Slow cooker and air fryer dinners, sorted by cut.
Find the cut you actually bought, get the time that actually applies to it. Every recipe cooked and probe-tested here first.
A slow cooker converts collagen into gelatin. That is its entire job.
Which is why the same appliance produces fall-apart pot roast and inedible chicken breast. Tough, hard-working cuts are full of connective tissue, and eight hours turns it into something rich. Lean cuts have none, so the machine has nothing to do except remove their water. An air fryer runs the logic backwards: high heat, short time, brilliant at exactly the cuts a slow cooker ruins.
Which machine gets which cut
The pot
High collagen. Long and low.
The basket
Low collagen. Hot and fast.
Times shown for a 6-quart cooker and a 5.8-quart basket. Verify against your own equipment.
Slow Cooker
Chuck, shoulder, brisket, shank. The cheap cuts, and the best thing this machine does.
Air Fryer
Wings, chops, fries, cauliflower. Everything lean, everything fast.