Slow Cooker Chicken Stew

This delicious creamy slow cooker chicken stew is a hearty dish perfect for chilly nights! Made with chicken breasts or thighs, carrots, potatoes and peas this is a family favorite recipe that couldn’t be easier to make.

Slow-simmered stews are so flavorful and delicious, and worth the time they take to cook. Often I’ll use my oven or the stovetop to cook a stew, but I think you can get equally delicious results using a slow cooker, giving you the freedom to be away from home while it cooks.

I also love to make Instant pot chicken stew, but that definitely requires you to be at home. I’d aim for at least once stew per month from November through January.

Why this recipe works

This is one of those dump-and-go slow cooker recipes, simply throw everything into the slow cooker and walk away! The vegetables and chicken will cook in the same amount of time (stews are very forgiving), and then you’ll finish it off with a little heavy cream and thicken with a corn starch slurry.

Ingredients you’ll need

• Boneless, skinless chicken. I’ve made this with both chicken breasts and chicken thighs and both work well, so I would just use whatever you have on hand.
• For the vegetables, this stew uses a classic base of onions, carrots and celery. I also add potatoes for some heartiness, and finish it off with some frozen peas after the stew is done cooking.
• For flavor, the stew leans on olive oil, garlic, bay leaves and dried thyme. I also use tomato paste for a little bit of umami–don’t worry, it doesn’t add any red color to the finished dish.
• For the liquid, use a combination of chicken broth, white wine and heavy cream.
• If you’d like to thicken the stew (which is optional), I use a corn starch slurry. Which is a combination of corn starch and water.

Expert tips

1. Make sure to cut your vegetables, in particular the carrots and potatoes, into uniform size so that they cook evenly in the crockpot.
2. I love adding a little bit of olive oil to dishes that are being made in a slow cooker because it adds a little bit of fat which helps the final dish be more satisfying.
3. To thicken the stew, create a corn starch slurry by mixing together equal parts corn starch and water, stir it into the stew while it is still warm to thicken.
4. Because the white wine isn’t getting cooked off in the same way it would if you were making this on the stove, you’ll only use a really little bit for this recipe. You can also omit completely.

Variations

• You can add additional vegetables like corn or green beans. I would add both of these when the stew is done cooking, they’ll cook with the residual heat.
• Try adding different herbs, you could add dried oregano or dried rosemary. You could also add fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme.
• You can omit the cream and opt for a less creamy chicken stew.

Serving suggestions

I love to serve this stew with some crusty bread on the side. Because it has potatoes directly in the dish, I don’t find that it needs starch like rice or noodles. This goes well with a bright spinach salad.

Other stew recipes

• Beef and butternut squash stew
• Slow Cooker Moroccan Inspired Chicken Stew

This recipe was originally published on November 3, 2014 and updated on Feb 11, 2023.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stew

Author: Louisa Clements

5 from 5 votes

This delicious creamy slow cooker chicken stew is a creamy and hearty dish perfect for chilly nights! Made with chicken breasts or thighs, carrots, potatoes and peas this is a family favorite recipe that couldn’t be easier to make.

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Prep: 15 minutes minutes

Cook: 8 hours hours

Total: 8 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or thighs, about 1.5 lbs cut into ½" cubes
• ½ lb Yellow or white potatoes, peeled and cut into ½" chunks
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced into half moons
• 1 celery, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp white wine
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp water
• ½ cup peas
• ¼ cup heavy cream

Instructions

• In a slow cooker insert, toss cubed chicken with potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Add white wine, tomato paste, salt and dried thyme. Pour over chicken broth and add bay leaves.
• Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
• Combine corn starch with water in a small bowl. When stew is done cooking, remove bay leaves and add in peas, heavy cream and slurry. Stir to chicken and cook peas.

Notes

1. Make sure to cut the carrots and potatoes into similar-sized pieces so they cook in the same amount of time–the carrots should be slightly smaller than the potatoes. 
2. If you prefer a thinner stew, you can skip the corn starch slurry completely. 

Did you try this recipe?Leave a comment + rating and let me know what you think!