Crock Pot Marry Me Chicken
If you love tender, flavorful chicken in a creamy garlic sauce, you’ll absolutely love this Crock Pot Marry Me Chicken. Just like the original, but made in the slow cooker!
A SIMPLE SLOW COOKER RECIPE
After I posted the Marry Me Chicken recipe a few months ago, I immediately got a ton of messages asking how it can be made in the crock pot. Not every recipe translates well into a slow cooker meal and I had to really play around with it and test it to get it just right. I wanted it to taste just as good as the original without being overcooked or dry and tough. I am really pleased with the results and I think you will be too! I know it seems like a lot of ingredients, but I need you to trust me with this one, it will taste like a million bucks! This slow cooker recipe will leave your house smelling amazing with the delicious aromas of garlic, butter, and tender chicken!
Made this and didn’t change a thing. It doesn’t need any tweaking. It’s perfect as-is! Huge hit with the hubby.
– Patricia
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Ideally, I’d stick to the low setting. The whole point of a slow cooker is to cook on low. Using the high setting may scorch the cream sauce and ruin it. If you need to cook this faster, I would suggest going with the stovetop version of Marry Me Chicken.
I used rotini when serving this. But you can use any pasta, rice, mashed potatoes, or anything that will soak up the flavorful sauce nicely because you definitely want to take advantage of that gorgeous sauce! You could also serve with a nice side salad.
I’ve only tested this recipe with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I imagine you could use other boneless chicken, but may need to alter the cook time. In addition, this could work with pork chops as well (again, you’d have to play with the time as I have not tested it.)
I prefer to, I feel like it locks in the flavor and gives it a beautiful color. I guess, you could skip it, but you’d need to add 4 Tablespoons of melted butter (slightly cooled) to the sauce so you have plenty of sauce for pouring later.
Just leave them out. I will tell you that these are a big part of what makes this recipe special and I don’t think you get the same level of flavor. However, don’t put something in a recipe if you just don’t like it. It will still be good!
No, I do not recommend it with this recipe.
Leftover Marry Me Chicken should be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days. Or keep it for up to 3 months in the freezer. Please note: any time you reheat a cream sauce, it could separate so do your best to reheat slowly.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR THE FULL RECIPE)
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts – as I stated above, you could certainly make this with other cuts of chicken, I just have not tested it and can’t tell you how to adjust the time.
- salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder – these seasonings are going to add an additional layer of flavor to the chicken.
- butter – I prefer salted butter here. I don’t think it makes it too salty. But you want real butter and not margarine (which is just oil).
- chicken broth – if you really want to reduce the sodium, you could use a low sodium chicken broth.
- cornstarch – this will help thicken the broth. I would not substitute with flour as it can get lumpy in the gravy.
- heavy cream – it has to be heavy cream, not milk. Also, if you have a slow cooker that runs hot (where it likes to boil), I would wait to add the heavy cream until the end (maybe the last 30 minutes or so of cooking).
- garlic – I prefer fresh garlic in this recipe over the jarred stuff but use what you prefer.
- red pepper flakes – I am super sensitive to spice and I don’t find this spicy at all. But you can certainly leave it out if you prefer.
- sun-dried tomatoes – these are the star of this dish. They add such a decadent and unique flavor. You can leave them out if you absolutely must but it is not recommended.
- freshly grated parmesan cheese – you could also use a finely grated mozzarella cheese.
- fresh basil leaves – this is optional. I would not substitute with dry. Fresh basil just goes very nicely with the sundered tomatoes.
HOW TO MAKE CROCK POT MARRY ME CHICKEN
Season the chicken on both sides with the salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and melt the butter. Sear the chicken breasts until golden brown, take the pan off the heat, and set aside. You are not cooking the chicken all the way, you just want it brown on both sides.
Whisk together the chicken broth and cornstarch in a bowl until there are no lumps. Add the chicken broth mixture to the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Whisk in the heavy cream (note: if you have a slow cooker that runs hot, I would wait to add the heavy cream in at the end), garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and paprika. Place the seared chicken breasts into the slow cooker and pour the olive oil and butter from the pan on top. Top each piece of chicken with the chopped-up sundried tomatoes. Place on low for 6-8 hours.
Take the chicken breasts out and whisk in the parmesan cheese to the sauce. Add the chicken back into the slow cooker, cover with sauce and add the basil, serve immediately.
CRAVING MORE RECIPES?
