You buy a whole chicken, eat a little, and the rest goes bad in the back of the refrigerator. By five o'clock you are too tired to cook, and a piece of toast starts to look like dinner. Cooking for one person is harder than cooking for eight, and your slow cooker can fix that with a few minutes of work in the morning.

My name is Mei Lin. I grew up in Guangzhou in the south of China, and I came to America in 1987. In my mother's kitchen, the soup sat on the coal stove from six in the morning, and nobody was allowed to lift the lid. In this video I share ten cheap Chinese dinners you can make in your slow cooker, each one sized for one person, making three or four portions for a couple of dollars a bowl.

In this video:

The five slow cooker rules, including the one Cantonese step that makes soup clear instead of cloudy

Overnight rice porridge that cooks while you sleep, four bowls for about two dollars

ABC soup, the cheapest soup in the video, made with ingredients from any American supermarket

Coca-Cola chicken wings, one of the most popular home dinners in Hong Kong

Buddha's delight, a vegetable dinner with tofu, mushrooms and glass noodles

Watercress and pork soup, the Cantonese answer to dry autumn air

Chestnut chicken with shiitake mushrooms

Soy sauce chicken, and the master sauce you keep in the freezer and never throw away

Char siu barbecue pork made in a slow cooker and finished under the broiler

Red-braised pork belly with eggs, and why the extra egg goes to whoever does the dishes

Cantonese beef brisket with radish, slow cooked until you can cut it with a spoon

Timestamps:

0:00 My mother's soup pot

2:01 The five slow cooker rules

3:44 Number 10: Overnight rice porridge

5:01 Number 9: ABC soup

6:21 Number 8: Coca-Cola chicken wings

7:55 Number 7: Buddha's delight

9:22 Number 6: Watercress and pork soup

10:30 Number 5: Chestnut chicken

11:58 Number 4: Soy sauce chicken and the master sauce

13:53 Number 3: Slow cooker char siu

15:17 Number 2: Red-braised pork belly with eggs

16:43 Number 1: Cantonese beef brisket with radish

19:17 All ten dinners in one breath

No gadgets, no expensive cuts and no tricks. Just cheap ingredients, one pot, and a dinner that is waiting for you when you get home. Every recipe makes three or four portions, so eat one tonight, keep one for tomorrow, and freeze the rest. Always check chicken reaches 165°F, and never put frozen meat straight into a slow cooker.

What did your mother or grandmother cook slowly, all day long? What did the house smell like when you walked in the door? Tell me in the comments. I want to hear it before it is gone.

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