The Foil Trick That Lets Your Slow Cooker Make Two Dishes At Once

When prepping for a party or the big game, slow cookers are a game-changer: You can throw everything in and let it go ahead of time (as with any of these 12 easy slow cooker recipes), without having to worry about any fancy cooking techniques. You free up your oven for things that require a crispier texture, and if you use a slow cooker liner, clean-up is a breeze. But what if you have two things that require slow-cooking and you only have one Crock-Pot?

Grab your aluminum foil, because you are going to use it to divide your slow cooker into two separate chambers. To achieve this, you will take a long piece of heavy-duty foil (it's important to use heavy-duty, because regular foil won't hold up as well), fold it in half, and then fold it however much you need to in order to make it fit, vertically, inside your slow cooker.

The sheet of foil should be wide enough that it stays in place without you holding it up, so you can then place two large slow cooker liners, like these ones from Reynolds, on either side of the foil barrier. Pour in whatever two different things you want to heat up at once, put the lid on, set the temperature, and let them go. Wanna make a Crock-Pot meatloaf for dinner and a boozy peach cobbler for dessert in one slow cooker? Well now you can.

There is another way you can use your slow cooker to make two things at once, and this one works if you don't have those nifty plastic liners on hand. You're going to need a lot of heavy duty aluminum foil, and to start out, you'll again make a barrier that fits inside your slow cooker and can remain vertical on its own, but this time, the bottom flaps should be long enough that they reach out onto the bottom of your slow cooker for a good 6 to 8-inches. Remove the divider from the slow cooker.

Next, make a liner layer of aluminum foil by tearing off two long strips and then criss-crossing them (this is even better if you can use extra wide foil, like this kind from Kingsford). Place them in the slow cooker bowl and mold them to the sides, making sure that none of the ceramic is visible. Replace the divider piece; there should be enough overlap between the liner and divider that none of the food you put in touches the bowl (hooray for easy clean-up). When you're done using the slow cooker, remove the food; wait for the foil to cool, and you can bunch it up and toss it out.