Here are the easiest meals to make in a slow cooker or crock pot: two ingredient slow cooker recipes!

This is one of the best tips I have, and it requires so little cooking or skill, I’m almost hesitant to share it here for fear you’ll take away my cooking license. The good news is that I don’t have a license. So.

Tell me if you can relate: Sometimes I just don’t have the time or the energy to create a delicious meal — even a meal in my slow cooker, which yes, is the saving grace of sanity. Sometimes all I want, all I need in the world, is my own personal *Jamie Oliver.

*For strictly cooking purposes you guys! Obviously.

And when those times come calling, I reach into my back pocket for this tip. The two-ingredient slow cooker recipe. It saves my life, and I know that if you’re not using it, you should be! So here it is: You can combine any meat (chicken, beef, pork) with just about any bottled sauce (a marinade, salsa, marinara…you name it) in your crock pot, and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, and the resulting meat will be nothing short of marvelous. It will taste just as good as some of the crock pot meals you take 15 minutes to put together!

Two ingredients, friends — one of which you didn’t make yourself! And you don’t even have to use a sauce; you can use broth, too. Chicken, vegetable, or beef broth work really well if you want to leave the flavor of the meat fairly simple so that you can use it in a variety of dishes throughout the week! An example: Combine boneless skinless chicken breasts with chicken broth in your slow cooker, cook on low until tender, shred the meat, then use some of it in chicken salad sandwiches for lunch, in chicken pot pie for dinner, and then add the rest to enchiladas another night.

But play around! Chicken and salsa? It works. Pork and barbecue sauce? Pulled pork! Ground beef and marinara? Don’t make me say it again!

Use enough sauce just to cover the meat and let the mix slowly cook all day long. The finished product will be infused with the flavor of the sauce (a reason to use only sauces you love!) and so tender it falls apart upon fork contact. Try it!

What’s your favorite slow cooker combination?