Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore
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Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore is a rustic Italian dish of braised chicken, peppers, and mushrooms slow-cooked in a luscious tomato sauce until the flavors perfectly meld together.
This easy recipe for chicken cacciatore in a Crock Pot is one of my all-time comfort foods and it’s all about the sauce. It starts with a combination of diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes, then you add a mix of green and red peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms, and garlic.
All of that simmers, along with chicken thighs, for 4-6 hours in your slow cooker. When it is done, you have a delicious sauce and perfectly tender braised chicken.
The sauce takes on the flavors of the peppers, onions, olives, and garlic and becomes this rich, delicious sauce you’ll want to put on everything.
What is Chicken Cacciatore?
Cacciatore means “hunter-style” in Italian, and in the culinary world, a hunter-style dish is prepared with onions, herbs, usually tomatoes, often bell peppers, and sometimes wine. The idea is that it was made with whatever a hunter brought back from a hunt, along with freshly picked mushrooms from the forest and vegetables from the garden.
There are lots of different variations. Some use rabbit, but in the United States you’ll most often seen it made with chicken. Sometimes, it has red wine, sometimes white, and sometimes none at all. You can make it with or without mushrooms. I add olives to mine, but a lot of recipes don’t.
Basically, it’s a simple, rustic recipe and the main rule is that it should be full of flavor.
Traditional vs. Crock Pot Versions
While traditional chicken cacciatore is made in a skillet or oven, the crock pot version offers convenience without compromising on flavor. The slow cooking process allows the chicken to absorb all the rich flavors of the sauce, resulting in a tender and succulent dish.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Chicken – For this recipe I always use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks but all types of chicken work. Bone-in chicken tends to be more flavorful and moist, while boneless chicken is easier to serve. Chicken thighs are often preferred for their juiciness and ability to stay tender during long cooking times. However, chicken breasts can also be used for a leaner option.
- Salt & Pepper – Just a little salt and pepper is all you need to season your chicken with.
- Extra virgin olive oil – This is used to brown the chicken.
- Bell peppers – A mix of red bell pepper and green bell peppers cook together with the tomatoes to make a delicious sauce.
- Olives – Kalamata olives give a delicious briny, salty flavor to the sauce.
- Mushrooms – Baby Bella, cremini, and button mushrooms, all work for this recipe.
- Aromatics – Yellow onion and garlic cook together to add flavor to the sauce.
- Tomatoes – We use a mix of crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes to add texture to the sauce.
- Chicken stock – just a little chicken stock thins the sauce out and adds flavor.
How to Make Chicken Cacciatore in a Crock Pot
- Season chicken. Mix 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper and sprinkle over the chicken.
- Brown chicken. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet (I love using cast iron) over medium-high heat. Place about 1/2 of the chicken pieces in the skillet skin side down. Cook until browned, about 3 minutes each side. Place browned chicken on a plate and set to the side until ready to use. Repeat until all of the chicken is browned.
- Put it all together. Add onions, peppers, olives, mushrooms, garlic, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, and remaining 1/2 salt to the slow cooker. Nestle the browned chicken into the sauce.
- Cook. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 5 hours.
- Serve. Spoon the sauce over some polenta, mashed potatoes, pasta, or rice, top with a piece of perfectly braised chicken, and enjoy!
This is one of the flavorful dishes that just gets better with time. Making it in the slow cooker means you can make it on a Sunday and have it for dinner Monday night and it will taste even better. It makes getting dinner on the table during the week even easier!
Tips for making Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore:
- If you prefer white meat you can substitute chicken breasts for chicken thighs.
- You can also use skinless chicken breasts or thighs if you prefer. I like the extra flavor that cooking chicken with the skin on adds. If you use skinless breasts or thighs you can skip the browning step.
- Save time by chopping all of your vegetables up the night before so all you have to do is throw everything in the slow cooker in the morning.
Side Dishes to Serve with Chicken Cacciatore
Serve this simple slow cooker chicken cacciatore with a piece of crusty bread to soak up that sauce and you’re good to go, but I like to serve mine over some smooth, buttery mashed potatoes, creamy polenta, white rice, or pasta for a complete meal!
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
Refrigeration Tips
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat gently on the stove or in the microwave to avoid drying out the chicken.
Freezing Instructions
For longer storage, freeze the chicken cacciatore in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
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Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
- 2 Chicken drumsticks, bone in, skin on
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon Ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium Yellow onion, sliced
- 1 Red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 Green bell pepper, sliced
- 1 cup Kalamata olives
- 2 cups Baby bella mushrooms, sliced (aka crimini)
- 3 cloves Garlic, minced
- 28 ounces Crushed tomatoes
- 14.5 ounces Diced tomatoes
- 1 cup Chicken stock
Instructions
- Mix 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper and sprinkle over the chicken.
- Heat olive oil in a medium skillet (I love using cast iron) over medium-high heat. Place about 1/2 of the chicken pieces in the skillet skin side down. Cook until browned, about 3 minutes each side. Place browned chicken on a plate and set to the side until ready to use. Repeat until all of the chicken is browned.
- Add onions, peppers, olives, mushrooms, garlic, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, and remaining 1/2 salt to the slow cooker. Nestle the browned chicken into the sauce.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 5 hours.
- Spoon the sauce over some polenta, mashed potatoes, pasta, or rice, top with a piece of perfectly braised chicken, and enjoy!
Nutrition
This post first appeared on The Slow Roasted Italian
My family and I love this recipe and I especially love how easy it is! Definitely a rainy day weather comfort food favorite! My family hates olives though, so I omit those and add a punch extra salt to account for their brininess, and add slices zucchini as an extra veg.
I made this today. Did it in the slow cooker and went out for a few ours. Smelt lovely when we got home but I have to admit I was disappointed with it. It was very runny and I would not use thighs and drumsticks if I made it again. Taste-wise it was OK but I added tomato purée, a pinch of Italian herbs and some chilli flakes and still it wasn’t great. I am/was so disappointed. I love chicken, peppers, onion and mushrooms (left olives out as we don’t like them).
I have decided to make it again one day but will need to tweak it quite a bit to get the taste and consistency to our liking.
Can I add red wine to this
You can add wine (I would recommend white wine for chicken) however since you are using a slow cooker which doesn’t burn the alcohol off you should first reduce the wine in a pot on the stove before adding to the slow cooker. I would suggest 1 cup of white wine and reduce it by half by cooking it over medium to medium high heat for 5-7 mins. Then pour it in with the other ingredients. Alternatively you cinld make the chicken cacciatore in a Dutch oven following this recipe https://www.homemadeinterest.com/one-pot-chicken-cacciatore/
do you put in the juice from the diced tomatoes ?
Yes you do not drain the tomatoes.