- Marry Me Chicken Pasta
- Marry Me Chicken Gnocchi
- Marry Me Chicken & Rice
- Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan
- Crock Pot Creamy Italian Chicken Pasta
- Crock Pot Chicken and Gravy
- Crock Pot Chicken & Rice
- Crock Pot Mississippi Pot Roast
- Crock Pot Mississippi Pork Chops
- Crock Pot Chicken Alfredo For Two
- Crock Pot Lasagna
- Crock Pot Angel Chicken
- 10 Crock Pot Mississippi Recipes
- Crock Pot Mississippi Pot Roast
- Butter Swim Biscuits
- Chicken Fried Chicken
- Longhorn Steakhouse Parmesan Chicken
Crock Pot Marry Me Chicken (+Video)
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons butter
For the sauce: (see notes below)
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 cup heavy cream (READ NOTES BELOW FIRST!)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ⅓ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes, drained
- ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together: 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Season 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts on both sides with the seasoning mix.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 Tablespoons olive oil and 2 Tablespoons butter (allow the butter to melt.)
- Sear the chicken breasts on both sides until golden brown, take the pan off the heat, and set aside. Note: You are not cooking the chicken all the way, you just want it brown on both sides. Turn off the heat but keep the leftover oil and butter in the pan (you'll use that in a bit)
- Whisk together 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and 3 Tablespoons cornstarch in a bowl until there are no lumps.
- Add the chicken broth mixture to the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker.
- Whisk in 1 cup heavy cream (see my notes below – you may want to exclude it here if you don't want the heavy cream to come out lumpy or curdled), 4 cloves garlic, minced, 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes and 1/2 teaspoon paprika.
- Place the seared chicken breasts into the slow cooker and pour the olive oil and butter from the pan on top.
- Top each piece of chicken with the chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Place on low for 6-8 hours (do not cook on high – see my notes below.) The larger your chicken breasts, the more time they may need to cook to get nice and tender. Do not keep lift the lid while it is cooking, this will take it longer to cook and your meat may not come out as tender. Cover and let it cook – don't mess with it.
- Take the chicken breasts out and whisk in 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese. Add the chicken back into the slow cooker, cover with sauce and add 6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped to the top and then serve.
Video
Notes
- Please refer to my FAQ’s and ingredient list above for other substitutions or for the answers to the most common questions.
- I would not recommend cooking this on high, I think there would be a good chance of the sauce scorching at a higher heat. If you are in a time crunch, consider making the stovetop version of Marry Me Chicken.
- PLEASE READ: If you have a slow cooker that runs hot (where it likes to boil), I would wait to add the heavy cream so it doesn’t curdle. You can whisk it in during the last 30 minutes or so of cooking. If you are in doubt about how hot yours runs, just follow this advice to be safe.
- People really love the sauce so you may want to double it if you want to serve extra sauce with the chicken and over pasta or rice.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
I made this for the first time last night and want to pass along a quick fix if your sauce curdles like mine did: Warm about 1/3 cup heavy cream and add a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch to make a slurry, then whisk it into the sauce. Perfect and delicious!
Such a great recipe! Family loved it and it taste so good. I’m saving this for sure!
I’ve been wanting to make Marry Me Chicken for some time m e now. I don’t know why it took me so long. aMaybe it’s because I get a little anxious when i’m trying something new. My husband died in March, 2024. Ee had been married thirty three years and prior to his passing, he had done all of the cooking for a great many of those years. I had done the cooking in the early years of our marriage, but I never really knew how to cook and I never enjoyed it, but he did. you would think making new things wouldn’t intimidate me as this is about everything.I’ve made for the last two years.Was something new for me. To my surprise, however, I now enjoy cooking. That’s said, I have made some things that were just so slow, and I’ve made some things that were really good. And I have a habit of making those really good things frequently rather than trying new things. i’m so glad however that I decided to try this. My version had some slate variations which were for the most part, not intentional. i didn’t have any fresh basil so I just left it out rather than adding dried, as you suggested not to. I doubled the sauce and i’m so glad I did. i almost always order my groceries to be delivered because I don’t get a round very well. When I placed my order for this meal.I accidentally ordered a wedge of asiago cheese instead of parmesan. because they have similar flavor profiles.I just went ahead and used it. I also used unsalted butter for the same reason. i’m on a pretty limited budget, so it just made more sense to use what I had. Last night I thought it tasted really good. I shared it with three of my grandchildren and a friend of my granddaughters. They all loved it and said that the sauce was their favorite thing. Tonight I enjoyed some of the leftovers. like so many recipes after the flavors had a full day to meld.It was even more delicious. I had four huge chicken breasts thawed for this and cut each one in half to make two smaller cutlets. Needless to say I made a large batch. i checked on it after almost four hours on low. it was my first time using a new crockpot and I wasn’t sure how quickly it would cook them. They were following apart. Truly they couldn’t have been more tender. I almost made this following instructions I saw in a video on facebook. in the video, the contact creator just dumped everything in.And when it came to this seasoning, she didn’t give amounts, but just added a light sprinkle of each thing. something told me to keep looking.And after reading several variations of this, I decided to try yours. i couldn’t be happier that I did.Tomorrow I will be having it again and I don’t mind one bit that I will be eating it for the third day in a row. One last thing my two dogs loved it as well. I almost always give both of them a piece of whatever meat I am preparing.
