Slow Cooker Mushroom Chicken Thighs are easy to do! The chicken thighs are tender, juicy and delicious! Pick a favourite between this and our Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken!!
A spin off from my Chicken Thighs with Creamy Garlic Wine Sauce and Creamy Mushroom Chicken Thighs but alternating our cooking method from stove top to slow cooker (also known as crockpot). Slow Cooker Mushroom anything sounds good to me, how about you?
You are going to love this creamy, mushroom, bacon leek sauce with melt in your mouth chicken, I absolutely know it!!
What are Slow Cooker Mushroom Chicken Thighs?
There are 2 types of chicken thighs you can get. One is with the bone in and the other is boneless chicken thighs. Slow Cooker Mushroom Chicken thighs means we use our slow cooker or crock pot to cook our chicken thighs in a creamy mushroom sauce.
You might even know of this recipe by other name such as, Slow Cooker Cream of Mushroom. It is confusing, but they are essentially the same thing!
I must say all this talk of cream and mushrooms is making me hungry!!
What is even better is that I have added bacon, leek and cider to the sauce. It is lip smackingly good and you are going to love it!!!
Chicken Thighs are known for being more tender than chicken breast meat. I personally enjoy both and switch them up every now and then, so that there is variety in both taste and texture in my recipes.
What ingredients are used to make Mushroom Chicken Thighs in the Slow Cooker?
If you have a look at the photo below, you will see the exact ingredients we used to make this recipe.
For the sauce we use cream and pear cider.
For the chicken we season with salt and pepper. With then braise it in a pan with the garlic, dried onion and bacon. Then we add it to the slow cooker. After that, we add our additional ingredients, set the temperature and let it cook!
Then you can pretty much, sit back, relax and chill, how good is slow cooking!!!
Do you have to cook Chicken Thighs before putting them in the Slow Cooker?
My recommendation is that you do. If you take the time (less than 10 mins) to brown them off 1st, you will find that the flavour of the dish is better upon eating. There are some slow cooker chicken recipes that you can do using raw chicken. However, when we cook the chicken thighs at the start of this process, we also add the bacon and garlic.
There is a touch of oil used to cook the chicken and this and the rest of what is in the pan, gets scrapped into the slow cooker to create the depth that we are looking for our sauce.
The chicken won't brown off or in the slow cooker at all. Unless you use the version which has a saute function. If you don't, use a regular fry pan on the stove for this initial process.
The smell of this cooking, will make the neighbours come knocking at your door!
How to cook Chicken Thighs in the Crockpot or slow cooker?
This is how to cook Chicken Thighs in the slow cooker. Firstly you brown them off on the stove, then you add them to the base of the slow cooker like the image below.
There is a bit of debate about whether you need to oil the base of your slow cooker or crock pot. For a recipe like this I don't. However for a recipe where the meat has not been cooked 1st I would. That way you ensure that nothing sticks to the base of your crockpot.
If you are new to using a Crockpot and discover that you love this recipe, you might like to try Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs Cream of Mushroom Soup. As easy as it sounds, you add cream of mushroom soup to your recipe!! (Easy crockpot meals make life complete!)
Mushroom Sauce for Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs
The sauce for these chicken thighs is delicious!
Remember in the Chicken Thighs with Creamy Garlic Wine Sauce, how we used wine in the sauce, well, guess what, we are going to do that again here! But for this recipe we use pear cider.
We use a combination of ingredients to make an amazing tasting sauce to drizzle all over our chicken thighs.
We do a similar method in our Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs as we all know that sauce poured over any food makes it better!
The sauce uses the following ingredients:
- Pear cider (or chicken stock for a non alcoholic version)
- cream
The ingredients that go into the sauce to provide texture are:
- garlic
- mushrooms
- bacon
- dried onion
- leek
As you can see from the photo below, everything gets thrown into the slow cooker together! (Take a pic and send it to all of your friends, that is what I do!!)
Does it matter if I use a different cut of chicken in this recipe?
You are more than welcome to try bone in chicken thighs or chicken breast for this recipe.
Boneless Chicken thighs are my favourite as the meat is tender and juicy. Plus we never had them growing up, so in developing my own recipes, I love being able to test, try and eat new things.
How long do I cook the chicken thighs for in the slow cooker?
You have a couple of options here. For the recipe, we use a medium heat for 2 hours.
If you want to change that to slow down the cooking process even further, you can cook the chicken thighs for 4 hours on low.
I know a lot of people who love throwing everything into the crock pot and heading off to work, knowing that dinner will be ready when they come home!
Slow Cooker Mushroom Chicken questions answered:
About the recipe:
- We use mushrooms, bacon and leek
- The chicken is seasoned with salt and pepper on the stove to begin
- The garlic cloves get added as the chicken thighs are cooking
- You will notice the chicken start to brown on the stove top, this is perfect!
- The recipe is flexible and can be done on the stove as well
- Use wine or chicken stock as an alternative to the cider
Your quick questions answered:
- You can freeze this recipe
- It takes less than 10 minutes to braise the chicken on the stove
- Buying sliced mushrooms will save time! (Amen)
- You can serve this dish with fresh spinach, rice or polenta
- This is an EASY slow cooker recipe
How to serve Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs?
