The Magical Slow Cooker » Recipes » Chicken » Slow Cooker Full Chicken Dinner
bySarah Olsonon | Updated 158 Comments
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This Slow Cooker Full Chicken Dinner has tender chicken thighs, Yukon gold potatoes and green beans in a savory herb sauce.
If you love making one pot meals in your slow cooker, also try creamy ranch chicken and potatoes.
I love it when I find a complete meal for the slow cooker — no worrying about making side dishes for this meal since everything is prepared at once.
For this meal, I use bone-in chicken thighs. I think if boneless skinless chicken is used in the recipe, the recipe will be dry.
The juices from the bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs help make a flavorful sauce along with the tomato sauce and seasonings. If you chose to use chicken breasts, add a cup of chicken broth.
Set a pan on the stove top and set to medium-high heat. Add the cooking oil and swirl coat the bottom of the pan. When the oil is hot, brown the chicken on both sides, you don't need to cook the meat through.
Add the diced potatoes and green beans to the bottom of the slow cooker, toss them together to combine them.
Add the chicken thighs on top of the potatoes and green beans. Add the garlic. Drizzle over the tomato sauce, then sprinkle over the salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary. Take a spatula and smear around the sauce trying to combine the seasoning into the sauce.
Cover and cook on HIGH for 4.5 hours. Do no open the lid during the cooking time or the potatoes will not get tender.
Serve and enjoy!
How to Video:
Sarah’s Notes:
If you desire to use boneless skinless chicken add a cup of chicken broth.
Any type of potato can be used in place of the Yukon gold potatoes.
Nutritional Values are approximate. Please use your own calculations if you require a special diet. The values below are for 1/4 of the recipe.
For a whole chicken – Place it in your slow cooker breast side down. Cover with the lid and cook on High for around 4-5 hours or Low for 6-8 hours. For bone-in pieces - Arrange chicken pieces in a single layer in the slow cooker. Cover with the lid and cook on High for around 3-4 hours or Low for 4-6 hours.
I would start on high and switch to low after 1/2 hours. Long and slow produces a more tender finished product. You want to bring your crockpot up to temp quickly even when you are going to cook at low.
Pour water over the chicken breasts so that it just barely covers them. Sprinkle the chicken breasts with plenty of salt and pepper. Cover your crock pot and cook chicken breasts on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Chicken is done when the internal temp reaches 165 degrees F.
If a dish usually takes: 15-30 mins, cook it for 1-2 hours on High or 4-6 hours on Low. 30 mins – 1 hour, cook it for 2-3 hours on High or 5-7 hours on Low. 1-2 hours, cook it for 3-4 hours on High or 6-8 hours on Low.
The difference between "High" and "Low" on slow cookers seems to differ with every brand and model. One thing that is consistent, though, is that food takes seven to eight hours to reach a simmer point (around 210°) on low; versus three to four hours on high.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours until chicken is tender and cooked through. Remove lid and let chicken cool for 10 minutes or so before shredding (so we don't burn ourselves!) Use two forks to shred the chicken right in the crockpot. The chicken will absorb any liquid in the pot as you shred it.
Cover the Crock-Pot with its lid and set it to cook on low heat. Cooking boneless, skinless chicken breasts on low heat typically takes about 4-6 hours.
I often buy whole chickens and create an entire menu plan around 1 chicken, using it in a variety of different ways to create 4-5 meals from one chicken. The meals are diverse enough that it doesn't feel like you're eating the same thing every day.
I wanted to share a meal planning idea with you of how to take a whole chicken, cut it up at the beginning of the week, and have all the pieces you need to make FIVE wonderfully wholesome and delicious meals for the week.
Aside from accidentally overcooking the meals, the most common reason we see for tough, rubbery, or overdone chicken is customers using a Crockpot that is far too big. Each of our meals comes with a recommended slow cooker size.
Rubbery chicken is usually an indicator of overcooked chicken. The longer the chicken cooks, the more moisture it loses, and without moisture, the protein fibers become elastic, AKA rubbery.
To prevent poultry from drying out, use chicken thighs—they have more fat and won't dry out as quickly, says Finlayson. Cook thighs for about 6 hours and breasts for a maximum of 5 hours on low heat.
If a recipe calls for cooking on the HIGH setting for three hours, you can cook it for seven hours on the LOW setting instead. Or if a recipe calls for eight hours on HIGH, it can be cooked for up to 12 hours on LOW.
Cook on low for 5 hrs, then check that the chicken is cooked by wiggling the wing – it should feel very loose. Tip the chicken up so any liquid inside flows out, then cook on high for 30 mins. If the chicken isn't cooked through after the initial time, cook for another hour, then turn the heat up.
Introduction: My name is Lidia Grady, I am a thankful, fine, glamorous, lucky, lively, pleasant, shiny person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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