Cooking with a slow cooker requires almost no skill and even less attention—two attributes that might not serve you everywhere in life, but are perfect for a tasty, low-effort meal. You drop everything in, walk away, and hours later the flavors have melded, dinner’s ready, and your house smells like you lit chicken-stock incense.
Slow cookers work for healthy recipes and not-so-healthy ones, for appetizers and full dinners alike. They’re also ideal for making big batches of chicken-forward meals you can freeze and pull out on nights when cooking feels impossible.
Even better? While there are plenty of ways to get big flavor out of chicken sausage, this might be the easiest. Think of the slow cooker as your mug and the sausage as the tea bag—just let it steep.
Whether you're making chili, dips, or a one-pot dinner that feeds you for days, these unfussy recipes taste like you tried way harder than you did.
Spicy Chicken Sausage Chili
This is technically a Dutch oven recipe, but the slow cooker is just a Dutch oven gone electric. Like Bob Dylan, but less obsessed with Alicia Keys. Also, like Dylan crying over Alicia Keys’ 2002 Grammy Awards performance in “Thunder on the Mountain,” this chili will make you emotional, because it’s so simple.
Italian Herb Chicken Sausage replaces ground meat here, giving the dish herby notes. Beans, tomatoes, and spices simmer into a thick, hearty base that gets better the longer it sits. Set it—but you won’t forget it once the aroma takes over your kitchen.
Make it yourself: Our chili is belly-warming and adaptable to whatever heat level you can handle.
Slow Cooker Sausage and Potatoes
This is a 5-ingredient dinner, which means you don't need to spend much at the store or burn through your grocery budget. The recipe uses Cajun seasoning, so stick with Melty Cheddar or Classic Roasted Chicken Sausage—or swap in Italian seasoning and use Italian Herb Sausage instead.
Slice the sausage links into coins about half an inch thick and skip russet potatoes here. They're too starchy and turn to mush when cooked low and slow. Go for Yukon golds or red potatoes instead.
Make it yourself: Slow Cooker Gourmet's recipe is dead simple.
Slow Cooker Sausage Pasta
The original recipe uses beef sausage, but you can easily sub in Italian Herb Chicken Sausage. Brown the sausage first for extra flavor, but know that it's not necessary, especially if you want to minimize effort. The recipe calls for beef stock, but chicken stock will work better with the chicken sausage and keep the dish a little lighter.
Cream cheese anchors the whole thing, giving the sauce a richness that clings to the pasta. You do have to cook the pasta separately, which is mildly annoying but better than eating semolina gloop if you tried to cook it in the slow cooker.
Make it yourself: VJ Cooks' creamy, satisfying recipe is worth the pasta pot you'll have to wash.
Spicy Sausage, Kale & White Bean Soup
This recipe isn't originally a slow cooker recipe, but you can easily make it in one. Use Italian Herb Chicken Sausage, remove the casing, and crumble it up in the bottom of the pot. Then, dump in all the ingredients, minus the kale, and let ‘er cook on low for six hours or on high for three. Stir in the kale at the end.
The white beans give the broth a natural creaminess, and the Calabrian chiles in the sausage add a subtle heat.
Make it yourself: Our Dutch oven version works well as a slow-cooker recipe.
Slow Cooker Sausages with Peppers and Onions
Peppers, onions, beer, and mustard—it's a classic combination that's been feeding people at street markets and tailgates for decades. The onions become sweet and soft, while the beer adds a subtle, interesting background flavor.
Consider searing the sausages before braising them in the slow cooker. It'll help maintain the snap. You can pop them straight onto a plate or pile them onto buns. Whatever you fancy.
Make it yourself: The Kitchn's version is straightforward and delivers every time.
Slow Cooker Sweet Spicy Sausage
Grape jelly in meatball recipes has been frightening and surprising people for generations. Continue the tradition with these bad boys. Use Classic Roasted Chicken Sausage here—the mild flavor lets the sauce do the talking.
The sweet grape jelly cooks down with chili sauce over time into a glossy, sweet-spicy nectar that coats every bit of meat. It sounds weird, tastes great, and makes for haunting party conversation when someone inevitably asks what's in it.
Make it yourself: A Night Owl’s recipe is perfectly retro and built for crowds.
Chicken Sausage Queso Dip
While this isn’t traditionally a slow cooker recipe, it works beautifully in one. Start with a classic cream cheese base, then crank up the Southwestern flavor with Hatch and Fresno chilies. The flavor-studded sausage melts right into the cheese, like Gollum in the fires of Mt. Doom.
Garnish with chili crisp for a little extra oomph and serve with tortilla chips. Or pour it over a baguette and then add another sausage on top. Double sausage. We’d never judge.
Make it yourself: Plunking chicken sausage into any ole queso will work, but ours happens to be the best.
Sausage Casserole
One of the fun parts of slow cooker cooking is throwing a bunch of kooky ingredients together and letting the low heat meld them into something better than the sum of its parts. This casserole is what slow-cooker dreams are made of: diced frozen hash browns, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and Pepper Jack and cheddar cheese. Use Melty Cheddar or Classic Roasted Chicken Sausage. It's not healthy, but it sure is delicious.
Make it yourself: Fantabulosity's recipe is pure comfort food.
Jambalaya
Developed in Louisiana, fusing African, Spanish, and French influences into something that belongs to the American South, jambalaya often uses several types of protein. This one’s no exception. The recipe calls for skinless chicken breast, shrimp, and smoked sausage.
To make it extra easy, skip the smoked sausage and the raw chicken and use extra Classic Roasted Chicken Sausage and add a dash of liquid smoke or a teaspoon of smoked paprika to approximate the smokiness you'd get from smoked sausage.
Make it yourself: Adapt Taste of Home's Jambalaya and exult in the layered flavors and hearty textures. You can also adapt our recipe with a few modifications.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Teresa Bellissimo fried up the first Buffalo wings in her New York pub back in the 1960s as a late-night snack, accidentally launching a bar-food revolution. Buffalo chicken dip is the natural evolution. This dip’s not strictly for a slow cooker, but a slow cooker will keep this delicious orange lava warm for hours without babysitting.
Melty Cheddar Chicken Sausage is the star of this two-cheese stage. Eat it with tortilla chips, a spork, or ladle it directly into your Stanley cup. Whatever you gotta do.
Make it yourself: Our version is game day gold.