Slow Cooker Autumn Chicken Dinner
54 Comments Oct 18, 2023
Updated Oct 12, 2024
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This Slow cooker Chicken and Sweet Potato Dinner is healthy and an easy one pot meal. Chicken thighs, onions and sweet potatoes are cooked together to perfection.
Who doesn’t love coming home to a complete meal in the slow cooker such as this one or even my Ranch Chicken and Potatoes, Slow Cooker Ham Dinner, or my Thanksgiving Casserole Recipe.
Table of Contents
Why this recipe works
This Slow Cooker Chicken and Sweet Potato Dinner was so flavorful! This is my first time making sweet potatoes without adding brown sugar and cinnamon, I didn’t miss it. You will love this One Pan Meal!
This recipe has simple ingredients, but somehow it produces the juiciest chicken and sweet potatoes. I think the chicken thighs are the key to this dish, while they cook all their juices flavor up those sweet potatoes perfectly.
Try this meal, even if you aren’t cutting back on sugar and grains. I’m sure all those juices would be delicious soaked up with some crusty bread. We love to serve this meal along with slow cooker apple crisp for a rounded out perfect fall meal!
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken Thighs – Use boneless skinless chicken thighs for this recipe. The thighs are juicy and add moisture to the entire dish. Brown the chicken in cooking oil such as vegetable or canola.
- Sweet Potatoes – My favorite variety of sweet potatoes are red garent, they are brightly colored and resemble fall in this meal. Butternut squash is a great alternate if you prefer. If you love sweet potatoes, also try my baked sweet potato recipe.
- Onion – The onion, cooked along with the sweet potatoes and chicken thighs are match made in heaven!
- Seasonings – Simple seasonings in this recipe; just salt, freshly ground black pepper and dried thyme!
- Maple Syrup – A touch of maple syrup adds a touch a sweetness to the chicken and sweet potatoes. The maple syrup gets drizzled over the final dish.
Step One – Peel and cube the sweet potatoes and dice the onion into large pieces.
Step Two – Add the diced onion and sweet potato cubes to the crockpot.
Step Three – Brown the chicken thighs in a hot skillet that has cooking oil added. You do not need to cook the chicken through.
Step Four – Add the browned chicken thighs on top of the sweet potatoes and onion. Sprinkle over the salt, pepper and dried thyme.
Step Five – Cook on High for 4 hours or until the chicken is cooked through and very tender.
Step Six – Drizzle over a touch of maple syrup (about 2 tablespoons) over the autumn chicken and serve!
How to serve
- This recipe is a full meal, you can go without any sides if needed. The chicken with sweet potatoes is a meal in itself.
- If you want to add healthy side, add a green salad or slow cooker brussels sprouts. You can add dried cranberries (a 1/4 cup) to the recipe for a pop of color. Another idea is to serve the autumn chicken with a scoop of whole cranberry sauce.
- You can also serve this with homemade biscuits, dinner rolls or even slow cooker focassia bread.
- If you like spicy flavors, serve with a touch of hot sauce. If you like sweet flavors try adding a dollop of slow cooker cranberry sauce to the top of the chicken.
Recipe FAQs
You can use bone in chicken breasts in this recipe. If you use boneless chicken breasts, but you will need to add a cup of chicken broth.
Green beans hold up very well in long cooking recipes such as this. You can also do half gold potatoes and half sweet potatoes.
Store the chicken in an airtight container. Place in the fridge for up to three days or freeze for up to three months.
Place the chicken and sweet potatoes in the microwave and heat for 30 second increments. Do not overheat or the chicken may become dry.
More Chicken Thigh Slow Cooker Recipes:
- Slow Cooker Lemon Pepper Chicken Thighs
- Slow Cooker Chicken Paprika
- Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin
- Slow Cooker Leek Chicken
- Slow Cooker Black Pepper Chicken
- Slow Cooker Green Chile Cheesy Chicken
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Slow Cooker Autumn Chicken Dinner
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs. red garnet sweet potatoes, (can use butternut squash)
- 1 white onion
- 2 ½ lbs. bone-in skin-on chicken thighs , (about 5 thighs)
- ½ tsp. sea salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- cooking oil for browning chicken
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 2 Tbsp. maple syrup, (optional) WAIT TO ADD
Instructions
- Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into large pieces, I cut mine into 1 inch pieces. Cut the onion the same way and separate the pieces so they aren’t stuck together. Spray a 6-quart slow cooker with non-stick spray, add the sweet potato and onion pieces to the slow cooker in an even layer.
- Place a large skillet on the stove-top over medium high heat. Add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken skin down first, and cook until it browns, flip the chicken and brown the other side too.
- Remove the chicken with tongs and add on top of the sweet potatoes and onions in the slow cooker. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and thyme over the chicken and veggies.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours.
- When the cooking time is up, drizzle over the maple syrup over the chicken and sweet potatoes.
How to Video
Sarah’s Notes
- You can use bone in chicken breasts in this recipe. If you use boneless chicken breasts, but you will need to add a cup of chicken broth.
- Want to add more vegetables? Green beans hold up very well in long cooking recipes such as this. You can also do half gold potatoes and half sweet potatoes.
- To store: Store the chicken in an airtight container. Place in the fridge for up to three days or freeze for up to three months.
- To reheat: Place the chicken and sweet potatoes in the microwave and heat for 30 second increments. Do not overheat or the chicken may become dry.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
any advice about using drumsticks instead? thanks
3 hours on high should cook the drumsticks and the sweet potatoes perfectly, you can always add a little more time if needed. 🙂
do you think I can cook on low for a longer time?
I don’t think there would be any reason that it would work on low for longer. Let me know how it works for you if you do that!
I’m hoping it works well cooking it longer on low
Can you sub Butternut Squash for Sweet Potatoes?
I think that would turn out great!
This looks like the perfect weeknight meal. I love chicken thighs in the slow cooker, they stay so nice and moist and get so tender.
LOVE making chicken thighs in the slow cooker! They always turn out so juicy and fall right off the bone. And sweet potatoes? Yum! 🙂
When you have good food like this you don’t miss the grains or extra sugar! I’m with you though, gotta enjoy the sweets every so often too, especially this time of year!
I love that you included sweet potatoes. What a great way to increase the nutrition in this lovely recipe.
Unfortunately I can’t get Grampy to eat dark meat — which is my favorite. It works out well with turkey. He gets the white meat and I get the dark but… It means I miss out on good recipes like this one.
Does he object to thighs cooked with breasts? Could you use both?
I think that would be fine if they aren’t skinless.
I don’t like dark meat either. Sad I have to pass this recipe by.
This time is too large enough
This looks delicious, but I’ve found when roasting chunked yams with onion there is no need to peel them. I didn’t believe it until I tried it. It makes the dish even easier!
Mixing in other root vegetables is good, too.
Thanks for the tips Dorothy!