This really depends on the person.
As it is with some spinach leaves is perfect. However, I know a lot of people who would like to pair this dish with rice, pasta, mashed potatoes or polenta. The thing to keep in mind is that it is a low carb keto option but adding rice or pasta will negate that (even though both options taste delicious!)
You will be licking your lips and possibly the bowl with this one!
What other chicken recipes can I do in the Slow Cooker?
You know my friend Kylie over at Kidgredients? Well, guess what, she loves her Slow Cooker too!! So much so that she made these DELICIOUS Slow Cooker Chicken Wings, omg don't they look incredible!!! If I didn't have a kg of chicken thighs to eat, I would be all over these stat!! 🙂
If you haven't had enough delicious ideas springing to mind yet, how about Not Your Mum's Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken! I don't think I am going to use the stove or the oven again. My tastebuds are tingling and my shopping list is written to grab the apricots for this one........yummo, good stuff my friend!!
Winter Warming Recipe Ideas
- Chicken Thighs in Creamy Garlic Wine Sauce (also using boneless chicken thighs)
- Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese
- Beef Bean Pasta Bake
- Minestrone Soup
- Meatball Tomato Soup
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Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
Slow Cooker Mushroom Chicken Thighs
- 500 grams chicken thighs boneless
- 6 garlic cloves peeled, Note 3
- 300 grams bacon diced
- ½ tablespoon dried onion Note 4
- 200 grams mushrooms Note 1
- 1 leek
- 200 ml pear cider Note 2
- 200 ml cream
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cracked pepper
Instructions
Slow Cooker Mushroom Chicken
- Add olive oil to a medium sauce pan at a medium heat.
- Place chicken thighs flat on one side and season with salt and pepper. Add to the pan, a splash of cider, the garlic, dried onion and bacon and brown off. Turn thighs over after 4 mins to cook each side.
- Add the chicken and other ingredients from the base of the pan, scrap any juices into slow cooker. Pour in cream and cider. Top with leeks.
- Cook for 2 hours on high or 4 hrs on low.
- Serve with spinach and rice.
Notes
- Note 1, I often buy sliced mushrooms for ease and convince. Whilst I enjoy slicing mushrooms and it is super easy using a mandolin, it is also incredibly easy to cut yourself! Sometimes saving time and taking the easy option makes cooking and life that much easier!
- Note 2 You can use wine or chicken stock as alternatives to cider. I love cooking with cider and tried it out one day years ago when I had no wine to cook with (no wine, that sounds like a sad day, doesn't it). Now, I use it all the time. It is delicious in risottos as well!
- Note 3 if you don't have garlic bulbs, I don't recommend using minced garlic or garlic powder for this recipe. It is more about the texture and the end soft taste of garlic achieved through a long cook that would be skipped if you use an alternative. It would be better to leave it out.
- Note 4, what I am talking about here is onion flakes or dried onion. You will find it in the spices section of the grocery store, where the cracked pepper and salt are in a packet, not bottle. I love cooking with this as no peeling and crying involved!
Nutrition
Slow Cooker recipe inspiration
I admit that sometimes, I find slow cooking too slow!!! Say what, I hear you think!
It is just that I like sitting in front of the oven to watch things cook and well, watching the slow cooker cook is kinda boring!!
But it does give you plenty of time to sit back and chill whilst dinner is doing its thing!!
Another amazing thing that happens that ALL of my friends rave about is the delicious smell in the home that slow cooking makes. Yup, uh huh, fist pump as we all know that the best house in the neighbourhood is the one with the dinner wafting its way to our nostrils when we are on our afternoon walk! I have so many memories of long walks after school for exercise and falling in love with streets when you knew the family was going to have a delightful dish as you could smell it cooking as you walked past!!
Super easy slow cooker recipes are about throwing it all in there and letting it cook!
Try this recipe and let me know how it goes, I have a feeling you are going to LOVE IT!!
Adrianne xx
P.S. Shout out if you have questions, I want you to LOVE my recipes and I am here to help!
Janet Davies says
Excellent. So yummy.
Definitely a cook again.
I don't have a slow cooker, so i cooked mine in the oven on 110*C for 4 hours.
Perfect with rice (great to absorb all the yummmy goodness in the sauce) and some greens.
Adrianne says
Thanks heaps Janet and for the tips about oven cooking it. I like the suggestion of serving it with rice, yum!!
Tina-Marie Tarrant says
Is it okay to thicken with corn flour at the end? It doesn't seem to have thickened at all.
Adrianne says
Hey Tina-Marie,
I would use normal flour or gluten free flour if you want to thicken it. You can make a slurry by removing 1/2 cup of the liquid, stirring flour into that liquid and then pouring it back into the slow cooker. I haven't tried it with corn flour but I habe some Teiryaki wings on here too that I used that method for to thicken the sauce at the end. Cheers!