Slow Cooker Onion Butter Potatoes

Three ingredients, one Slow Cooker, and potatoes so buttery and savory you’ll be scraping the bottom of the crock. The dry onion soup mix does all the heavy lifting here — it blooms into the butter and coats every piece in this rich, glossy, caramelized coating that tastes like you spent way more time than you actually did.

Why You’ll Love It

Only 3 ingredients — butter, potatoes, and a packet of onion soup mix, that’s it
The Slow Cooker does everything — no stirring over a stove, no watching anything
Tastes like roasted potatoes — that deep, caramelized, savory coating without the oven or the effort
Great for a crowd — easy to scale up, holds well on warm
Leftovers are even better — fry them in a skillet the next morning and you have a whole different meal

A Word About the Ingredients

The potatoes: I use small red ones. I’ve tried it with Yukon Golds and it works fine, a little creamier, which some people prefer. But for me the red potatoes hold their shape better and there’s something about the skin staying on that I like — it gives them a bit more texture and they look pretty on the plate. Whatever you use, cut them roughly the same size so they cook evenly. I usually do quarters, unless they’re really tiny, in which case I’ll just halve them.
The butter: real butter, a full stick. I use unsalted because the onion soup mix is already salty enough and I don’t want to commit to something I can’t pull back from. That said, my daughter uses salted butter and says it’s fine. She’s probably right.
The onion soup mix: two packets. I know some people have opinions about packet mixes and whether they belong in a “real” recipe — and look, I understand that, I do — but this particular one has been a pantry staple in homes across this country for decades for a reason. It’s not lazy. It’s seasoned correctly. It has dehydrated onion in it that softens and blooms in butter in a way that would take you twenty minutes to replicate from scratch. I’m not apologizing for it.

Ingredients

3 pounds small red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered (or roughly — I never really measure the potatoes exactly)
½ cup unsalted butter, melted (one full stick)
2 packets dry onion soup mix (the 1-ounce packets)

How to Make Them

First, scrub your potatoes. Really scrub them — get the dirt out of the crevices — because you’re leaving the skin on and nobody wants gritty potatoes. Pat them dry, quarter them, and toss them into the Slow Cooker. I usually give the inside of the crock a quick spray with nonstick or rub a little butter around the edges, mostly because I hate scrubbing Slow Cookers. That’s the kind of life wisdom I can offer you.
Melt the butter — microwave works fine, about thirty seconds, stir, another fifteen if needed — and then stir both packets of onion soup mix right into the melted butter. It’ll look thick and dark and kind of intense, which is exactly what you want. Pour that over the potatoes and then use your hands or a big spoon to toss everything so every piece gets coated. Don’t rush that part. You want every potato glossy.
Put the lid on. Cook on LOW for four to five hours or on HIGH for two to three. I almost always do LOW because I’m usually starting it before noon and going about my day. During the last hour, stir once or twice — this helps the butter redistribute and lets the edges that are touching the crock pick up some color without burning.
When they’re done, they should be fork-tender all the way through and coated in this deep, savory, caramel-colored sauce. Give one last stir to pick up the flavorful bits from the bottom. Serve hot.
I made these for the first time on a long, gray Sunday — one of those winters where you just want something warm and uncomplicated — and my youngest looked at them, looked at me, and said, “Did you put something different on these?” Like I’d finally figured something out. I’d been cooking for thirty years by then. It was three ingredients from a packet.

Variations

My daughter swaps in Yukon Golds when she makes them, which I already mentioned, and she’s also added garlic powder to the butter mixture, which I think is a little redundant given what’s already in the onion soup mix — but she didn’t ask me. Some people add a splash of chicken broth to the crock if they’re worried about things drying out, but in my experience the butter is enough, and the potatoes release some moisture as they cook anyway. You could use a beef-flavored onion soup mix for something that leans more toward pot roast territory. I’ve done that once and it was good, just different — a little darker, more intense.
If you want to stretch it for a bigger crowd, add another pound of potatoes, a little extra butter — maybe a tablespoon or two — and an extra half packet of mix. I’ve done that at Thanksgiving and it worked fine, though I had to remind myself to stir more often because the fuller slow cooker traps heat differently.

Storage and Reheating

Leftovers keep in the fridge for about four days. The coating gets a little denser as they sit, which I actually like — it’s almost richer the next day. To reheat, I’d skip the microwave if you can and go straight to a skillet with a small knob of butter. They’ll crisp on the edges and warm through and if you fry an egg alongside them you have a real breakfast. I’ve been known to eat them cold out of the container standing at the open refrigerator, which I’m neither proud of nor ashamed of.

Serve these next to whatever you’re making — meatloaf, roast chicken, a baked ham, even just grilled pork chops on a Wednesday night. They work alongside almost anything because that onion butter flavor is savory and rich without being fussy about what it shares a plate with. A green vegetable somewhere on the table is probably wise — green beans, peas, a salad