I love to cook and try new recipes but I admit, I am the laziest chef out there. My Pinterest searches usually consist of "five-ingredient dinners" or "easy workweek meals." Because of this, I've come to adore my little Crockpot — especially this time of year when it's time to cook up chilis and soups.
But what follows a delicious slow-cooked meal comes the dreaded cleanup. I live in an older New York City apartment and don't have a dishwasher, so doing dishes is a time-consuming chore for me. And if you're an avid slow cooker user, you know how tedious cleaning the bowl can be. Between soaking and scrubbing, it feels like it takes as long as the cooking process itself!
So when I was introduced to these slow cooker liners — which say cleanup takes eight seconds or less — I was excited to test that claim. To do so, I broke out all the ingredients for my favorite pumpkin chili.
Reynolds Kitchens Slow Cooker Liners
I was a little skeptical at first because the liners are plastic and I thought: "Won't this melt into my food?". But after fully reading the description and reviews on Amazon, I was put at ease. According to the brand, they are made out of a nylon-blend material and are both BPA-free and FDA-compliant, so you don't have to worry about toxic chemicals seeping into your fall soup.
After placing the liner into my Crockpot, I poured all the ingredients in as usual, gave it a stir, and set the cooker on high with my timer at three hours. When I came back to the kitchen to see if I had dinner or a disaster, I was surprised (and relieved!) to see I had a fully intact meal with no melted bag.
Since I made a big batch, I spooned most of it into containers to save for later, though I think you could just easily transfer the bag into a bigger bowl if serving more people. And clean-up did, in fact, roughly take eight seconds! Normally, I’d have to soak the crock pot because of burned food residue — but thanks to these liners, I didn’t!
I scooped up the bag and tossed it in the bin and was left with a clean inner bowl, (my chili was very soupy so it did start to leak a little bit during the transfer, but it was just a few drops that I could live with). I simply took a soapy sponge and gave the bowl a quick wash before laying it out to dry. I have a tiny two-quart Crockpot but these liners still fit just fine — if anything, the extra material made it easier to pick up when I was finished.
And the food tasted great! Thankfully, there wasn't any plastic taste, which I was most scared of. One Amazon reviewer said that these liners even helped make her cooked chicken more moist. I'll definitely have to try that next, and I think it's safe to say my Crockpot will be working overtime this season.