The sluggish cooker—you both adore it for the comfort it brings to meals or hate it for its tendency to show these meals bland, squishy, and simply sort of unhappy. I used to fall into the latter camp till I discovered which kinds of dishes the sluggish cooker excels at. “The issue with the sluggish cooker isn’t the equipment itself—it’s how we use it,” our senior culinary editor Leah explains within the headnote for her new salsa verde rooster tacos recipe, one of many slow-cooker recipes featured right here. “Too usually, we deal with the sluggish cooker like a culinary dumping floor, tossing in an excessive amount of liquid, skipping seasoning changes, and anticipating it to imitate a stovetop braise or Dutch oven roast.” However while you lean into the moist, light warmth of a sluggish cooker, you’ll be able to produce meals which are really scrumptious—not mere concessions to comfort. That’s precisely what the recipes we’ve gathered right here do. So go forward: Set it and neglect it—then get pleasure from it 4 to eight hours later.