Cheap Aldi Slow Cooker and One-Pot Dinners

By Tyler, a home cook in Spring Hill, Florida · Updated October 2026

Some nights the best dinner is the one you started hours ago. A slow cooker or one big pot turns cheap ingredients like pork shoulder, beans, broth and potatoes into a full meal with almost no hands-on time, and there is only one thing to wash at the end. These are eight dinners from this site that cook in a slow cooker or a single pot, each written for four people with Aldi brand ingredients and the cost per serving worked out for you.

Three of them are true slow cooker recipes you can start in the morning. The other five are one-pot soups, stews and chilis that simmer on the stove in under two hours, for the days you did not plan ahead.

Set it and forget it

These are the three I start before work. Slow cooker pulled pork turns an inexpensive pork shoulder into enough sandwiches for the whole family, with a crunchy coleslaw on top. Slow cooker taco soup takes ten minutes of browning beef and opening cans, then cooks on its own all day. Carnitas bowls use the same cheap pork shoulder with lime and cumin, shredded and served over rice and beans.

Pork shoulder is one of the best values in the meat case because it gets more tender the longer it cooks. If you see a big one on sale, cook it all, use half for dinner and freeze the rest of the shredded meat for another night.

One-pot soups, stews and chili

Everything here happens in one pot. Hearty beef stew is the slowest of the group and the most worth it on a cold night. White chicken chili and black bean chili are both done in about forty minutes, and the black bean chili is one of the cheapest dinners on the whole site. Chicken noodle soup is the one I make when somebody in the house is sick, and sausage tortellini soup is the one everybody asks for again.

All five reheat well, and most of them taste even better the next day, so they are perfect for making on Sunday and eating through the week.

Slow cooker tips that save money

Buy the tough cuts. Pork shoulder and beef stew meat cost less than the lean cuts and are made for long, slow cooking. Lean chicken breast can dry out over a long cook, so it is usually better in the faster one-pot recipes.

Keep the lid on. Every time you lift it, heat escapes and the cooking time stretches. Check once near the end, not every hour.

Cook once, eat twice. Soups, chili and shredded meat all freeze well in flat freezer bags. Label them with the date and they will keep for about three months.

Food safety basics

Start with thawed meat, not frozen, so it does not sit too long at an unsafe temperature. Cook pork shoulder until it shreds easily, cook chicken to 165°F and ground beef to 160°F, and get leftovers into the fridge within two hours.

Prices vary by store and change week to week, so treat the costs on these cards as close estimates and check the shelf price before you check out.

Keep reading

• Freezer Meals 101: 10 Dinners from One Aldi Trip
• Meal-Prep Basics for Beginners
• Cheap Aldi Ground Beef Recipes
• Cheap Aldi Dinners for Thanksgiving Week
• All Cheap Aldi Recipes