Slow Cooker Roasted Potatoes are most certainly the easiest side dish ever. These baked potatoes are slathered in a roasted garlic butter mixture and then slow cooked in the crock pot to fluffy tender perfection. As easy as oven baked potatoes can be it certainly doesn’t hurt to use a crockpot to free up that oven space if it’s needed.
About This Recipe
Potatoes are the rock stars of the vegetable world. Mashed, fried, or casseroled, potatoes are beloved in so many ways. And potatoes are a very simple and satisfying side dish for so many meals. Especially the oh-so simple baked potato.
There are several ways to bake a potato. And they’re all very easy. The traditional oven baked potato with foil, or without. You can bake a potato in the microwave. And back in our camping days we’d toss potatoes wrapped in foil into the hot embers of a well built campfire.
No matter how you cook that baked potato, it’s one of Americas favorite side dishes.
My new method of operation is slow cooker roasted potatoes.
Tip: Throw in a couple extra potatoes so you can make Breakfast Twice Baked Potatoes the next morning!
Let’s take a look.
Ingredients You’ll need
- 4-6 medium russet potatoes
- 3 Tablespoons Butter
- 3 cloves garlic
- Salt and pepper
- Sour Cream and chives for topping
Step by Step Instructions, It’s Easy
Here’s How To Make Slow Cooker Roasted Potatoes
This method of baking potatoes in a slow cooker won’t yield a crispy outer skin, but what you do get is a nicely textured skin with a fluffy delicious inside.
Plus you can keep those potatoes warm until you’re ready to serve your meal, and your oven is completely free for more important dinner items, like perhaps a Old Fashioned Meatloaf? That’s a big perk.
- Step 1: Scrub six medium to large russet potatoes with a vegetable brush. Dry the potatoes with a paper towel. With a fork, stab to pierce each potato. Prick the potato all over so that the garlic butter mixture will ooze into as much of the potato as possible. Tip:use a meat fork. Easier to grip and the prongs are sharper.
- Step 2: Dice three cloves of garlic. In a microwave safe container, add three tablespoons butter and cook the butter in the microwave in 30 second increments at 50% power, or until the butter is melted. Add the minced garlic.
- Step 3: Tear off sheets of aluminum foil just large enough to wrap around each potato. Place the potatoes in the center of each square of foil
- Using a brush, slather the potatoes with the garlic butter, salt and pepper and wrap tightly. Cook on low for 5 hours.
- When ready to serve, remove potatoes from the crockpot, unwrap them and slit them down the center so they’re ready to receive toppings.
Tips for Success
- Use a meat fork rather than a table fork. A meat fork is easier to grip and the prongs are sharper.
- Use regular “everyday” foil. Heavy duty foil will not fold around the potatoes as snuggly.
- Do not overcook, as the potatoes can become soggy.
- Serve the potatoes right in the foil packets to get the most out of the garlic butter. Just use a sharp knife to cut open the foil and then peel it back.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! It’s often used to line slow cookers for easy clean up.
Idaho Russet Potatoes, no if’s, ands or buts. Russet potatoes are best for baking because: They’re oblong. They are the signature baked potato dish traditionally served in steakhouses across America as its shape makes it easy to slice down the middle to add all the sour cream and butter your little heart desires.
Russet Potatoes are high in starch and lower in moisture. They’re absorbent, with a mild flavor and a fluffy texture, they make a perfect canvas to soak up any baked potato toppings you throw their way. Think lots of butter.
Russet potatoes are thick skinned, which means they hold up well while baking and keep the interior of the potato nice and fluffy.
Cook for 4 – 5 hours on high, or 8 to 10 hours on low. Depending, of course, on the size of the potato.
Baked Potatoes, foil or no foil?
- Russet potatoes are about 80% moisture, so the Idaho Potato Commission recommends that when baking potatoes in the oven to never wrap them in foil. All of my life I’ve made my baked potatoes wrapped in foil. I trust their advice, so will follow it next time I oven bake them.
- When oven baking potatoes to keep that skin nice and crispy just pierce the skin with a fork, rub them with oil, salt and pepper and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees until tender, or when interior temperature reaches 210 degrees.
- For my slow cooker roasted potatoes I wrap them in foil and here’s why.
- Wrapping the potatoes in foil will help flavor the potatoes. You need that foil to snuggle around the potato so that beautiful mixture of butter and garlic seeps into the holes that are made by piercing the skin with a fork.
