Tuscan Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs
You’ll love this easy crock pot recipe for Tuscan Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs! This Tuscan chicken recipe has tender slow cooked chicken, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes in a creamy sauce.
Slow cooker meals are one of my favorite tricks for getting family dinners on the table. Prep this Tuscan Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs Recipe in the morning or afternoon and then you won’t have to worry about cooking dinner during the evening crazy hour.
You’ll love cooking chicken thighs in your slow cooker because they don’t dry out as easily as chicken breasts can. These Tuscan chicken thighs are moist and tender, cooked to perfection in an herbed sun-dried tomato sauce. If you love chicken thighs, you are also going to go crazy for my crispy baked chicken thighs recipe!
After the chicken is cooked through, you’ll stir in fresh spinach and a bit of cream to make the sauce luxuriously creamy. You can use coconut milk in place of the cream for a dairy-free option.
Besides pantry staples like olive oil, Italian seasoning, garlic and chicken broth, you’ll need just five ingredients for this recipe. I try to keep ingredient lists short and simple whenever possible, to save you both time and money.
This Tuscan chicken is one of our favorite slow cooker meals
- The method and ingredients in this recipe give these slow cooker chicken thighs so much flavor.
- This meal is versatile. Serve your Tuscan chicken with a side of roasted, sautéed or steamed veggies. This chicken also goes well with pasta, rice and quinoa.
- This crock pot recipe is perfect for Sunday dinner or a weeknight meal.
How to make Tuscan Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs
Bone in or boneless skinless chicken thighs?
I like to make this recipe with boneless skinless chicken thighs because they are leaner. You can use bone in chicken thighs, but you may need to cook them a bit longer. You can use an instant-read thermometer to check that the chicken has reached a safe 165 degrees F.
Brown the chicken
You will start by browning your chicken thighs in a hot skillet on the stove. I encourage you to not skip this step, because browning the chicken adds so much flavor to the finished dish.
Cook the chicken thighs on the first side until they easily release from the pan, then flip the chicken pieces and cook them for a few minutes on the second side. Once the chicken has browned, transfer it to your slow cooker.
Sauté the shallots and garlic
Next you’ll sauté some shallot and garlic in the same pan that you browned the chicken. Don’t wash out the pan first! You want all of the flavor left behind by the chicken.
Deglaze the pan
To make sure that you get all of the flavor from the sauté pan into your slow cooker meal, you’re going to deglaze the pan with some chicken broth. This just means that you will pour in the broth and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. You’ll transfer the broth and all of those bits of flavor to your slow cooker.
Slow cook
You’ll add a few more ingredients to your slow cooker: Italian seasoning, sun-dried tomatoes, salt and pepper. Then slow cook until the chicken is cooked through to a safe internal temperature of 165 degrees F. If your chicken cooks a bit longer than needed, don’t worry. It will still be tender and flavorful.
Finish the sauce
Once the chicken is cooked through, you’ll finish the sauce. A cornstarch slurry helps to thicken the sauce. Stir together the cornstarch and heavy cream and then stir this mixture into your slow cooker. Add some chopped fresh spinach, cover, and cook on high for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens slightly and the spinach wilts.
I like to sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese over these Tuscan slow cooker chicken thighs before serving.
Cooking Tips for Crockpot Chicken Thighs
- This recipe has a cook time of a couple of hours, so you should make it on a day when you’ll be able to start your crockpot mid-day. The chicken will be overcooked if it cooks all day.
- Don’t skip the step of browning the chicken, as it adds a lot of flavor.
- You can use 1/2 cup yellow onion in place of the shallot.
- If you like a lot of sauce, increase the chicken broth to 1 1/2 cups and the heavy cream to 1/2 cup. Use 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 3 cloves garlic.
- I tend to go light on the salt in my recipes. I recommend tasting the finished dish and seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.
- In place of the heavy cream, you can use half and half or coconut milk.
More Slow Cooker Chicken Recipes
- Crockpot Shredded Chicken
- Crockpot Chicken Fajitas
- Slow Cooker Orange Chicken
- Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken
- Crockpot Chicken Tacos
Tuscan Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs about 6 thighs
- 1 shallot chopped, about 1/2 cup
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes not in oil
- 1/3 cup heavy cream or coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 cups fresh spinach chopped
- grated Parmesan cheese optional, for serving
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet on the stove over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add the chicken thighs. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Brown on both sides, 2-4 minutes per side.
- Transfer chicken to the slow cooker.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the shallot to the pan. Saute, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
- Pour the chicken broth into the pan and cook for 1 minutes, gently scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Turn off the heat.
- Transfer the contents of the pan to the slow cooker.
- Add the Italian seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and sun dried tomatoes to the slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on high heat for 2-2.5 hours or low for 4-5 hours, until chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and cornstarch. Stir it into the slow cooker, along with the spinach. Cook for 5 minutes, until the sauce is slightly thickened.
- Serve with grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes
- You can substitute 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion for the shallot.
- If you like a lot of sauce, increase the chicken broth to 1 1/2 cups and the heavy cream to 1/2 cup. Use 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 3 cloves garlic.
- You can substitute half and half or coconut milk for the heavy cream.
Nutrition
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I have oil packed sun-dried tomatoes. Why do you use the dry sun dried tomatoes in this recipe? Can I substitute the oil-packed ones?
Yes, you can sub them, just drain off the oil. Using the dry ones is just my personal preference. 🙂
Delicious! Even my 11-month-old granddaughter loves it!
This looks delicious! Pinning!
Thank you!
I have been making this weekly for the last 6 weeks- delicious!
Yay! I’m so glad you are enjoying this recipe! 🙂
loved it! I added mushrooms and 2 big handfulls of fresh basil – mine needed 3 cups of spinach – also more like 2 tsp of dried Italian herbs – used yellow onions and that was great – delish and super easy – thanks! I am a single person so will use the leftovers in a bowl tomorrow and if there’s still some left add more of the chix broth to make a hearty soup to go with a big salad on the 3rd night 🙂
That sounds perfect! Adding mushrooms is a great idea.
This looks great – Can I freeze it ??
Hi Kath, I don’t think this one would freeze well because of the creamy sauce. Instead I would try to repurpose the leftovers into other meals. 🙂
It was delicious! Very flavorful & easy. Even my teens liked it 🙂 I also added mushrooms and topped with feta instead of parm, as that’s what was in the fridge.
That’s wonderful! I’m thinking I definitely need to add mushrooms the next time I make this!
Was so good! I cooked some baby bellas and added them in when adding the heavy cream. Very tasty!
I’ve added mushrooms to this recipe, too and they go perfectly! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed this. 🙂
This was absolutely delicious!!!! I cook a lot and this is one of my favorite dishes so thank you very much for sharing!! I do have a question, this is my second slow cooker recipe so I am not too familiar with the slow cooker “rules”. I definitely want to double this recipe so I was wondering if the same exact cooking times would apply for 3 lbs of thighs? Thank you in advance!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. When doubling this recipe the cook time should be about the same. I would check the chicken after the recipe cook time to see if it is cooked through. Sometimes you have to add a little extra time when doubling slow cooker recipes because it can take the slow cooker longer to heat up, but with this recipe my guess is that you wouldn’t have to add more than 30 minutes.
Have made this once and it was delicious. Could I prep it a day ahead, refrigerate and start it the next day? Busy weekend planned with little time on day of serving. Thanks for this great recipe.
I wouldn’t brown the chicken if you plan to prep this ahead, because I’d be worried about food safety with only partially cooking the chicken and then refrigerating to cook later. If you skip the skillet step, I think it would be fine.