Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Name: Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 h
Total time: 5 h 5 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 2 cups/16 ounces (453 grams) crushed tomatoes or passata; ¼ cup (60 ml) dry white wine (or chicken broth); 3 ounces/1 cup (75 grams) mushrooms of your choice, chopped * see note; 1 cup yellow (128 grams) sliced; 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped; 3 tablespoons capers, drained; 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped; 1 tablespoon fresh basil, plus 1 tablespoon more for garnish, chopped; 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste); ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 4 bone-in, skinless, chicken thighs or breasts

February 5, 2024 — last updated August 23, 2024

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Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore is the perfect one-pot, simple dinner. Chicken thighs are cooked low and slow in a tomato-based sauce with garlic, fresh rosemary, basil, white wine (or red wine if you prefer), and capers. I also sometimes add red pepper flakes for a little bit of a spicy kick.

A large white plate of chicken and a tomato sauce with mushrooms

Not traditionally a slow cooker meal, this classic Italian dish is also known as Pollo alla Cacciatora. An easy weeknight dinner that even your most picky eaters will enjoy. It’s one of those slow cooker recipes where you add all the ingredients to your slow cooker, set it, and forget it.

A plate of chicken cacciatore viewed from overhead

Around Italy, the vegetables in classic chicken alla cacciatore (pronounced ka·chuh·taw·reh) vary depending on who’s making it. Some like bell peppers or celery, but when I enjoyed this dish in Italy, it was just mushrooms, sometimes with no vegetables at all!

Classic chicken cacciatore translates to hunter’s chicken (cacciatore meaning hunter, hunter-style chicken). Comforting Italian food made for the hunters in Tuscany, and in keeping with its origin, this dish uses a simple Italian seasoning of fresh rosemary, basil and wine, very Tuscan.

Wine substitute

If you don’t want to cook with wine, replace with chicken broth.

A closeup of a chicken thigh covered in tomato sauce and vegetables

This is as easy as slow cooker chicken recipes get. A comforting and hearty dish that will require fare la scarpetta (make the little shoe), which refers to the little pieces of bread used to mop up the sauce (the best part). You didn’t know that the mopping you do at the end of a meal had a fancy Italian name, did you? The tender chicken pieces alone are not enough to get every last bite of the tasty tomato sauce.

Best chicken for Italian Chicken Cacciatore

I like to use bone-in chicken thighs (boneless thighs are okay too). The thighs stand up better to long, slow cooking, and they don’t dry out like chicken breasts. If you are not a fan of thighs, by all means, use breasts, but opt for bone-in, as boneless chicken breasts will dry out due to the cooking time.

A ladle of chicken with tomato sauce mushrooms and capers

Thickening the sauce

If you find at the end of the cooking the cacciatore sauce is not as thick as you’d like, you can leave the lid off toward the end of cooking to let some of the liquid evaporate.

Serving suggestion

Serve simply with crusty bread. Over fresh, homemade tagliatelle pasta, white rice, or go low-carb with zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash.

Crock pot chicken cacciatore leftovers

Store in an airtight container, refrigerated for up to 4 days.

If you’ve made this easy Chicken Cacciatore recipe, please leave a star rating in the recipe card. You can also leave a comment below or ask a question.

Yield: 4