Delicious! Very reminiscent of one of my favorites at Macaroni Grill, Pasta Milano, minus the mushrooms. My crockpot cooks hot so I dropped to warm and added the heavy cream in the last hour. Perfecto! If you don’t like spicy you might want to reduce the crushed pepper flakes.
My family loved the recipe. Thank you!
This is crazy good, and so convenient and easy – love it! Thank you for such a great keeper recipe – and now I am discovering the rest of your website – yum!
My husband and I both LOVED this recipe! I did tweak it a bit by using half and half instead if heavy cream, adding it at the last half hour, along with a cup of chopped spinach. I may also add mushrooms when I make it again. The gravy was delicious over pasta. YUM!!
This was absolutely delicious and the sauce is definitely worth doubling! My husband would definitely marry me again with this one. LOL He could not stop telling me how good it was (and he normally wouldn’t eat anything with sun-dried tomatoes!)
I really like the way you include ingredient amounts in your directions. I wish other writer/chefs would do the same. Not having to constantly flip back and forth from the ingredient list to the instructions made the cooking process enjoyable.
Thanks so very much for mentioning that! It really helps me to know the things that people like so I can keep doing them if it is helpful so thanks for saying something!
Making this with tenderloins today. Kept out three after searing. Once everything was going in the slow cooker, finished cooking the three we pulled out. Tossed them on a Caesar salad for lunch. Delicious! I added this note to my recipe, so I can keep doing it in the future.
Thanks for such a great recipe!
Tastes amazing! I doubled the seasonings to rub on the chicken. Didn’t have fresh basil, but still tasted great. This is going in my personal recipe book.
Delicious! I had 1.25lbs of chicken (2 breasts) and still followed the rest of the recipe accordingly. Cooked in 4 hours on low and turned out PERFECT! We had enough sauce to put over our penne pasta. My husband has requested I make it again (twice in a week!). Not too challenging of a recipe for a novice chef like myself. Will be making time and time again
Very tasty. I tried making this for 10 people and had chicken covered with sauce, I think I had too much chicken broth as sauce didn’t thicken. I bet if you had this in one layer that sauce would have been better.
Could I substitute rotisserie chicken?
I haven’t tested that. You have to be really careful it doesn’t dry out.
Followed recipe to a “t” and it was perfect! The chicken was so tender and the sauce is AMAZING!! THANK YOU!
I need to double this (6 thighs to 13 thighs). And don’t want to do a two separate batches. I’m assuming I double everything but thought I’d ask. By the way/the thighs melt in your mouth!!! Amazing!
This was delicious but I will recalibrate next time. I used six 6-oz breasts and still had more than enough sauce according to the recipe for only four breasts, but after 5hrs on low it was falling apart – but still tender and yummy. I also forgot the note about adding cream later and it was not totally smooth but still tasted so good that I will make it again. Also used about 3/4 of the red pepper flakes it called for and the spice level was just right so that my little ones still loved it. I served with peas and jasmine rice.
I’ve made this countless times and it’s always a hit whomever I make it for! I don’t change anything. Perfect as is!
I made this today for a pot luck portioned 4 oz boneless chicken breast pieces and it cooked very fast, even on low. They were ready within 4 hours but I waited another hour before adding my heavy cream, some sautéed mushrooms, a few handfuls of spinach, and some cooked baby potatoes I had in my fridge. It was delicious and was gone quickly! Thanks for the crock-pot version of this recipe!
This recipe turned out perfect!! Delicious!