Slow Cooker Times: Low, High, and Oven Conversion Chart

Slow cooker times are easy to get right once you know how low, high, and the oven compare, and the converter below does the math for you.

This guide covers everything you need to know about timing and the options available to ensure your dish comes out as good as it can be.

If you have your food cooking on low and it is not dairy-heavy, then you can likely go over the desired time by a few hours and still have the dish be fine. With that said, you might still want to get your times correct to ensure the best possible outcome.

Use the converter below to turn an oven or stovetop recipe into slow cooker hours, or to switch a recipe between low and high. These tips should help perfect your slow cooker recipes.

Tips for Converting Recipes to the Slow Cooker

• Cut the liquid by a third to a half, unless it’s a soup or rice. The lid traps steam, so very little cooks off.
• Thaw meat and poultry first. Frozen meat spends too long thawing at temperatures where bacteria multiply.
• Start on HIGH for the first hour if you can, then turn it down to LOW. The food heats through faster, though cooking on LOW the whole time is still safe.
• Put the vegetables in first. They cook more slowly than meat, so put them on the bottom.
• Fill it halfway to two-thirds full so everything cooks through.
• Keep the lid on except to stir or check whether the food is done.
• Boil dried red kidney beans hard for at least 10 minutes before adding them. A slow cooker doesn’t get hot enough to destroy their natural toxin.
• Add dairy, delicate vegetables, and fresh herbs near the end so they don’t split or turn mushy.

For more safety advice, please read the USDA Slow Cookers and Food Safety guide.

High to Low Slow Cooker Conversions

You can easily convert between high and low temperatures for the slow cooker. Turning to high will obviously shorten the cooking time but may also affect the dish’s overall texture and taste.

Both settings cook the food at a gentle simmer. High just gets there faster, so 1 hour on high is roughly 2 hours on low.

You can switch between them partway through. Count the time the food has already had, then use the converter to work out how much longer it needs on the new setting.

Personally, I always recommend going low and slow unless you need the food fast or the recipe asks for it to be set on high.

Remember that removing the lid adds to your overall cooking time. Each time you remove the lid, add 15 minutes to the cooking time, since that is roughly how long it takes to heat back up to temperature.

Oven to Slow Cooker Conversions

Besides converting between high and low, you can also convert the times for the oven to a slow cooker and vice versa. This is extremely handy if you have a favorite oven dish that you wish to convert to the slow cooker.

The conversions are straightforward. Simply prepare your food just like you would for the oven, but place it in the slow cooker instead.

Keep in mind an oven is a very dry heat and will dry your dish out, but a slow cooker is sealed and will produce excess moisture. You may need to adjust fluids to make sure you get the best result. As a rule, cut the liquid by a third to a half.

Thaw meat and poultry before it goes in, as frozen meat spends too long at temperatures where bacteria grow. I explain why in more detail in the dangers of cooking frozen meat in a slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Timer Options

When it comes to timing your food in the slow cooker, there are several options that are available to you.

I will briefly touch on the most common ways you can time your food so that you can have the slow cooker switch off or switch to keep warm when time is up.

Built-in Timer & Programmable Slow Cookers

Most modern slow cookers have a built-in timer you can set to switch off or switch to keep warm when the timer expires.

The way you set the slow cooker timer is different from model to model, so because of this, I will not go into detail on how you can set yours. It is usually really basic and covered in the instruction manual for your appliance.

You will also find that most slow cookers will switch to a keep warm setting once the time is up, so if you’re running late, your food won’t go cold by the time you get home.

You can check out some cool modern programmable slow cookers over at Amazon.

Shop Programmable Slow Cookers

Outlet Timers

Using an outlet timer is a cost-effective way of having your slow cooker turn off once a certain amount of time has elapsed. This is a better option if you already have a slow cooker and don’t want to fork out money for a brand-new one with a built-in timer.

Using these timers with heating appliances, such as a slow cooker, carries some risks. For example, depending on the timer’s quality, the timer may short and trip a circuit breaker, causing a power outage. I highly recommend testing your timer with the slow cooker before leaving it unattended.

An outlet timer switches the slow cooker off rather than to keep warm, so the food starts to cool straight away. Set it so you are home within 2 hours of it switching off, then serve the food or put it in the fridge.

There are quite a few different types of outlet timers. Personally, I recommend a digital version, as analog types can be a bit fiddly to set. There are smart device options available as well.

Things to look out for

Here’s a quick summary of the things to watch for that I’ve mentioned throughout this guide.

• Chicken can become really dry after hours and hours of cooking, eight hours or longer.
• Beef is best cooked low and slow.
• Cooking on high may result in a dish with less flavor and texture.
• Try not to remove the lid too much, as this will add to the cooking time. Add about 15 minutes each time someone opens it.
• Don’t let cooked food sit at room temperature for more than 2 hours, as it can cause food poisoning.
• When converting between an oven and a slow cooker, remember that an oven uses dry heat, while a slow cooker is sealed so moisture can’t escape.

There are plenty more slow cooker tips that will help you get the most out of your cooking.

If you want to put the converter to work, start with the slow cooker pork stew. It cooks on low for 8 hours and easily feeds a crowd.

The slow cooker Korean beef is the most popular recipe on the site. It cooks on low for 8 hours, then on high for 30 minutes to thicken the sauce.

I hope this guide has helped you learn everything there is to know about slow cooker times. If you have feedback, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.