I’m in love with this Slow Cooker Italian Chicken and Peppers. I’m just going to lay it out there. It’s every bit as easy, delicious, and versatile as those Slow Cooker Taco Chicken Bowls that everyone loves so much, but with a marinara base and Italian herbs and spices.
How to Serve Italian Chicken and Peppers
I ate this saucy shredded Italian chicken and peppers spooned over my Garlic Parmesan Polenta, but you could totally spoon this over a bowl of pasta or rice. BUT my favorite way to eat this saucy mix is to spoon it into rolls or a loaf of Italian bread, top it with some mozzarella, and make yourself the most amazing slow cooked sandwich ever. EVER.
What Size Slow Cooker Do I Need?
I used a 5 quart slow cooker, but it was only about half full, so you could probably get this to fit into a 3 quart slow cooker.
Keep it On Budget
- Bell Peppers: I added a red bell pepper to the mix for color and visual appeal. You can totally just use three green bell peppers if that’s what your budget allows, or go all out and get a trio of colors (green, yellow, and red or orange). It will taste great either way you go.
- Sauce: I used the most basic, generic jarred pasta sauce for this recipe, so don’t think you have to get very fancy with it.
- Chicken: I always buy my chicken when it’s on sale so that it’s at least close to affordable (I bought this chicken a few weeks ago and stored it in the freezer). You could even cut it down to one chicken breast and add in extra peppers and onions to bring the cost down further.
Slow Cooker Italian Chicken and Peppers
Servings 6 (1 to 1.3 cups each)Ingredients
- 3 bell peppers (any color) ($2.77)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.37)
- 1.5 lbs. boneless-skinless chicken breasts or thighs ($2.66*)
- 1 tsp dried basil ($0.10)
- 1 tsp dried oregano ($0.10)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 1 24oz. jar marinara sauce ($1.65)
Instructions
- Slice the bell peppers and onions into 1/4-inch strips. Lay half of the onion and peppers in the bottom of a 4-quart or larger slow cooker.
- Place the chicken breasts on top of the onions and peppers and season lightly with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the basil and oregano over the chicken.
- Cover the chicken with the remaining peppers and onions, then pour the marinara sauce over top.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours. After cooking, remove the lid and use tongs to stir the mixture and shred the chicken. The chicken should be so tender that it falls apart when pinched with the tongs.
- Serve the saucy mixture over pasta, rice, polenta, or stuffed into a roll as a sandwich.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Nutrition
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
(shown served over Garlic Parmesan Polenta)
How to Make Slow Cooker Italian Chicken and Peppers – Step by Step Photos
Start by slicing three bell peppers and one medium onion into 1/4-inch slices. I used two green bells peppers and one red, for extra color.
Lay about half of the onions and peppers in the bottom of a 4-quart or larger slow cooker.
Lay two boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs (or 1.5 pounds total) over the peppers and onions. Season lightly with salt and pepper, then sprinkle 1 tsp of basil and 1 tsp of oregano over top.
Add the second half of the peppers and onions, then pour an entire 24oz. jar of marinara sauce over top.
Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours. Then it will look a little something like the photo above… not too appetizing, I know. Just wait.
Take a pair of tongs and begin to stir the mixture and shred the chicken. The chicken should be so tender that it falls apart when pinched with the tongs, so I just stirred and pinched…
And stirred and pinched…
Until it looked like this, which only took a few minutes. YUM. Now it’s done! That’s it! Seriously.
Beautifully shredded chicken mixed with sweet strips of peppers and onions, all in a delicious red sauce. What will you do with it?
I ate mine over fried cakes of Garlic Parmesan Polenta, but I would also love to stuff it into a roll with some mozzarella.
Yasssss.
Done and DONE.
So easy and so good. My boyfriend loved this, too.
This came out very tasty! I had a little difficulty with the sauce, as it turned out very thin. That might be fine in some contexts but I had made it intending to put over pasta. Any recommendations for what to use instead of a jar of pre-made sauce to have a thicker end result? :)
You can try adding a couple tablespoons of tomato paste in addition to the jar sauce. That usually helps thicken up red sauces quite a bit and the slow cooking will help turn the normally acidic flavor into sweetness.
I really wanted to like this. It sounded good, it looked good, and it smelled good. I followed the recipe exactly. My husband and I thought it was just ok. I won’t make it again.
Loved it, used my peppers and herbs from my garden and served over spaghetti squash, low carb, low sugar a winner all the way around thanks
Need nutritional information. I am a diabetic have to count fats and carbs.
