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Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore with potatoes is an EASY weeknight dinner that cooks itself! With chicken falling off the bone in an Italian stew, this is comfort food at its finest.
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore is one of the most easy and flavoursome recipes I’ve made! That’s along aside Slow Cooker Asian Glazed Chicken, Slow Cooker Mediterranean Chicken, Slow Cooker Steak and Gravy Pies, and many more!
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
Cacciatore means hunter in Italian, and alla cacciatora translates to a ‘hunter-style’ meal or stew with chicken, onions, herbs and vegetables, all simmered down in a thick and rich tomato sauce, until the chicken is falling off the bone.
A step up from my popular Chicken Cacciatore recipe, THIS Cacciatore has the added bonus of baby potatoes AND is so easy to make! No baby sitting a pot over the stove required because it’s all done in your slow cooker!
Included in this recipe is the option to browning the chicken first. Personally, I love searing any meat before adding it into the slow cooker, for added flavour. But you don’t have too! Especially if preparing this before work and rushing out the door 20 minutes late with one shoe in hand…..never mind. If you loved the slow cooker experience and want to utilize it more try our Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs
Once it’s all done, serve over pasta, steamed vegetables, spaghetti squash OR rice.
More Slow Cooker Suggestions:
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
Slow Cooker Vegetarian Quinoa Chili
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Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore With Potatoes
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs bone-in, skin on or off
- 1 pinch salt to season
- 1 pinch pepper to season
- 2 tablespoons olive oil more if needed
- 2 pounds baby potatoes quartered
- 2 tablespoons garlic minced, or 8 cloves
- 1 medium onion roughly chopped
- 1 small yellow pepper deseeded and diced
- 1 small red pepper deseeded and diced
- 2 carrots peeled and sliced
- 14 oz crushed tomatoes canned
- 14 oz tomato passata tomato sauce or puree for US readers
- 150 ml red wine optional – substitute with beef broth if desired
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons freshly parsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 beef bouillon cube crushed
- 1 teaspoon salt adjust to your taste
- 1 pinch pepper adjust to your taste
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- ½ cup pitted black olives
Instructions
- Optional step: Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a small amount of oil in a pan or skillet. Sear skin-side down (if using skin on thighs) first for 3 minutes, until deep golden brown. Rotate and sear the other side for a further 3 minutes.
- Arrange the potatoes in a 6qt slow cooker bowl in single layer. Place the chicken over the potatoes and add the rest of the ingredients over the chicken (except olives and mushrooms).
- Stir to combine; cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours, until the chicken is tender and falling off the bone.
- Add in the mushrooms and olives in the last 30 minutes of cooking. Season with extra salt, to your tastes and serve.
- Serve over rice, pasta or spaghetti squash.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Absolutely delicious! Whole family loved it, even my picky teenager who described it as “fire.” Next time I’ll probably only use one pound of potatoes. It was just a LOT of potatoes and then to serve it over pasta or rice is like carb on carb 😁 Great recipe!
So glad to have found your recipe but tweaked it a bit based on the size of my crock pot & what I had on hand. So yummy.
Only had 5 thigh fillets so halved the amount of potato but did add in 1 large turnip.
Seared the chicken (no salt only pepper – also omitted any further salt as thought the bacon would be enough) and then fried off the onion, garlic, added 1/2 cup diced bacon & then the tomato paste.
Only had 1 carrot so added 1 lge celery strip finely sliced.
Didn’t have passata so used 1 x 790g tin of Polpa finely chopped tomato
Also added approx 150g roasted pepper strips instead of the red pepper & dbled the amount of wine
Fried off 400g button mushrooms cut in half until golden in small amount of butter to reduce the amount of liquid in the end from the mushrooms.
Added the parsely with the mushrooms & olives at the end
Delicious recipe. I had to substitute a few ingredients and it was still so good. White wine in place of red wine, chicken paste in place of beef bullion. Changes made because it was what I had on hand. Thank you for another grest recipe.
Help! I had shopped for and was all set to make your stovetop/oven cacciatore when another experience made me realize I hated my oven and stove (too uneven and uncontrollable heating). So I decided to switch to the crockpot. I notice the only differences in the ingredients are switching out 1/2 the crushed tomatoes for passata and eliminating the Roma tomatoes. Do you suggest leaving out those beautiful Romas I bought? Thanks.
Delicious ! I doubled the recipe as my crock is huge ! 4.5 hrs on High. I followed it 100% to your recipe ~ Including the searing of the skin on Chicken ~ No Salt as I used Better than Boullion instead of the cube
I did not make an extra carb as the potatoes were enough ~ served it w bread & butter
Next time I will use boneless skinless thighs ~ no searing ~ no potatoes & serve w pasta
3 hrs on high or 5 on low
Do Not skip the Red Wine ! The aroma of the wine is the best in a crock 🙂
My Italian Nona served it over polenta! Follow the directions on YELLOW Cornmeal. whisking it together until it starts to bubble, cover and turn down, (until well done, about 15 minutes) stir often to help it not stick to the bottom of the pan. It will get thick.
When it is done, immediately pour it out onto a buttered platter, after 5 minutes you can cut into squares or scoop onto your plate while it’s still hot. It’s a great side dish. She also sauted green beans in a little olive oil, season w/ S & P to taste and minced garlic until it starts browning.
Hope you enjoy.
My Italian Nona served it over polenta! Follow the directions on YELLOW Cornmeal. whisking it together until it starts to bubble, cover and turn down, (until well done, about 15 minutes) stir often to help it not stick to the bottom of the pan. It will get thick.
When it is done, immediately pour it out onto a buttered platter, after 5 minutes you can cut into squares or scoop onto your plate while it’s still hot. It’s a great side dish. She also salted green beans in a little olive oil, season w/ S & P to taste and minced garlic until it starts browning.
Hope you enjoy.
This is the best cacciatore recipe I’ve tried. Get rid of the rest, this one’s the best. Really yummy. Cacciatore should be all about tomatoes and this one certainly is. Using a slow cooker cooks out the acidity often present in canned or bottled tomatoes. Used fresh basil and oregano ’cause I grow them and had some really taste fresh chilies which also went in rather than dried flakes. First night with pasta, second night with rice and can’t wait to cook it again but might swap the potatoes for sweet potatoes next time.
Absolutely the best tasting recipe. I added the red wine (Merlot). Had it last nite and hubby wants the leftovers Tonite. I didn’t have a slow cooker large enough so I put it in a toaster pan and baked at 300° for 4 hours. If you want to bake slower try 190° for 8 hours. Really, really good!
If you use a cast iron pot it’s best if its enamelled as the acidity of the tomatoes in slow cooking will erode any curing you have on it and a in bare metal pot food will absorb too much iron which is not good. Also, if you have a pot with an imperfect seal then cover with aluminium foil before you put on the pot’s cover.