3 High Protein Fall Crockpot Recipes for Football Season

High protein fall crockpot recipes pair lean protein (ground chicken, chicken breast, beef round) with fall produce like butternut squash and apples. The three below land between 27 and 46 grams of protein per serving: buffalo chicken chili, maple chipotle pulled chicken with apple slaw, and beef and butternut squash stew.

She's been sitting in the back of the pantry since April, and she knows what time it is. The crockpot, we mean.

In our houses, fall means football on the TV and friends coming through the door with a bottle of wine, and game day food tends to go one of two directions. Somebody orders 40 wings and a vat of queso and the whole group spends Monday talking about starting over (there's no wagon to fall off, ladies), or somebody sets out a veggie tray for a room full of hungry adults and it sits untouched until halftime. We don't love either one for our ladies.

What works is a crockpot full of protein that tastes like game day, sitting right next to the chips and the Sauvignon Blanc. Every recipe below takes 20 minutes or less of prep, feeds six, and holds on the warm setting for the whole game. The macros are estimates and will shift a little with the brands you buy, so log what you use.

Why Protein Matters More in Perimenopause and Menopause

Nobody needs to eat plain grilled chicken out of a Tupperware at a tailgate, and we would never ask you to. Protein is the part of the plate that does the most work for women our age, and fall comfort food happens to be a great place to get it.

Muscle gets harder to hold onto as estrogen drops. One review of the research found lean or muscle mass about 2.5 percent lower in perimenopausal women and 5.7 percent lower in postmenopausal women compared to women before menopause. Protein helps protect that muscle while you're losing fat, and in a 20-week randomized trial, women eating 1.2 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight a day lost a smaller share of their weight as lean mass than women eating 0.5 to 0.7 grams, with similar fat loss between the two groups. Dr. Mary Claire Haver's read of the research is that protein and resistance training work best as a pair, and that's how we coach it too. 

The how-to is easy. Build dinner around a real serving of protein, and every recipe here lands between 27 and 46 grams per bowl or sandwich. As Gina puts it, "Unfortunately, alcohol will never count as protein." Have the glass anyway and log it with your macros like we've taught you.

Recipe 1: Buffalo Chicken Chili

This one comes from our High Protein Fall Crockpot guide and it's one of our all-time favorites, adapted from Juli Bauer's slow cooker buffalo chicken chili at PaleOMG. Ground chicken, white beans, and cauliflower rice cook down with half a cup of buffalo sauce, so it tastes like wings and eats like dinner.

Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 3 to 6 hours | Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground chicken

• 1 onion, diced

• 2 bell peppers (red or green), diced

• 2 cups cauliflower rice (fresh or frozen)

• 1 can (15 oz) fire roasted tomatoes

• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

• 1 can (15 oz) white beans, drained and rinsed

• ½ cup buffalo sauce

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp black pepper

Directions

1. Brown the ground chicken in a skillet until fully cooked.

2. Add the chicken and all remaining ingredients to the slow cooker.

3. Stir, cover, and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours.

4. Top with avocado, cilantro, or a spoonful of Greek yogurt.

Macros per serving (estimated, toppings not included): 310 calories, 27g protein, 22g carbs, 12g fat

Recipe 2: Maple Chipotle Pulled Chicken With Apple Slaw

This is the one to pile onto slider buns before kickoff. Two and a half pounds of chicken breast cooks down in a smoky, slightly sweet chipotle and maple sauce, and the apple slaw on top gets its creaminess (and a little extra protein) from Greek yogurt.

Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 3 to 6 hours | Serves: 6

Ingredients for the chicken

• 2.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

• 1 yellow onion, sliced

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 cup tomato sauce (no sugar added)

• 3 tbsp pure maple syrup

• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced, plus 2 tbsp of the adobo sauce

• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 tsp smoked paprika

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp salt

Ingredients for the apple slaw

• 3 cups shredded coleslaw mix

• 1 Honeycrisp apple, cut into matchsticks

• ½ cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 tsp honey

• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Spread the onion and garlic across the bottom of the slow cooker and lay the chicken on top.