The only carbs and sugar counts you should need would be the serving sizes from your sauce and side items. (If you served it over rice or pasta.). We try to keep our carb counts around 40-45 per meal. Depending on your items and serving counts- you may have to go light on sauce/bread/pasta/rice/etc.. If your using an item with a dietary fiber of 5 or more per serving size; then you subtract the diatary fiber count from your carb count and go with that carb count for your totals.
For example-
Sauce says 1/3 cup serving size
12 g Carb
5 g Diatary Fiber
Salad dressing- 1 Tsp serving
6 g Carb
1 g Diatary Fiber
Rice. Each 1/3 cup serving has
18 g Carb
6 g Diatary Fiber
For the sauce- I’d subtract the 5 from 12 and get a carb count of 7 for 1/3 cup of sauce.
(Do that for each item you add to your meal.)
Salad dressing I use 2 Tbl (2servings) so that’s 12g Carbs for dressing on my salad.
The rice has 6g dietary fiber subtracted from the 18g of carbs for a total of 12g carb for each 1/3 cup serving.
Now add these servings count together to calculate your carb count per meal.
Sauce: 7
Dressing: 12
Rice: 12
Total Carb count is 31. By this count you have roughly 9-14. That could be croutons on my salad or bread for my sauce, or maybe a bit more of my previous items.
Just remember ONLY subtract diatary fiber IF it’s 5 or more on the individual labels. I’d prob serve this over a serving of high Diatary fiber rice with a salad and skip the bread unless my count allowed me a small slice. (Just remember to measure your drink and salad dressing size and it’s carb count).
It sounds hard and confusing, but trust me- after doing this for awhile you know what items to get for that diatary fiber, the calculations become natural and you’ll be able to eyeball appropriate servings while keeping your blood counts under control. (Check with your Dr. ensure you are getting the right carb allotment per meal. We try for 40-45, but your allotment could be higher.)
I’ve made this a few times and my family loves it! I have served the leftovers in rolls with mozzarella cheese or used it as a topping for NAAN pizzas. It’s always a hit!
This was amazing! I did adjust it up to have several meals prepared for this week and I really should’ve added two more chicken breasts but the flavor is amazing and got me back to using my Crockpot. Very tasty. I served over Jasmine Rice and I’m enjoying it for lunch as I type this.
I am allergic to tomato – is there any other way to do this with a substitute for the marinara sauce?
There are so many delicious recipes that call for tomato or tomato sauces, I would love if you had any suggestions.
Try using cream of celery, cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soups. I have done this several time and it turns out great as a change over using tomato sauce or pasta sauce.
Try it with an alfredo sauce. I’m sure that would be just as tasty!
Have you considered taking this in a Creole/Cajun direction? Stewed tomatoes and jalapeno instead of marinara, add some okra, lots of cayenne, Worcestershire, spices, some Filé, serve it over rice? The okra is optional in our house (I hate okra), but you get the idea.
Yum, that sounds delicious! Thanks for the idea, June!
Another phenomenal recipe. It is TOO easy, you’d think there should be more to it, but it tastes effing AMAZING I cannot overstate that. Definitely a slow cooker stand-by. Love it on pasta or seasoned rice, great to make on Sundays and have throughout the week.
This was great. I added about 8 oz sliced mushrooms and cooked it in the pressure cooker. It came out more liquidy, which is normal for the pressure cooker, so next time I might add a few T of tomato paste. I substituted 2 t of Penzey’s Pasta spice for the herbs and added some garlic. 1 hour under pressure and natural release.
Made this last night, HUGE hit with three kids!!!! Thanks!!!
For this recipe and your “SLOW COOKER CHICKEN ROPA VIEJA”, instead of cooking on high for four hours, it is okay to cook on low for eight hours? Thanks!
Yes, that usually works about the same.
I’ve been trying to cook in house more rather than taking the lazy way out and ordering and I just wanted to say I was skeptical of slow cookers in general. This was the first recipe I tried and it came out AMAZING. This took next to no effort, but served over pasta is -great- . I think Rice next time though. It made enough for me to have lunch for tomorrow and to freeze some more for later. Figuring out single servings has always been a bit tough for me, but this didn’t make an overwhelming amount of leftovers.
Thanks!!
Any suggestions for different veggies, as my husband dislikes peppers and onions? Thank you.
Well, peppers and onions are the feature in this recipe, so I don’t think you could really replace them with anything and have it be similar.