Slow cookers are a great way to simplify meal preparation on busy days. Here are 3 delicious and super simple chicken crockpot recipes your family will love! They also make great leftovers!
3 Super Simple Chicken Crockpot Recipes
(A guest post from our friends Susanne & Tracy at Homemaker’s Hutch.)
Slow cookers are a great way to get a frugal and delicious dinner on the table no matter what happens during our busy days. We’re in the middle of sharing all sorts of delicious slow cooker recipes with our readers as part of our 30 Day Slow Cooker Challenge over at Homemaker’s Hutch and hope you join us (it’s free).
With that in mind, we thought we’d share 3 super simple chicken recipes with you. Granted, these are so simple it’s hard to call them recipes. Regardless, they are delicious and work with almost any cut of chicken you can find on sale, making them frugal options as well. Here we go:
Salsa Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or 6 thighs, or about 8 to 10 chicken tenders)
1 jar salsa
Instructions
- Lay the chicken in the bottom of your slow cooker.
- Cover with salsa.
- Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 to 7 hours or until the chicken is done and starting to fall apart.
Barbecue Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or 6 thighs, or about 8 to 10 chicken tenders)
1 bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Lay the chicken in the bottom of your slow cooker.
- Cover with bbq sauce.
- Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 to 7 hours or until the chicken is done and starting to fall apart.
- Serve over rice. Leftovers freeze really well.
Roasted Chicken Recipe
Did you know you can roast your chicken right in the slow cooker? No need to turn on the oven on a hot summer day and the chicken will cook while you’re out and about having fun.
Ingredients
roasting chicken
Lawry’s Seasoning Blend (or your favorite seasonings)
aluminum foil
Instructions
- Rub chicken with seasoning blend.
- Crumple up the foil into 4 large foil balls.
- Place them in your slow cooker.
- Sit the seasoned chicken on top of the foil.
- Cook on high for 4+ hours or on low for 7 to 8 hours or until the chicken is completely done.
Notes
The crock pot gets a lot of use year-round in my house. The barbecue chicken is a favorite in my family but we’ve never served it over rice. We cook till done enough to shred with a fork and serve in buns. Usually with a side of potato salad or coleslaw and a fruit dessert. I like to use boneless thighs because we find them more juicy and more flavorful than breasts.
That is true. Even thought everyone seems to favor breasts they are one of the driest parts of the chicken.
Hi Jill: I like the thighs as well especially in chicken cacciatore, my daughter will only eat the boneless, skinless breast. she has a way of slicing them cross wise, though, and seasons them w/a little olive oil and seasoning, and they stay pretty moist. we’ve been doing a lot of grilled chicken Caesar salad this summer. she does use chicken thighs and bone in chicken for soups, though.
I’m so glad to see Tawra’s life may be beginning to calm down a bit, from what I read in the newsletter yesterday, she’s and Mike have been under some pressure. hopefully, things will be more peaceful. hope your summer is going well. just had a heat wave here in the Boston area, so rain today, along with a sea breeze is quite welcome! I do believe it may be a cool enough day to make some jam!
best,
Donna
I think another week or so and things will get much better for Tawra. She is still having to deal with the schools and a bunch of things but as soon as that gets done it will be much easier. This week has been especially hard for her. My summer has been doing fine. It has been exceptionally slow for some reason. I went to Tawra’s in June and became really sick and could not shake the stuff for some reason Am doing better but really threw my summer off. Have had no energy to do yard work so I now have a lovely jungle. It doesn’t look too bad so might just keep it. :)My pride and joy is my 7 ft. tomato plant. I only have one and you know how awful my gardening skills are compared to Tawra’s so I can’t believe I got it to grow.I also have an out of control cantaloupe plant that pop up from some seeds I threw into the compost pile last year. It is like one of those things you would see in a scary movie that starts growing and won’t quit but starts choking out every thing. My yard is a crack up this year.
Mostly I have been trying to keep cool. It has been unusually muggy even for Kansas but this week it actually cooled down. Yeahhhh!!! Well best go. Don’t work too hard on that jam. Sounds so good though. Jill
Hello, I have made the whole chicken in crock pot. Instead of just rolling up the aluminum foil into balls. I wrap potatoes into the foil, put them down and add chicken on top. Potatoes cook beautifully too.
I have 3 crockpots of various sizes and just bought a small instapot. They get used every week because they are so versatile and it’s hard mess up using a slow cooker. I have noticed the instapot takes some adjustments though.
How about cooking for two my hubby is 70 and im 75 there must be lots of people that fit us
We can maybe do another video on it. I do talk about in different videos. I cook for one and I have not changed to much the way I cook. I just take all my recipes and just cut them in 1/2, 1/3 or 1/4 depending on the recipe. I think one of the big things is we think (without realizing it) that if we aren’t making large batches of things it is harder to cook or not worth the effort etc. For ex. I still make my spaghetti sauce like I did for my family but instead of using the 3 cans of tomato soup to make it like I did I just use 1. Instead of freezing enough cooked hamburger for 4 people I just put it in packets for 2 people.
One of the big things that help me change my way of thinking and cooking is I bought me a small saucepan and small frying pan. It really helped me control the way I cook. I can still make mashed potatoes I just put 2 potatoes in my small sauce pan. 2 hamburger patties fit fine in my small frying pan, add a baked potato and sliced tomato or cucumber and you have a full meal.
Here are a couple of tips to get you started Kathy Tips for Cooking for One or Two
With the exception of larger recipes (like 8+ servings), It only takes 2.5-3.5 hours on LOW for boneless, skinless chicken breast to be fully cooked in the slow cooker.
You do have to adjust your cooking time to the amount and many crock pots cook at different temps so you need to adjust for your own crockpot also the time doesn’t matter too much if you are cooking it on low because at that low of temp you can cook it long than you need too say for example you are late getting home from church or something like that.