Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken Stew

With only 4 ingredients and a few spices, this slow cooker chicken stew is one of the easiest recipes you’ll ever make. Every serving is packed with 36 grams of protein and 10 grams of filling fiber. And with its big yield, you can feed a small army or have meal prep taken care of for the whole week.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stew Ingredients

This recipe is super easy to put together and very customizable. Here’s what you’ll need:

• boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts
• white kidney beans or pinto beans
• salsa verde
• corn tortillas
• ground cumin, ground coriander, and dried oregano

Chicken Thighs vs Chicken Breast

The tiny bit of extra fat in chicken thighs make them ideal for a minimal recipe like this. They’re also nearly impossible to over cook.

If you use chicken breast, you’ll want to check periodically and pull the chicken out as soon as it reaches an internal temperature of 165ºF. Otherwise, the chicken can become tough and dry.

Corn Tortillas

If you’ve made my white bean ground chicken soup, you’re familiar with this technique. The corn tortillas will break down in the slow cooker and act as a thickener for your stew. They also add great flavor.

Salsa Verde

I used Central Market Hatch chile salsa verde, but any salsa verde will work. You can also make your own with tomatillos, jalapeño, onion, garlic, cilantro, and lime juice.

Or for a unique spin with a nutrition boost, check out my zucchini salsa.

Another optional verde ingredient that adds a health boost might be spinach. My taco chili calls for 1-2 cups of frozen spinach, and you’ll barely know it’s there.

No Broth?

The chicken will render a good amount of water during cooking. Take my slow cooker bbq chicken thighs, for example, which cook with nothing other than a seasoning blend.

That water, along with the liquid from the beans and salsa verde, is the perfect amount of liquid for me. If you wanted more broth, however, you could easily add a cup or two of broth to the slow cooker.

How Long to Cook Chicken Stew in a Slow Cooker

Two to three pounds of chicken should be fully cooked to an internal temperature of 165ºF after 5-6 hours on low or 2-3 hours on high.

Like I mentioned above, chicken thighs are very forgiving. Chicken breast, on the other hand, needs a close eye to avoid over cooking. If you have a wireless thermometer like the Meater I used in my smoked pot roast recipe, you can use that to set an internal temperature alarm. That way you can pull the chicken at the perfect time.

Diced vs Shredded Chicken

It’s totally up to you. Since I already have my pressure cooker chicken tortilla soup and creamy chicken taco soup recipes with shredded chicken, I went with diced here. Dicing also matches the size and shape of the white kidney beans.

Optional: Creamy Salsa Verde Chicken Stew

I wanted to leave this chicken stew as-is. My wife wanted to add cream cheese. So we compromised by adding cream cheese. I think she was right.

I used the same Kite Hill dairy free cream cheese I used for my creamy buffalo ground chicken chili. Fat free Greek yogurt like in my high protein creamy taco soup would also be a great addition for added creaminess.

Or you could try your hand at blended cottage cheese. If you’ve tried my cottage cheese queso or protein macaroni and cheese, you know how well it works as a high protein creamy addition.

Serving Your Slow Cooker Stew

The recipe card below calls for topping with cilantro, avocado, jalapeño, and salsa macha.

If you’re unfamiliar with salsa macha, it’s Mexican chili oil made with dried peppers and toasted nuts. It’s perfect for tacos, stews and soups, or just about anything. You can buy it online or make homemade salsa macha.

Tortilla chips are also a no-brainer for this slow cooked chicken stew. If you wanted to keep the fat under control, you could make my baked tortilla chips with extra thin corn tortillas.

However you decide to serve your salsa verde chicken stew, I’d love to hear your thoughts about the recipe. Reviews are always appreciated. And if you have a question about the recipe or an ingredient substitution I forgot to cover, drop a comment at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!