These Southwestern crockpot chicken thighs cook over sweet potatoes and are topped with a 4-ingredient spiced tomato sauce. Add some bell peppers on top for the last hour of cooking and you’ll have your entire meal ready!
Happy Thursday, friends, or as I like to call it, Thur-Friday.
We are heading off on an awesome adventure to Tofino (on Vancouver Island) this weekend in honor of my Mom’s 29th birthday (right mom?).
I’m so excited to visit Tofino as it has been on my must-visit list for a LONG time now, and it will be so much fun for Kai to play on the beach all weekend!
So between laundry and packing and toddler-wrangling and work, I need an easy dinner…actually I think by the time Thursday rolls around we are all in need of an easy dinner! So today’s (ridiculously easy) Southwestern crockpot chicken thighs are great for all of us!
These photos are slightly misleading because you can’t see what is hiding under the chicken thighs: a whole lot of sweet potatoes. The chicken and sweet potatoes are topped with a diced tomato ‘sauce’. You could totally use salsa if you have that on hand.
I cooked these up for 4 hours, then smothered with some mozzarella and served them in a tortilla but they’d also be great over rice.
For our first batch, we added in some bell peppers, corn and red onion for the last hour of cooking. They get soft, but still have some texture to them, and are really delicious in this recipe!
For the photos, I kept it simple and left the veggies out, but I highly recommend adding the extra veggies. We loved eating everything wrapped up in tortillas, and it was super easy to clean up after!
I was really pleasantly surprised by the delicious flavors in this Southwestern crockpot chicken thighs recipe considering how simple it is to throw together. The sauce is simply diced tomatoes, cumin, chili powder and salt. I thought it was going to need more ‘pizzazz’ but it was quite pizzazzy on its own!
It did end up having extra liquid in the slow cooker from the juices of the tomatoes, but we just scooped the tomatoes out and left the liquid in the slow cooker.
Yes. Easy dinners = more mental space left in my brain. Because I need allllll the mental space I can get right now!
Happy Thursday friends. Have a wonderful weekend!
More slow cooker recipes that require very little brain-power:
- this Slow Cooker Sesame Ginger Beef with Snap Peas is so easy my 3-year old could make it
- this Slow Cooker Ginger Peanut Chicken with Green Beans & Baby Potatoes is another all-in-one crockpot recipe
- or you could make this Slow Cooker Balsamic Pork Tenderloin and pretend you slaved on it (when really…you didn’t)
Southwestern Crockpot Chicken Thighs (and Sweet Potatoes)
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato, cut into large chunks (roughly 6 cups)
- 12 small boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 19 oz can of diced tomatoes (including liquids)
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Optional (not pictured) One Hour Before Serving
- 1 can corn
- 2 bell peppers, sliced into strips
- 1/2 red onion, sliced into strips
Min Before Serving
- 1 cup mozarella cheese
To Serve
- rice or tortillas
- greek yogurt
- guacamole or avocados
Instructions
- Place sweet potato chunks in the bottom of a 5-quart slow cooker. Arrange chicken thighs on top.
- Stir together the diced tomatoes, cumin, chili powder and salt. Spread over the chicken.
- Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.
Optional
- During the last hour of cooking, scatter the corn, bell peppers, and red onion over the chicken.
Min Before Serving
- Scatter the cheese over the chicken/veggies, cover and heat until cheese is melted through.
Serve
- Over rice, in tortillas or as is.
Recipe Notes
Calories 272 // Fat 9 g // Saturated Fat 3 g // Cholesterol 118 mg // Sodium 267 mg // Carbohydrate 15 g // Fiber 3 g // Sugars 3 g // Protein 31 g
Recipe can be halved and cooked in a 2.5 qt crockpot with the same cook time
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving Size | ⅛ of batch |
| Amount Per Serving | As Served |
| Calories 272 Calories from fat | |
| % Daily Value | |
| Total Fat 9 g | 14% |
| Saturated Fat 3 g | 15% |
| Cholesterol 118 mg | 39% |
| Sodium 267 mg | 11% |
| Carbohydrate 15 g | 5% |
| Dietary Fiber 3 g | 12% |
| Sugars 3 g | |
| Protein 31 g | |
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:
| Calories | 2000 | |
|---|---|---|
| Total Fat | Less than | 65g |
| Sat Fat | Less than | 25g |
| Cholesterol | Less than | 300mg |
| Sodium | Less than | 2,400mg |
| Total Carbohydrate | 300g | |
| Dietary Fiber | 25g | |
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Hi Jill I just e-mailed you 🙂
Oooog girl, these chicken thighs look so good! My dad has been begging me for “tomatoey chicken in the slow cooker” – looks like
I found my recipe 🙂 totally trying this soon! Have so fun in Tofino, Denise.
Thanks Rachel! I hope your dad likes them 🙂 Tofino was awesome….I already want to go back!
I haven’t run across any of your wonderful recipes that show nutritional info. Am I missing that or is that something you you prefer not to include?
Hi Andi, I have added the nutritional information to some recipes in the past, but it is extremely time consuming, and they are not necessarily accurate (I use the MyFitnessPal App when I do add them, and there is huge variation between different brands etc). It is definitely something I’d like to have on all of my recipes in the future when I can find the time 🙂
What is the approximate weight on the chicken thighs? I can’t get “small” thighs. 12 thighs would end up weighing like 4-5 pounds.
Hi Laura! They were really small. I can get my scale out tomorrow and give you a more precise answer but according to google, maybe around 3 oz each?
Can I use chicken breast instead? If so, how would I adjust the cooking time?
Hi Gail, I haven’t tried with chicken breasts but I think they’d work just fine. I think the same cook time would work well, unless your slow cooker cooks hot, I’d start checking around 3 hours? Hope you enjoy!