Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken and Pasta. This buttery chicken and pasta is a hit at our house!
Hi all! I have another pasta slow cooker meal for you. I made this the other day while we were out at the lake, came home boiled the noodles and dinner was served. I cook my noodles separately, not in the slow cooker. I’ve tried many recipes where the noodles are cooked in the slow cooker and I had to toss them out, the noodles get floury and mushy.
To make this delicious meal, I start by adding chicken thighs, garlic, onions, carrots, seasonings and butter into my slow cooker.
I shred the chicken after this has cooked for 7-8 hours.
I add frozen peas.
Then 1 pound al dente cooked rotini pasta
Stir and serve topped with Parmesan cheese.
Doesn’t this look great? My daughter loved everything but the carrots. At least she liked the most of it!
I hope you had a great 4th of July! I will be back soon with another slow cooker recipe. Stay tuned!
Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Pasta
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 Tbsp. minced garlic
- 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1 white onion, diced
- ½ cup sliced butter
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- ½ tsp. sea salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- 1 cup frozen peas ADD AT THE END
- 1 lb. rotini pasta cooked al dente, ADD AT THE END
- Parmesan cheese for serving
Slow Cooker Size:
- 6 quart or larger
Instructions
- Add the chicken, garlic, onions, carrots, butter, thyme, basil, salt and pepper.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours.
- When the cooking time is done, cook the pasta according to the package directions.
- Shred the chicken. Add the peas, and the drained and cooked pasta. Stir.
- Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve!
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
I used my 6-quart Crock-Pot for this recipe. I don’t recommend using anything smaller.
You may also like: Slow Cooker Hamburger Hash
Yummy recipes!
This sounds delicious, Sarah!
Can u sub chicken breast?
Absolutely delicious. Will make again. Thanks, Sarah.
Made this with chicken breast, it was great. Will make again.
It’s says to add the peas and pasta “at the end. ” What do you mean by this? Do I cook the peas and pasta in the crockpot? If so how long? If not then won’t the peas still be frozen?
Please add more detail to your recipe! I’m cooking now but just realized I don’t know what to do with the peas!! Also you forgot to add the step to shred the chicken. Or at least that’s what I assume I’m suppose to do.
Once the hot peas hit the chicken after it is cooked they will be thawed, they do not need to be cooked. The only step missing was shred the chicken, I added it. Sorry about that.
Can I cube chicken breast rather than shred the chicken or will it dry out? Thanks!
IF cube is used it will end up shredded in tiny bits when it gets stirred. I don’t think they would dry out though.
Can I cook it on high for a shorter period ? Say 4 hrs?
Yes, on high. Keep the lid on, carrots take some time to get tender.
Can you freeze this and then add to the slow cooker another day? I tend to freeze my slow cooker recipes for when my husband goes out of town. Then I don’t have to cook or prep with a toddler around.
Potatoes get weird when they are froze in slow cooker freezer meals. I don’t think this would do well.
Potatoes? I don’t remember there being any in this recipe. Am I missing something?
Could you please respond to this? I don’t see any potatoes in the recipe. Did you mean pasta?
Oh my goodness! Sorry, I have another garlic butter recipe with potatoes. I think you could freeze this before cooking. I apologize about the confusion.
After less than 5 hours in the crock pot on low, it’s full of grease and my carrots are brown. This looks disgusting. Not sure how to salvage this meal…
Crock pot recipes aren’t pretty. But it will be better when the pasta is added 🙂
I havent tried it yet, but don’t you need any liquid to start in the crockpot?
The butter and the juices that are made from the chicken is the liquid in this recipe.
Do you have receipts that are for 2-4 servings. Chicken mainly.
No, most are 6-8. I’m sorry!
Chicken and I are not good friends since my gall bladder wad taken out.
Can turkey or pork be substituted for the chicken?
Either would be great!
Just curious to know how/why chicken would be an issue due to gall bladder removal since its whole purpose is the digestion of fats and chicken is about the leanest meat there is. I had my gall bladder removed just about a month ago and have had no issues thus far with any foods. I know I’m fortunate but just perplexed by the chicken issue.
Could you sub olive oil for part of the butter? Trying to be dairy free for breastfeeding purposes :-/
I think that would work fine. Some chicken broth would work great too.
Thanks!
Did you change the recipe recently? I thought it only cooked on low for 6 hours. Do you happen to have a link to the old recipe?
I cooked this again the other night, I felt the time could go longer than six hours because of the carrots. If you slice the carrots thinner, you can get away with 6. Nothing has been changed, just the time. If it works for you for 6 hours, go for it!
Could I use a bag of frozen stew vegetables and add at the beginning?
I don’t see why not!
Delicious. My second time to do it . Everything turned out perfecty . Thank you .
Can I use frozen chicken? I am excited to try this recipe!
I have not tried, though I think it should be fine.
Can you sub rotisserie chicken? If so, how much cooking time do you need or adjust?
I made this last night and was not a fan. My husband said it was fine though
Thanks for the recipe! I’m not a fan of raw meat but am learning! I always use chicken breast that are cleaned and ready to go. However, ive been seeing a lot of recipes that use bonless chicken thighs. Please tell more! Are they easy to work with and how is the meat different. I didn’t realize they had BONELESS which may work for me: Thanks
Hi Susan, I use boneless chicken thighs in place of boneless chicken breast. The only thing I do is cut off any fatty pieces off the edges, there is always a lot. The meat is very moist and tender, doesn’t dry out.
Thank you!
Made this last night, it was awesome! I didn’t add the peas cuz we don’t like them but I’ll be making this again! Served it with corn and poured the juice over, delicious!
I made this tonight for dinner. It was easy enough and turned out fine but I found it to be too dry. I added a 16 oz. can of low sodium chicken broth. It helped some but I still felt as if something was missing. Not sure I will make again. This recipe makes a lot.
Add one or two cans of cream of chicken or mushroom soup
We used 4-5 boneless thighs, and followed rest of the recipe closely. We chunked the thighs after cooking rather than shred, and cooked on High for 4.5 hours. It was okay, but rather “mild.” If we make this again, we’re going to add a lot more garlic and spices… it needed to be kicked up a notch, but it was a good basic recipe to start with, then edit to individual tastes.