This Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore is an easy set-it-and-forget-it dinner! Serve this comfort food with egg noodles for a full meal.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Olive oil – use any neutral cooking oil here, such as avocado or canola oil.
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs – you can use boneless skinless chicken thighs instead.
- Mushrooms – summer squash or zucchini would also be good here.
- Carrots – double up on the celery or try using some parsnips instead of carrots.
- Red pepper – swap out for some roasted red peppers for a deeper flavour.
- Celery – double up on the carrots or leave this out altogether.
- Yellow onion – white onion or shallots can also be used.
- Garlic – I prefer the flavour of freshly minced garlic but jarred minced garlic will work in a pinch.
- Italian seasoning – make your own using a blend of dried basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley and thyme.
- Salt & pepper – to taste.
- Marinara sauce – use a homemade sauce or use your favourite store-bought version.
- Chicken broth – beef broth or vegetable broth would also do the trick.
- Red or white wine – you can leave this out if need be.
- Egg noodles – serve your chicken cacciatore over another kind of pasta or even rice.
- Fresh parsley – garnish with fresh basil instead or leave this out altogether.
How to make chicken cacciatore in a slow cooker
- Prep your ingredients.
- Add everything to the slow cooker.
- Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
- Serve with egg noodles and dig in!
What to serve with chicken cacciatore
Traditionally, egg noodles or pasta are served with this meal. Because it's a hearty meal on its own, you really don't even need to serve it with anything extra. However, some people prefer to serve it with rice rather than pasta. Other tasty side dish possibilities include:
- Roasted potatoes
- Cauliflower rice
- Mashed potatoes
- Garlic bread
- Garden salad
Frequently Asked Questions
Chicken cacciatore is an Italian dish typically made of chicken cooked in a tomato-based sauce with herbs, bell peppers, onion, garlic and sometimes wine, served over pasta.
The sauce for this recipe cooks alongside the other ingredients and consists of mushrooms, carrots, red pepper, celery, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, marinara sauce, chicken or beef broth and red or white wine. The wine is optional, but I find that it adds even more amazing flavour to the sauce.
If the sauce is thinner then you like it, there are a few ways you can thicken it up. Make a cornstarch slurry, remove the chicken from the slow cooker, cover the chicken with foil and then stir the slurry into the sauce and cook on low power for 5-10 minutes. Easy-peasy!
Yes! Add olive oil to the bottom of the pot then add in your chicken and veggies. Leave out the egg noodles or they'll overcook! Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, then do a quick release of the pressure. Make sure to cook your egg noodles about 5-10 minutes before the cacciatore is ready, then serve the chicken overtop of the noodles.
Storing and reheating
For an easy meal prep dinner, you can prepare crock pot chicken cacciatore ahead of time, according to the recipe below. The only thing you won’t make until you’re ready to serve the meal are the egg noodles. You can store the chicken cacciatore in the fridge for up to 5 days then reheat in the microwave or in a pan on the stovetop.
Can you freeze chicken cacciatore?
You sure can! Chicken cacciatore can be frozen without the egg noodles in freezer-safe glass bowls or Ziploc bags for up to 3 months. You can reheat from frozen in the microwave, but I find the best way to reheat this dish is to let it defrost in the fridge overnight then reheat on the stovetop over medium heat.
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More easy slow cooker recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning this cacciatore into your weekly lunches.
- I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
- Get a meat thermometer to make sure your chicken is cooked through.
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 cups mushrooms sliced in half
- 2 carrots diced
- 1 red pepper chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 medium-sized yellow onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning optional
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 (650mL) jar marinara sauce
- 1 cup chicken or beef broth
- 1/2 cup red or white wine optional – I recommend red wine for best results
- 1 lb egg noodles to serve
- Fresh parsley or basil, for garnish
Instructions
- Dump all ingredients except for egg noodles and parsley in slow cooker, then cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.
- Meanwhile, cook egg noodles according to package directions.
- Turn off slow cooker once finished cooking. Serve chicken mixture over egg noodles then garnish with fresh herbs. Serve and enjoy!
Comments & Reviews
Jennifer says
Is the 456 calorie nutrition just for the chicken cacciatore or does that calorie count include being served on egg noodles?
Taylor Stinson says
It includes being served on the egg noodles 🙂
Pam says
Made this today and it was delicious! Didn’t use celery only b/c I don’t really like it. Also didn’t have any wine. But still had great flavor! And enough for 2 meals for my husband and I.Pam
Taylor Stinson says
So happy you enjoyed! 🙂
Amy says
When I add this recipe into my fitness pal app, it calculates the carbs at 69g per serving, WITHOUT the rice. This seems high based on the ingredients.. am I crazy??
Amelia Azzarello says
Just made this tonight! Is delicious! Omitted the squash and just had basmati rice. Really yummy, the bf loved it too! I think I might do less tomato sauce next time bc it wasn’t needed for us (was too soupy) and I mightttt next time add some cream cheese instead of sour cream. But love it! Thanks!
Jim says
You say the bell peppers go in the Last hour. Does that include the roasted red pepper puree? Or does that go in at the beginning?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Jim! The roasted red pepper puree goes in at the beginning along with all the other ingredients. It’s just the raw peppers that go in during the last hour!
Andrea says
Hi, when you say strained tomatoes, do you mean the canned diced tomatoes drained?
Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Andrea – I mean Passata (it’s crushed strained tomatoes that come in a jar, you can find them in the section where the canned diced tomatoes are) or you can use canned crushed tomatoes. You just want them to be more of a sauce than diced. Alternatively, you can run canned diced tomatoes through a blender to puree them.
Agape Assefa says
Is okay if I only have one jar of roasted red peppers?
Taylor Stinson says
You could definitely try it – the flavour may not be exactly the same as if you were following the recipe exactly, but it should still taste good!
alli bryant says
Where could i purchase pureed red peppers?
Taylor Stinson says
I just pureed jarred roasted red peppers in a blender!
Cory says
Hi. Newby question here. The diced chicken goes in uncooked right? Thanks
Taylor Stinson says
Yes it does 🙂
Lupita R Hernandez says
I’m a bit confused. It says cook time will be 240 minutes, but step one requires 6 hours and step two 1 hour. Just wanted to be sure those numbers are correct? Thank you! Can’t wait to make this
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Lupita – so sorry the cook time is a bit off on my recipe plugin because I had to transfer this recipe over from an old plugin and I guess it didn’t properly calculate the time. The recipe instructions are correct in that it takes 6 hours on low, then another hour on low once you stir the veggies in. Hope that helps!