Slow Cooker Chicken Piccata
14 Comments Jul 13, 2022
Updated May 17, 2025
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Slow Cooker Chicken Piccata combines lemon flavors with chicken broth, capers, and dijon mustard for a chicken dish you and your whole family will love. With a few quick-prep steps and a few hours of cooking time, this chicken piccata will be ready for your dinner table the same day.
Piccata is a classic Italian dish where meat is lightly floured, browned, and served with a lemony sauce made with butter and capers—usually using veal or chicken. Chicken piccata is especially popular, and using the slow cooker makes it even easier. Just sear the chicken first, then let the crockpot handle the rest—no need to stand over a hot stove.
Main Ingredients
This recipe is all from scratch. See the recipe card for full ingredient amounts.
This recipe starts with boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are dredged in a simple mixture of flour, salt, and pepper, then browned in butter for extra flavor. The sauce comes together with fresh lemon juice, chicken broth, and a touch of Dijon mustard to create that signature tangy piccata taste. Garlic cloves and capers add a savory, Italian-inspired depth, while a quick mix of water and cornstarch helps thicken the sauce just before serving.
How to Make Slow Cooker Chicken Picatta
Follow my easy steps to make this beautiful dish:
Step One – Mix flour, salt, and pepper on a large plate, then dredge each piece of chicken until fully coated. In a skillet, sear the chicken on both sides until golden—just enough to brown it, not fully cook it.
Step Two – Place the browned chicken into the slow cooker with a flavorful mix of melted butter, lemon juice, chicken broth, Dijon mustard, garlic, and capers. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours, then remove the chicken and set aside.
Step Three – Whisk together cornstarch and water in a small bowl, then stir the mixture into the lemony sauce in the slow cooker to help it thicken.
Step Four – Add the chicken back into the slow cooker, spoon some sauce over the top, and cook for another hour. Finish with lemon slices and fresh herbs for a bright, flavorful touch.
How to Serve
This type of dish needs a starchy side, here are great ideas.
Noodles – Crockpot chicken piccata pairs well with spaghetti or linguini noodles, though the most popular choice is angel hair pasta. Add a nice helping of noodles to a plate and place a chicken breast or two on top and drizzle over the lemon sauce. Add extra piccata sauce and a few lemon slices.
Rice – This chicken piccata recipe can also be served with rice, either on top or next to.
Mashed Potatoes – Helps turn this crock pot chicken piccata into a wholesome full meal. In fact, you can also cook small red potatoes with the chicken.
Featured Comment
“This was delicious. My entire family loved it and I’m making it again tomorrow.”
– Pamela
Slow Cooker Chicken Piccata
Equipment
- 6 quart or larger
Ingredients
- 4 chicken cutlets, about 1 ½ pounds chicken which is thinly sliced.
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/2 cup butter, plus 2 Tbsp. of butter separate
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 Tbsp. capers, drained
- 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp. water
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the salt, pepper, and flour. Dredge the chicken cutlets in the flour mixture. In a nonstick skillet, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter over and pan fry the chicken cutlets over medium high heat until browned on each side, about 2 minutes per side. The chicken doesn't have to be cooked all the way, just browned.
- To the slow cooker, add the browned chicken, ½ cup butter, lemon juice, chicken stock, dijon mustard, minced garlic, and capers. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.
- Remove the chicken from the slow cooker, mix together the cornstarch and water and stir it into the cooking liquid. Replace the chicken, cover and cook for another hour or until the sauce has thickened slightly.
- Serve with pasta, rice, or even mashed potatoes, garnish with lemon slices and parsley.
Sarah’s Notes
- For a gluten free version, replace the flour with cornstarch and dredge the chicken in that.
- Add any leftovers into an airtight container and place them into the refrigerator. They will keep for up to 3 days.
- Browning the chicken is an important step for texture purposes. If you prefer to skip this step then add raw chicken into the crockpot and cook for an hour so longer.
- While thinly sliced chicken breasts are the most ideal for a recipe like this, you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs.
- You can add a small amount of vegetables without making the dish watery. You can add artichoke hearts or sliced mushrooms.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
More Slow Cooker Chicken Recipes
Angel Chicken and Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken are both light, flavorful meals that pair perfectly with pasta or rice.
Slow Cooker Smothered Chicken and French Onion Chicken offer rich, comforting flavors with tender chicken and savory sauces.
For something bold, try Balsamic Chicken or the tangy, buttery flavors in Mississippi Chicken—both easy, hands-off favorites.
Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken brings creamy, Italian-inspired flavor with minimal effort and big payoff.
Absolutely delicious! Loved the sauce very good!!
I am a visual learner and always prefer to see your videos. I wish you had one for this recipe, Because I had to keep going back and read each step and figure it out.
I will keep that in mind!
I only have a 4 quart cooker is that okay?
Yes, that will work well.
This was an excellent way to make this dish! Since hubby and I prefer dark meat, we used chicken legs. Our guests loved it also.
The sauce was so terrific, we added more broth and lemon juice and sure glad we did.
Made with whole chicken breasts and turned out fantastic
This was delicious. My entire family loved it and I’m making it again tomorrow.
Thank you for the recipe. I didn’t have the time to brown the chicken first (and I’m GF), so i just put the raw whole chicken breasts directly into the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients (minus the flour and 2T extra butter) and cooked on high for 3 hours. I added the cornstarch mixture and shredded the chicken and put on low til I was ready to eat. About 10 min before serving, I added a couple handfuls of spinach. I served it over brown rice, but I think pasta or mashed potato’s would have been better. It was actually more like 4 stars, but I think had I done it exactly as directed it would have been 5. Since time is usually tight for me and I’m GF, I will most likely make it again as shredded.
This was so good! I cooked low for 6 hours and the chicken was perfect. It made great leftovers, too!
Three hours on high??? Yikes! My feeling is chicken can be over cooked very easily (my opinion only). These are thin slices of chicken. That sounds like an excessive amount of time on high. Definitely will try the recipe, though. Sounds delicious!
Chicken only gets more tender the longer it cooks in the slow cooker.
I’m trying this today! I hope it will be okay in low for 6 hours…..
I think it will do great!