This Slow Cooker Chicken Stew is one of my favorite backpocket recipes for those days I just don’t have time to make dinner! The fall-off-the-bone tender chicken and the perfectly cooked vegetables come together in the best creamy gravy for a simple and cozy family meal that basically cooks itself.

Close up photo of chicken stew on spoon.

The Chicken Stew that (almost) cooks itself!

Now that my kids are growing up and in school/sports/whatnot, my love of cooking has definitely not increased. The daily grind of making dinner is not easy, but I still like to eat really good food. So every day I try to make things that taste great but take little time and effort, and this slow cooker chicken stew is exactly one of those recipes.

I will say that I like to take the extra 5 minutes to sauté the onion and celery for a few minutes, and to throw the mushrooms into the same skillet for an additional couple of minutes, too. BUT it’s not mandatory and you can skip to make this a true dump and go kind of meal. We slow cook the vegetables and bone-in chicken pieces (bone-in is worth it for the best flavor and perfectly juicy meat!) in broth, then add the cream only at the end of the cooking time to keep it from curdling.

It may seem like there are too many extra steps (the sautéing, the chicken shredding, adding the cream for the last 30mins) for an easy slow cooker dinner, but I promise, it’s worth the little bit of extra time it takes to make a REALLY amazing dinner vs one that’s just fine. We serve this with crusty bread, nothing more – simple comfort food at its best!

Overhead view of a slow cooker chicken stew being served with bread.

Ingredients I like use, plus notes

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredients for slow cooker chicken stew with text labels.

Chicken: I really want to emphasize the bone-in chicken leg pieces here. We remove the skin because it gets really funny in the slow cooker, but the bone-in part just helps SO much with flavor and with the thickness of the gravy. It’s also more budget-friendly, and the meat stays way juicier. If you’ve ever had a gummy, dry and tough chicken breast in a slow cooker meal… give bone-in chicken legs a try! However, for ease, you can absolutely use boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead.
Onion/carrot/celery: I absolutely love this classic vegetable combo, but feel free to skip any of them and just use more of another instead. I will say, don’t use only carrot because it will make the dish too sweet.
Mushrooms: Sometimes I treat myself to the pre-sliced mushrooms. So convenient! But you can easily just slice your own. White or brown button are my favorite.
Chicken broth: Feel free to use water + bouillon instead of broth. I will often make it with bouillon, because I’m really bad at using up opened broth containers.
Garlic herb seasoning: If you prefer using individual seasonings, use Italian seasoning or Herbes de Provence, garlic powder and onion powder.
Peas: You can easily skip these if you’re not a fan. Corn is also a great alternative!
Heavy cream: Please do not use any substitutes, we cook it for 30mins in the slow cooker and lower fat dairy products would be more prone to splitting.

Where do you find bone-in, skinless chicken leg pieces?

I don’t, I buy bone-in/skin-on and remove the skin at home! If you get your chicken from a butcher, you can ask them to remove it for you.

Sometimes the skin releases easily without a knife, sometimes I need to use a small sharp knife to cut it off. It’s not hard, just takes a few minutes of time, but I like to remove it because the skin gets really weird in the slow cooker. Feel free to leave it on if it doesn’t bother you!

Removing chicken skin from chicken leg pieces.

How to make chicken stew in the slow cooker

Let’s get the crockpot out and make this stew! I’ll quickly walk through the process here and share all my notes and tips to make sure it turns out perfectly the very first time you make it.

Sautéed onion, celery and mushrooms in slow cooker. — add sautéed onion, celery & mushrooms

Assembled chicken stew, uncooked in slow cooker. — add sautéed onion, celery & mushrooms

Recipe walk-through/kitchen tips

Sautéing: Again, you can skip it if you prefer, but I highly recommend the extra 7.5 minutes it takes. The onion and celery will be more flavorful, and the mushrooms will release a little less water into the gravy during slow cooker.
Slow cooking: Keep the order of ingredients as stated in the recipe. The vegetables take the most time to cook and benefit from being on the bottom and most submerged in broth. Plus, as it cooks, the drippings from the chicken will run down and add a lot of extra flavor to the vegetables!
Cream and cornstarch slurry: The first time I made this, I added the cream from the beginning. Big mistake! It ended up fully curdling and the dish was a mess. I tried adding it for only the final 30 minutes of slow cooking, and it works perfectly. I also whisk a bit of cornstarch into the cream, it acts as a stabilizer to further prevent splitting, and it also thickens the gravy. If you like a very thick gravy, feel free to double up on the cornstarch (my family likes a brothier gravy).
Shredding the chicken: If you’ve been around for a while, you’ve heard me say this many times: Do not shred your chicken into thin noodle strands! It’s a much bigger joy to eat chicken stew with hearty chunks of juicy chicken vs a stringy mess. Here, I carefully pick out ALL of the bones and use clean hands to break the chicken meat into chunks.
Finishing: Make sure to leave the lid closed for the final 30 minutes of cooking to further prevent curdling of the cream (some people like to leave the lid open to make a thicker stew – instead, increase the cornstarch). If too much liquid evaporates too quickly, the fat molecules in the cream separate more easily.

Side dishes we like with chicken stew

Like I said in the beginning, we like to eat this with crusty bread and not much else! There are vegetables in there, there’s protein – what else do you need 😉

Our favorite bread is this easy homemade bread (our house bread!) or this easy sourdough bread. However, a store-bought loaf will often appear on my dinner table, too.

If you like to have a salad with your soups and stews, I highly recommend mixed greens with a lemon vinaigrette or white balsamic vinaigrette!

Is this freezer friendly? How to store leftovers?

Actually, I don’t recommend this one for the freezer. Potatoes have a funny texture after freezing, and the dairy makes it even harder to have good results after freezing/thawing/reheating.

If you have leftovers, store them in the fridge in a closed container for up to 3 days. Gently reheat in a pot on the stove with an extra splash of broth added if needed, until it reaches 165°F throughout.