Garlic Butter Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes

Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes are most certainly the easiest side dish ever. These baked potatoes are slathered in a roasted garlic butter mixture and then slow cooked 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 to cook baked potatoes in the crock pot. Let’s take a look.

Special Notes and Tips

Crockpot 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.

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 crockpot baked 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.

To flavor these slow cooker baked potatoes, you’ll first prick them all over with a fork. Then with your hands, slather them with the garlic butter mixture before wrapping them in foil.

Can you put aluminum foil in a slow cooker? Yes! It’s often used to line slow cookers for easy clean up.

You can make baked potatoes in the slow cooker without foil, but for this recipe, please don’t skip the foil step.

Noteworthy Ingredients

What kind of potatoes are best for baking?

Idaho Russet! No if, 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.

Let’s Get Started, Steps and Procedures

Here’s How To Make Crockpot Baked 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 meatloaf?

• 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. I like to use a meat fork. Easier to grip and the prongs are sharper.
• Dice three cloves of garlic.
• In a microwave safe container, add three tablespoons butter and sprinkle in the minced garlic.
• Cook the butter in the microwave in 30 second increments at 50% power, or until the butter is melted.
• 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
• Rub the potatoes with the garlic butter, salt and pepper and wrap tightly.
• Place the potatoes in the slow cooker and cook for 4 – 5 hours on high, or 8 to 10 hours on low. Depending, of course, on the size of the potato.
• Do not overcook, as the potatoes can become soggy.
• When ready to serve, remove potatoes from the crockpot, unwrap them and slit them down the center so they’re ready to receive toppings.

Special Notes and Tips

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 Baked Potatoes

Looking for ideas for toppings for Slow Cooker 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 Baked 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. 

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.