to prep meals in advance. The electronic control panel allows you to monitor cooking progress easily too, and you can manually adjust the cooking time and temperature.

It created a beautifully succulent beef stew and a soft, tender curry with chicken that fell away from the bone, while all dishes were full of flavour and little moisture was lost, even after eight hours of cooking.

Although it’s designed for sous vide cooking, you have to purchase the cooking pouches separately, which is a little disappointing. Overall, though, this reliable slow cooker produced excellent results and is worth the purchase.

Key specifications

Score: 85/100

Fun, quirky and family friendly, this slow cooker’s chalkboard exterior will bring a homely touch to your kitchen. It performed brilliantly on test too, making an aromatic chicken curry and a flavoursome beef stew.

We think it’s an ideal purchase if you’re looking for new ways to get the family involved in cooking, without having to spend big.

Key specifications

Score: 85/100

This slow cooker is the perfect size for a one- or two-person household and created a pleasingly thick soup and a rich beef gravy on test.

There’s no indicator light and it occasionally spat when we opened the lid, with water collecting in the rim, but if you’re after a compact budget model, this is a reliable performer.

Key specifications

Russell Hobbs 24180 Chalkboard Slow Cooker

Score: 84/100

Another model with a chalkboard design, it’s certainly a fun-filled way of letting the family know what's cooking. The chalkboard doubles up as a stylish matte black look too, if you’re not so interested in doodling on it.

Most importantly though, it performed well on test, especially with our chicken curry. Water did collect in the rim and the lid shook at times when our sauces bubbled, but these are minor niggles for an otherwise great slow cooker.

Key specifications

Lakeland 3.5L Slow Cooker

Score: 83/100

This affordable slow cooker won’t disappoint, as it scored highly in all our tests. It cooked mouthwatering beef and chicken, as well as scrumptious veg. It was also easy to operate via three simple settings – low for simmering and slow cooking, high for faster cooking, and an auto setting to keep food at serving temperature.

It has cool-touch handles too, and the 3.5-litre dishwasher-safe ceramic pot is topped with a glass lid, so you can peek in to see just how your food is coming along (great for nosy diners).

Key specifications

Crock-Pot CSC085 Sizzle and Stew Cooker

Score: 82/100

Everything about this machine feels sturdy and its clear controls and three heat settings (high, low and keep warm) make it easy to use.

The bowl can be used on the hob, which is handy if you want to sauté your ingredients before slow cooking and minimise washing up. The beef stew we made lost a little moisture but tasted flavoursome, while our chicken curry had deliciously moist meat that was falling off the bone.

It struggled with soup, lacking vibrancy and a liquid consistency, and it doesn’t have a timer, so be sure to set your own. Fingerprints showed up too, but luckily, it’s easy to clean. Overall though, it’s an affordable buy that will suit smaller households.

Key specifications

What size slow cooker do I need?

Slow cookers range in capacity, from a compact 1.5 litres up to 7 litres. As a general guide, a 1.5 to 2.3-litre capacity model is great for two people, a larger 4 to 4.5 litres will feed four, and 5.5 to 7 litres is ideal for four to six people.

Working out what size slow cooker you need is just one thing you’ll need to consider before buying. Check out the other important features to look out for below.

Slow cooker key features

We've picked out the most important features to look out for when trying to find the best slow cooker for you.

Timer

This will come in handy if you’re out for the day. Once the timer you set has been reached, the cooker will either switch off or automatically shift to the ‘keep warm’ setting, depending on the model, so you come home to dinner that's ready to serve.

Controls

The controls tend to be similar on most slow cookers with a ‘low’ setting for longer, slower cooking throughout the day and a ‘high’ setting for faster cooking with similar slow-cooked results.

Keep warm

This function can be found on the majority of slow cookers, helping to retain the temperature of your food without cooking it further – handy when you’re struggling to round up the family!

Some slow cookers will automatically shift to this mode after a programme has ended, while others require switching manually.

Auto cook

This function starts your cooking off on a high setting before automatically reducing the temperature to the low setting for the remainder of the cooking time.

It’s useful when you want the overall cooking time to be quicker, as it still enables food to be slow cooked.

Sous vide

An increasingly popular way of cooking, sous-vide is a French term that simply means ‘under vacuum’. You place your food inside a sealed pouch and then pop it into a temperature-controlled water bath to cook.

By sealing food in pouches, the juices and subtle flavours that could otherwise be lost during conventional cooking are retained.

Lid

It’s a good idea for your slow cooker to have a transparent glass lid, so you can keep a watchful eye on your food. The last thing you want is to be lifting the lid every now and then to check progress, as heat and steam will quickly escape and add to your cooking time.

Pot

All the pots on our list are either ceramic or aluminium. Ceramic pots tend to be heavier than their stainless steel or aluminium counterparts, while the non-stick coating on aluminium pots makes them easier to wash by hand – although this needn’t be a concern as all of the pots in our roundup are dishwasher-safe.

Indicator light

This light tells you that your slow cooker is on at a glance.

Is it cheaper to use a slow cooker or an oven?

Typically, ovens consume more energy than a slow cooker. According to research by Crock-Pot, making a stew using a slow cooker will use about 1500W (that’s 51p of electricity based on current prices), while an oven would use double that to make the same dish.

Slow cookers do tend to run for longer though, so if you’re looking to save, look for recipes with a shorter cooking time that can be left on a low heat setting.

Multi-cookers are also worth considering, as these machines offer additional cooking methods, including pressure cooking and air frying, which are speedier ways to cook.

Microwaves are also more cost effective than ovens, as they operate for less time.

The verdict on slow cookers

For great performance and an equally great price, look no further than our winner, the Instant Superior Slow Cooker. It put in a brilliant performance across our cooking tests, has a generous 7.1 litre capacity and is easy to clean. All for less than £70.

For a real multitasker, opt for the Ninja Foodi Max Multi-cooker – as well as slow cooking, it's also a pressure cooker, an air fryer and a grill, making it the ultimate sous chef.

And if you're just cooking for one or two and want something affordable and compact, we recommend the Judge Slow Cooker.

Why should you trust the Good Housekeeping Institute?

The GHI is 100 years old and we've been testing kitchen appliances in our lab since we started. We've seen all the innovations over that time, including pressure cookers, so we know what we're looking for.

Our team, including Blossom Boothroyd, our senior homes tester, and Hannah Mendelsohn, our homes editor, have rigorously reviewed and analysed 36 models against our strict protocols to find the very best on the market.