Seems I'm not alone here based on other comments, so honest question for people who consider themselves good at cooking and also like slow cookers / pressure cookers: what are you making in them that you think is actually good? I gave away my crockpot years ago and am going to do the same with my instapot because everything I have tried except chilis and stews comes out extremely "meh" and definitely inferior to traditional cooking. For chilis and stews, all I'm really saving is some time since cooking on the stove still works just fine.
Cooking beans in the pressure cooker is fairly quick and easy, even if I don't soak them. I package the beans in packages that are a bit smaller than a can and freeze them. I'd probably do this more often if I had more freezer space.
My crock pot's inner "pot" is also stovetop and oven safe: I can saute the onions and things before starting the slow cooking if I want without using extra dishes. This is the thing that crock pots are often lacking: The bits of cooked food adding flavor. Of course, I'm also the type to roast potatoes for potato soup. And I'm probably partial to some soups (and spaghetti sauce and pot roast) in the slow cooker as we had one growing up.
I haven't had much luck cooking just rice in a pressure cooker, but I make a mushroom risotto that everyone seems to go crazy for. No idea if it would be scoffed at by Tom Colicchio or not, but it only takes about 10 minutes before I'm bringing it up to pressure, and it is ready 20 minutes later without much work:
Saute 1-1.5lbs sliced mushrooms + 1-2 onions w/ 4 tbsp butter until soft, add 2 tbsp chopped herbs(thyme, oregano, something like that). Add 2 cups arborio rice + 2 cups veggie or chicken stock, pressure cook for 6 minutes, quick release, stir in 1 cup peas, big handful of spinach, a boatload of shredded parm, and serve with even more parm shredded on top.
My best friend is the best slow cooker guy I know.
He mainly just cooks meats in it. He does the sides when he gets home from work.
I used to imagine only dishes like you mentioned--the whole meal is in the cooker.
Pulled pork is really good out of the slow cooker. Not as good as smoked, but pretty close, and anyone can do it with about ten minutes effort, vs a lot of effort on the smoker.
The instant pot is great for grains. Rice comes out consistent, as do other grains. It also frees up a burner which can be useful.
Stock is so much quicker to make and is completely different than store-bought.
Otherwise the key for slow cookers is that anything that needs to taste fresh (like peas) are added in the last half hour. But it’s about time saving otherwise.
Ex-professional chef here. I used my slow cooker a lot more before getting an instant pot. I was a holdout on that for the longest time, but the first time I made hummus from dried garbanzos in under an hour, I was sold–and while I pride myself in my stovetop rice cooking abilities, it really is a great rice cooker. I now use the slow cooker primarily for tough meats like goat. It also makes a great stock: fill 2/3 with bones, fill with water and let it go overnight on the high setting, and you have perfect meat jello the next day. I’m sure I’ll eventually dial these tasks in to the instant pot and then the slow cooker will be passed on.
We use our crock pot mostly for cooking meat to go in other things. We'll cook a pork butt or a whole chicken over night then shred it up and make a few meals out of it for the week.
It's also nice for keeping things hot over time. We took mashed potatoes to Thanksgiving dinner in one today so they'd be easy to keep hot until the meal without monopolizing stove space.
