I am hosting a get together for our neighbors on Sunday and DH will be out of town. Everyone brings an appetizer, but wanted to make something more substantial and think the crock pot is the way to go, but haven’t used it that much. I know chili works, but wondering if you all have a great go-to recipe. Thanks!
Pulled pork is an easy one to do and most seem to like it, if you eat pork. You basically dump ingredients and turn on the crock pot. Then shred the meat. You’d serve it with slider buns. It’s a common recipe if you google it.
Or shredded chicken.
Put boneless breasts in crockpot.
Top with either:
Your favorite bbque sauce
or
A bottle of green salsa.
Cook for several hours. Take lid off and pull apart the chicken right in the crockpot. It will shred easy and then the chicken absorbs much of the liquid juices.
Buy buns or mini slider buns and maybe a topping or two (coleslaw for the bbq or shredded cheese/sour cream/salsa for the green salsa chicken.
Meatballs have been mentioned in the appetizer thread.
I frequently make a baked ziti in a crock pot for events like this. Go heavy on the sauce, and only par-boil the ziti before mixing it with the marinara sauce and ricotta, shredded mozz, and cook it on low for about 2 hours more.
I have also successfully done a mac-n-cheese in the crockpot in a similar method, but just make sure the cheese sauce mix is extra soupy before the last 2 hours. Rinse and drain the par-boiled pasta helps prevent it from absorbing all of the liquid, and sticking/sometimes burning.
Everyone loves pasta, and these are a couple of vegetarian pleasers.
Other options you might consider are general’s chicken or buffalo chicken bites in the crock pot. Not a lot of work if you use a big bag from BJ’s or Sam’s, but if you are more daring and want to make them yourself, there are lots of recipes around.
Pulled pork…easy peasy. Just get some little rolls to serve with it.
You can make a meat-rice pilaf and keep it warm in the crockpot. I make this - with beef or chicken thigh meat instead of lamb:
@BunsenBurner, that recipe looks delicious! I would make it with the lamb, though, and add a pinch of cinnamon.
You can definitely add other spices you like! I throw in a few red peppercorns. Some folks like to add dry barberry berries. With chicken, you can omit step 3 because chicken will be tender without prolonged boiling.
I cook a stracotto with stifado overtones in the crock pot. It’s delicious over pasta, broccoli rabe sauteed with garlic or other greens, etc. I use a lot of tomato, because I want it to be more a hearty meat sauce than a roast, but if you wanted to serve it like pulled pork on a crusty roll, you could easily cut back the tomato, probably by about half. If doing so, you should probably cut back on the cinnamon sticks and the lemon rind, also.
4 1/2 or so lb boneless chuck roast
3 large onions, peeled and diced
3 stalk celery trimmed and diced
4 small carrots or the equivalent, scraped and diced
6+ cloves garlic, minced
Peel of 1 1/2 lemons, removed with peeler in strips
1/2 cup strong brown stock (if using bought liquid beef bouillon, reduce it)
2/3 cup red wine
1 1/2 large cans of thick crushed tomatoes, preferably RedPack (You can use whole peeled in puree instead and crush or chop them, or use diced, or whatever combination you want, but if so you will likely have to add some tomato paste to thicken it up. That’s up to you.)
4 bay leaves
4 cinnamon sticks
about 1 1/2 - 2 tsp dried thyme
Lots of freshly ground back pepper
Salt, 1-2 tsp, depending on whether your stock is salty
Olive oil
Pat roast dry and sear it well on all sides in olive oil in a very hot cast iron skillet. Remove to slow cooker, set to high.
Add onions, celery, and carrots to skillet, plus olive oil as necessary. Lower heat as necessary. You don’t want them blackened. Cook until onions are golden. Add garlic near the end.
Scatter bay leaves, lemon, and cinnamon sticks around roast.
Add stock to vegetables, will boil. Immediately scrape contents of skillet around the roast. Deglaze the skillet with wine before adding, if necessary, or just pour directly around roast. (You want all that nice fond!)