- You can make baked potatoes in the slow cooker without foil, but for this recipe, please don’t skip the foil step.
Try Roasting Garlic For This Recipe
Pro Tip: If you have time, roast a head of garlic for this slow cooker baked potatoes recipe. It’s super easy and adds a depth of flavor to any recipe. Roasting garlic brings a sweet and toastier flavor to garlic.
How to roast garlic:
- Simply cut off the stem end of the garlic (opposite of the root end) to expose the cloves. No need to peel the garlic, but I do remove some of the loose papery skin.
- Place in a muffin pan and drizzle with a little olive oil.
- Roast in oven, 400 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until garlic seems soft and is starting to brown around the edges.
- To remove the garlic from the bulb, just squeeze gently. The roasted garlic will come right out.
Riffs on Slow Cooker Roasted Potatoes
Looking for ideas for toppings for baked potatoes?
We’re a bit on the purist side when it comes to baked potatoes, so sour cream, butter and chives is how we normally season them. But there are so many fun ways to dress up that potato.
And if you’re hosting a baked potato bar, it’s a fun way for guests to customize their side dish.
- Yogurt: For a healthier baked potato, offer plain yogurt to replace sour cream.
- Chili: It’s not just for chili dogs.
- Meat: Bacon bits are very popular, but think outside the box. Sausage crumbles, tiny steamed shrimp, or even cubed chicken. Or try shredded bbq chicken.
- Cheese: The sky is the limit with this one. Shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack or mozzarella cheese work well here. Or for a stronger flavor sprinkle on some crumbled blue cheese. Feta or Cotija are also great crumbling cheeses that add a saltiness to your baked potato experience.
Recipe and Ideas
Recipe for Slow Cooker Roasted Potatoes with Garlic Butter
I hope you give these crockpot baked potatoes a try, and if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating and leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have a favorite baked potato recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Potato Side Dish Recipes
- Blue Cheese Potatoes Dauphinoise, Thin sliced potatoes are cooked in cream and modestly seasoned with blue cheese, salt and pepper. Creamy and deliciously dreamy.
- Old Fashioned Creamy Scalloped Potatoes, Simple ingredients and big on flavor. A tried and true recipe where scalloped potatoes taste pure, creamy and very special. Irresistibly delicious.
- Bacon Blue Cheese Potato Salad, The flavors of blue cheese and bacon flavor this potato salad that’s great for any pot luck, back yard BBQ or picnic. A creamy and delicious potato side dish that will wow your crowd.
- Turkish Fries: Elevate your French fry game with these Turkish potatoes tossed with caramelized onions and Aleppo pepper.
And don’t miss my side dish category, you’ll find lost of supporting actors for any of your main course meals. Including the most popular potato recipe on my site for Oven Roasted Cast Iron Skillet Potatoes.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the recipe card below and leave a comment. I always appreciate your feedback and hearing how everything went.
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Garlic Butter Slowe Cooker Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4-6 medium russet potatoes
- 3 tablespoons butter softened
- 3 cloves fresh garlic minced, or roasted garlic, smashed
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup water
- Sour Cream, Chopped chives or green onions for garnish
Instructions
- Scrub potatoes; pierce several times with a meat fork.
- In a small bowl, mix melted butter and garlic. Rub potatoes with butter mixture. Wrap each tightly with a piece of foil.
- Pour water into a 6-qt. slow cooker; add potatoes. Cook, covered, on low 4-5 hours or until tender. Season and top as desired.
Notes
- Use a meat fork rather than a table fork. A meat fork is easier to grip and the prongs are sharper.
- Use regular “everyday” foil. Heavy duty foil will not fold around the potatoes as snuggly.
- Do not overcook, as the potatoes can become soggy.
- Serve the potatoes right in the foil packets to get the most out of the garlic butter. Just use a sharp knife to cut open the foil and then peel it back.
- Try this recipe with roasted garlic. The flavor is outstanding.
Nutrition
Slow Cooker Roasted Potatoes … They’re Whats for Dinner.
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Scarlet says
I have never tried to make baked potatoes in a slow cooker. How good to know it can be done. Now I don’t need to heat up the whole house with the oven.
John / Kitchen Riffs says
Good golly these look wonderful! Neat dish, and SO much flavor. Thanks!
Larry says
What a great idea – I like everything about it and must give it a try. I also like all of the good info you provided about the “whys”
mjskitchen says
oh YUM! There is nothing better than a loaded roasted potato. the use of the garlic butter sounds wonderful! Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend,