This slow-cooking cholent is a hearty meat stew with potatoes and beans. Perfect for Shabbat, this meat cholent cooks low and slow overnight or all day.
Updated 2019 with video
What is Cholent
Cholent is
a Jewish stew created to comply with Jewish law prohibiting cooking on Shabbat. Cholent works for Shabbat because it has a long cooking time; You start the stew on Friday before Saturday and it will cook all night to be ready the next day. The low and slow cooking method makes cholent a great recipe for slow cooker. This is one of those recipes where no two versions are the same; there are tons of variations in this Shabbat stew. The ingredients used in cholent vary depending on a few things, one of which is the geographic area of ancestry. For example, Ashkenazi cholent usually includes meat, barley, beans, and potatoes, while chickpeas, rice, and eggs are common ingredients in Sephardic cholent, also known as hamin.
Barley and
Beans
This slow cooker recipe has both barley and beans. While it is common to use pearl barley, a white bean, and a red or pinto bean, you can use a different type of bean if you wish. Remember how I said cholent can be done in many different ways? This is an area where you have some wiggle room. Need to soak your beans? No. That’s another advantage of this recipe. Dried beans don’t need to be soaked beforehand, just give them a good rinse. Trust me, I do this without soaking my beans and they are still tender after 10+ hours of cooking. Red beans are the exception. Dried kidney beans contain a particular lectin that is toxic to people when not cooked thoroughly. To be safe and make the beans more digestible, boil them for 20 minutes before adding them to the slow cooker. You can use canned beans. If so, drain and rinse them first.
What kind of meat to use
Bring the cheapest and toughest cuts of meat! Due to the long low and slow cooking time, this cholent recipe will turn even the hardest cuts of meat into tender, crumbling meat. Suggestions include breast, short rib, chuck roast, round roast, stewed meat, etc. The harder, the better. You can also use cuts of meat with bones. If your meat has bones like short ribs, leave them inside.
What kind of potatoes to
use
You can use your preferred potato. I like to use waxy potatoes like red or yellow potatoes because, compared to other potatoes, they maintain their shape better during the long cooking time.
Sephardic versions of hamin/cholent often use eggs. I personally like to include eggs in my stew. This is, of course, optional. I usually add 2-4 raw eggs to my cholent. If you are adding eggs, dig a small hole in the cholent and gently push the egg down until it is submerged under the liquid. The eggs go raw. They will be cooked hard along with the rest of the food in the slow cooker. When the stew has finished cooking, carefully remove the eggs (they will be hot) and let them cool before peeling.
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/fitslowcookerqueen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Slow-Cooker-Cholent-5.jpg" alt="
cholent cooked scrambled in slow cooker
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Other Jewish recipes
Chopped liver
Kugel
Chicken w/Apples and honey (Paleo)
Matzo
ball soup <img
src=”https://i0.wp.com/fitslowcookerqueen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Slow-Cooker-Cholent-6.jpg” alt=” ” />
I used a 6-quart slow cooker for this recipe.
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