Grind lots of black pepper over roast, and add thyme.
Add tomatoes and paste, if using, to cooker, which will be very full. Add 1-2 tsp salt–you can add more later if necessary. Distribute contents around roast.
Cook on high for about 6-7 hours, possibly longer, until falling apart tender. Remove meat, rough shred by hand–rougher than pulled pork–removing fat. Return to sauce and let it cook for about an hour, or not, if you don’t have time.
If you want to defat it, the easiest thing is to just place the whole cooker dish in the fridge over night, then simply remove congealed fat from the top before reheating. For this reason, it is perhaps best made a day ahead. Also, the flavor only gets better. 
@Consolation You need your own sticky thread so we can keep track of all your recipes. Your DH is surely spoiled. Remind him how lucky he is.
Instant Pot experts, would Consolation’s delicious-sounding recipe work in an Instant Pot on the slow cook setting? Probably not unless halved?
everything sounds delicious
you could do a hot cheese queso type thing in the crock pot and serve with chips and homemade guac.https://southernbite.com/cheesy-sausage-dip/
For a party, I would probably make meatballs.
I made some Chinese-style pork meatballs for an event recently. They went over well. I also like to make an Indian version, usually with ground turkey.
I like the meatballs themselves to have presence, not just the sauce.
In either one, I use a LOT of minced fresh ginger, plus scallions or minced shallots, minced garlic, appropriate flavorings (ie, soy sauce and rice wine/sherry or homemade curry powder), a half a cup or so of fresh bread crumbs, one egg, S&P. I make them about 1 1/2 inches big, and fry them to brown a bit in oil. I then transfer them to the crockpot to finish cooking them in the sauce. For Chinese, maybe stir fry some aromatics (fresh ginger, scallion, and a tablespoon or so of Chinese chili garlic paste), then add a combo of hoisin, soy, and rice wine vinegar, not too much. For Indian, I cook the usual aromatics in oil:10 or so fenugreek seeds, a few cloves, a cinnamon stick, a teaspoon of black mustard seeds, a dried red pepper or two, a big pinch of asafoetida, some turmeric, a couple bay leaves or 10 curry leaves if you have them, then add thinly sliced onions and garlic and minced fresh ginger and cook til the onions are softening, then add some chopped tomato and cook a bit longer. Scrape into the crockpot and add some plain yogurt and a tablespoon or two of lemon juice. Cook the meatballs on high or low, depending on how long you have, until done. The meatballs are not normally swimming in sauce, but reasonably covered. Stir them up from the bottom occasionally.
Or you could buy a jar of Indian or Chinese cooking sauce instead of making one.
Okay, I guess technically this is cheating, but since I really loath cooking…
Costco has some amazing frozen meatballs. You can make your own sauce and presto - done.
Speaking of meatballs, I love Ikea meatballs. They come with sauce. What’s wrong with cheating a bit as far as you and guests are having fun.
If you have a turkey skeleton in your freezer from Thanksgiving, you can make the turkey chipotle chili I’m about to make:
Boil the turkey carcass in salted water with an onion and celery/carrot thrown in.
Drain the stock, let the bones cool, and pick the meat off the bones. Discard onion and celery/carrot.
Put the stock and meat into a crockpot. Add the sauce from a small can of chipotles in adobo (for mild chili) plus as many of the actual chipotles as you want (if you like it spicy). Stir in a heaping tablespoon of chili powder. Add 2 drained cans of black beans, a box of frozen roasted corn, and a chopped bell pepper. Give it maybe half an hour before serving with tortilla chips, grated cheese, and chopped avocado.
We just had Costco meatballs for lunch. I sautéed chopped zucchini and onions, threw in a bunch of meatballs to make it 50:50, added spaghetti sauce and heated the whole thing up. Top with Parmesan cheese, and it makes a nice main dish.