Can you put a slow cooker pot in the oven? How to figure out which ones are (and aren’t) oven-safe

Slow cooker season is well and truly upon us. And if you have a hankering for hearty winter stews and low-maintenance meals during the darker, colder evenings, a slow cooker can make the ideal addition to your kitchen. But in a world where home cooks hunt for multi-purpose appliances, you might wonder whether you can put a slow cooker pot in the oven.

Although the best slow cookers were once considered an old-fashioned appliance, they’ve grown in popularity over the past few years - and rightly so. Ideal for singletons and large families alike, slow cookers allow you to cook low and slow with minimal input. After popping all of the ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning, it'll cook while you get on with other things, ready to dish up at meal time.

And while modern slow cookers come with countless bells and whistles that make them stand out, it’s hard to deny that slow cooker meals are generally quite… wet. So, what can you do if you want to brown the top of your slow-cooker shepherd’s pie or crisp up your roast chicken skin? Can you put a slow cooker pot in the oven for that final flourish? We asked the experts.

Can you put a slow cooker pot in the oven?

Ultimately, the answer to this question isn’t a yes or no. Instead, it’s a maybe. That’s because some slow cooker pots can be put in the oven while others can’t.

According to Molly Cleary, Ideal Home’s Kitchen Appliances Editor, an oven-proof pot is one of the best slow cooker accessories - but it isn’t offered as standard.

This is echoed by Sam Milner, cookbook author and kitchen gadgets expert at recipethis.com. She says, ‘You can put the slow cooker cooking pot in the oven if it’s made of the same material as a casserole dish. Some slow cookers have a cooking pot made of plastic, which is not oven-friendly.’

In fact, out of the many slow cookers that she and other members of the testing team have tried, only two come with an oven-proof pot.

The first is the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker 8-in-1 Slow Cooker, which received an impressive 4.5-star review. This multi-functional appliance can slow cook, sear/saute, steam, braise, simmer, bake, prove, and keep warm. The main (removable) pot is oven-safe up to 260°C, and the lid is, too.

It’s safe to say that this feature won over our reviewer, Helen McCue. During the testing process, she cooked a delicious beef stew using the slow cooker functionality for eight hours before deciding to mix things up a bit.

She said, ‘I decided that instead of serving my beef stew alongside a dollop of buttery mash, to put the mash on top of the stew with some cheddar cheese. I popped the pot straight into the oven with the aim of making it into a cross between a beef stew and a cottage pie.’

The end result was a soft and tender stew with a crispy, cheesy topping - and a major perk was that Helen could then carry the oven-proof dish to the table to serve family-style. So, it really is a one-pot wonder.

However, the Ninja offering isn’t the only slow cooker to offer a pot you can also put in the oven. The Crockpot Lift and Serve is just as good. In fact, Molly gave this slow cooker an incredible 5-star review.

If you’re in the market for a slow cooker that does it all, the Crockpot Lift and Serve could be your next purchase. And its removable, oven-safe stoneware pot means that you can put the slow cooker pot in the oven if you want to. However, it’s worth noting that the pot isn’t suitable for use on the hob - and Crockpot doesn't recommend that you put the lid in the oven either.

This shouldn’t be the reason you avoid it, though. As Isabella Forgione, small appliances expert at AO.com explains, ‘Unfortunately, [the lids] tend not to be oven safe, so try to cover over your pot with aluminium foil instead.’

But if you already have a slow cooker and you’re wondering whether you can put the pot in the oven, we’d suggest checking the instruction manual or contacting your manufacturer to check. From our experience, though, there are more slow cooker pots that aren’t oven-safe than those that are.

So, this might be the perfect excuse to upgrade your old one! As Sam says, ‘Slow cookers that have this feature and are oven friendly tend to cost a little more to buy, but ask yourself how often you would like to slow cook and then finish the food off in the oven.’

If it's something that you'd get use out of, it's definitely worth the extra pennies.

FAQs

How do you use a slow cooker in the oven?

If you want to use your slow cooker in the oven, you first need to ensure the inner pot is oven-safe. If not, you risk damaging the pot beyond repair - and ruining your meal in the process.

You should then remove the pot from the rest of the appliance (ideally, with a meal that has already been slow-cooked inside) and pop it in the oven. This should only be used to crisp up the top of your food or give it an extra boost of high and fast heat rather than the slow and low method of slow cooking.

Do slow cookers use a lot of electricity?

Each slow cooker uses different amounts of electricity, depending on its wattage and the current electricity cost. However, slow cookers are generally considered to be extremely cheap to run.

You should expect to spend around 4p an hour to use a slow cooker, which is extremely efficient - especially when compared to other kitchen appliances. It’s important to note that most people use a slow cooker for around eight hours, which will ultimately raise the price.

You can read more about the cost of running a slow cooker in our detailed guide here.