2. Whisk the tomato sauce, maple syrup, chipotles, adobo sauce, vinegar, paprika, cumin, and salt, then pour it over the chicken.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours, until the chicken reaches 165°F and shreds easily.

4. Shred the chicken with two forks right in the crockpot, stir it into the sauce, and switch to the warm setting.

5. For the slaw, stir the yogurt, vinegar, honey, and salt together, toss with the coleslaw mix and apple, and refrigerate until serving.

6. Serve on slider buns, over rice, or in butter lettuce cups with a scoop of slaw on top.

Macros per serving (estimated, chicken plus slaw, bun not included): 320 calories, 46g protein, 21g carbs, 5g fat

Two chipotles gives it a medium kick. Use one if you've got kids or spice-shy friends at the table.

Protein in the crockpot and a 6 oz Sauvignon Blanc in your hand is the 80-20 lifestyle on a Sunday.

Recipe 3: Beef and Butternut Squash Stew With Red Wine

Half a cup of red wine goes in the pot and the rest of the bottle goes on the table. This one's for the late game on a cold Sunday. Beef round cooks low for eight hours with butternut squash, mushrooms, and carrots, and some of the squash melts right into the gravy and thickens it.

Prep: 20 minutes | Cook: 4 to 8 hours | Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs lean beef stew meat (bottom round or sirloin), cut into 1½-inch cubes

• 2 tbsp cornstarch

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp black pepper

• 4 cups butternut squash, cut into 1½-inch cubes (a 20 oz pre-cut bag works)

• 8 oz cremini mushrooms, halved

• 3 carrots, sliced thick

• 1 yellow onion, diced

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 2 cups low-sodium beef broth

• ½ cup dry red wine (or more broth)

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

• 1 tsp dried thyme

• ½ tsp dried rosemary

Directions

1. Toss the beef with the cornstarch, salt, and pepper right in the slow cooker.

2. Add the squash, mushrooms, carrots, onion, and garlic on top.

3. Whisk the broth, wine, tomato paste, Worcestershire, thyme, and rosemary, then pour it over everything.

4. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 to 5 hours, until the beef is fork tender.

5. Stir, taste for salt, and serve as is or with crusty bread or a baked potato for anyone who wants more carbs.

Macros per serving (estimated, bread not included): 310 calories, 38g protein, 22g carbs, 6g fat

How to Set Up a Game Day Crockpot Spread

A few things make the day easier, and none of them involve skipping the fun food.

Put the crockpot at the center of the table. When the protein is the first thing people see, it fills the plate first, and the chips end up as the side instead of the whole dinner.

Let the chips and queso come too. That's your 20 percent, and a handful of tortilla chips next to a bowl of buffalo chili is a Sunday we'd sign up for every week. As Angie says, you don't have to outwork anything you ate the night before.

Make a double batch for Monday. The chili and the stew both freeze well, and the pulled chicken turns into lunch bowls over rice for the next few days.

Join the Girl Gang VIP Membership

Recipes are the easy part. What most of our ladies come to us for is the Wednesday night when the crockpot is empty and the week is loud, and that's what the VIP membership is for, with custom macros, recipes, workouts, the macro tracker, and the two of us in your corner every day. One of our VIP members said it better than we could:

"You have 2 coaches who keep it as simple as possible with recipes to hit your goals, only 30 minutes a day for a workout and you can communicate with them daily."

Join the Girl Gang VIP membership!

If you want the rest of our fall lineup, our High Protein Fall Crockpot guide has 10 recipes, including the Harvest Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili and the Apple Cider Pulled Pork. Comment CROCKPOT on any of our Instagram posts and we'll send it over.

Trust the process, trust us. We are your gals.

xo, Angie + Gina