Slow Cooker Marry Me Chicken

Marry Me Chicken is chicken breast in a creamy sun-dried tomato sauce, and this is the slow cooker version. Ten minutes of work in the morning, then three to four hours on low while you get on with something else.

It is really a Tuscan chicken under a better name. The sun-dried tomatoes are what make it, and the sauce around them is stock and cream thickened with tomato puree whisked into flour, with garlic, oregano and paprika. The parmesan and basil go over the top at the end rather than into the pot. Chicken thighs work if you prefer them, and they are more forgiving over a long cook.

Serve it over pasta or with bread to mop the sauce up. If you would rather cook it on the hob, my Marry Me Chicken Pasta builds the same sauce in a pan and folds it through the pasta.

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Why the Slow Cooker Suits This One

Everything goes in raw. There is no browning step and nothing to thicken at the end, because the tomato puree is whisked into the flour before any of it goes in the pot, so the sauce thickens itself as it cooks. Keep the chicken submerged and the breasts stay tender instead of drying out, which is the usual risk with breast meat over a long cook.

If you want to make more of it, my Berrichonne Potatoes go well beside it: herby potatoes with bacon and onion, roasted in stock and white wine, and they cook in the oven so nothing competes for the hob.

A Closer Look at the Ingredients

There are only a handful of things in this and three of them decide whether it works. Here is what each one is doing.

• Chicken breasts, sliced into cutlets a whole breast is thick at one end and thin at the other, so the thin end is dry before the middle is done. Splitting them gives you even pieces that sit flat under the sauce. Instead: two boneless thighs in place of each breast, far more forgiving if the cooker runs long.
• Heavy cream the fat is what stops the sauce splitting, and there is a threshold rather than a sliding scale. At about a quarter fat or more there is enough surface on the fat globules to tie up the milk protein, so no curds can form. Below that there is not, which is exactly why single cream and half-fat cream let you down and double cream at nearly half fat does not. Instead: full-fat creme fraiche or mascarpone. If you are shopping in the US, look for cream labelled pasteurised rather than ultra-pasteurised, which will not thicken properly.
• Sun-dried tomatoes this is the flavour the dish is named for, concentrated and sweet and slightly sharp, and they keep their character through a long cook where fresh tomatoes collapse. Instead: a tablespoon of tomato paste with a handful of halved cherry tomatoes gets close on sweetness, though not on depth.
• Plain flour this is the whole trick. A slow cooker is sealed and loses almost no liquid, so there is nothing to reduce at the end and a thin sauce stays thin. The flour goes in at the start instead. Two tablespoons gives a sauce that coats; three makes it properly thick, which suits mash better than pasta. Instead: cornflour for a gluten-free sauce, about 4 tsp in place of the 2 tbsp, and whisked into the paste at the start rather than added at the end. The starch is holding the cream together as well as thickening it, so you want it in there for the whole cook.
• Tomato paste it carries the flour into the liquid without lumps, and adds a savoury depth the cream has none of on its own. Instead: passata, though you will want a little more flour.
• Garlic, sliced sliced rather than crushed on purpose. Crushed garlic loses itself in a sauce cooked this long, where slices are still slices at the end and keep their sweetness. Instead: two teaspoons of garlic paste, stirred in at the end.
• Parmesan and basil, to finish both go on at the end, off the heat. Parmesan is actually one of the better cheeses to put in a sauce, because ageing breaks its protein down too far to go stringy, but held above its melting point it still tightens into clumps and squeezes its fat out. Adding it off the heat avoids that, and the flour already in the sauce helps hold it together. Basil simply loses its smell to a long cook. Instead: pecorino for something sharper, or parsley if there is no basil in the house.

Equipment You’ll Need

How to Make Slow Cooker Marry Me Chicken, Step by Step

1. Make the tomato and flour paste. Put the tomato paste and the flour in a small bowl and whisk them together until they are completely smooth, with no dry flour left anywhere. Do this properly and do it in the bowl. Flour tipped straight into liquid clumps on contact, and once those lumps are in the cooker under a litre of stock there is no getting them out. This paste is also the reason the recipe works at all: a slow cooker is sealed, so it loses almost no liquid, and a sauce that starts thin will still be thin at the end. You thicken at the beginning here, not at the end. Two tablespoons of flour gives a sauce that coats the chicken and pools a little on the plate, which is what I want with pasta. If you like it thicker, or you are serving it over mash, use three.
2. Build the sauce in the cooker. Pour in the chicken stock and the cream, then the black pepper, oregano, paprika and the chilli powder if you are using it. Add the paste and whisk everything together until the liquid is smooth and evenly coloured. Take the cream out of the fridge a little ahead if you can. That is the standard precaution in slow cooker versions of this dish, it costs nothing, and cooks who make it often swear by it. Use full-fat either way: this sauce sits for hours, and the fat is what holds it together.
3. Add the garlic and the sun-dried tomatoes. Stir in the sliced garlic and the sun-dried tomatoes. Slice the garlic rather than crushing it. Crushed garlic loses itself in the sauce over a cook this long, where slices are still slices at the end, sweet and soft, and you get pieces of it on the plate. I use the sort packed in oil, drained. Drain them properly or the sauce turns greasy on top, but keep the oil itself: it has taken on the tomatoes and makes a very good salad dressing.
4. Lay the chicken in, fully submerged. Settle the cutlets into the sauce so they are covered. This matters more than it sounds: any part of a chicken breast sitting proud of the liquid dries out, and breast is unforgiving that way. If you want to sear them golden in a pan first, do, it adds colour and a bit of roasted flavour. It is genuinely optional though, and it does not seal any juices in, whatever you have been told. The dish is built to work with everything going in raw.
5. Cook it low. Lid on, low for three to four hours, or high for an hour and a half to two if you are short of time. Low is much the better setting and worth planning for, for two reasons: breast held hotter goes tough and stringy in a way you cannot undo, and high heat is also what scorches a cream sauce. If you have a probe, the chicken is done at 74C in the thickest part, and that is the single most reliable way to avoid the dry, rubbery result people complain about. Start checking at three hours rather than running it to the end of the window. Leave the lid alone in between: every lift costs you heat and lets out the steam keeping the top of the chicken moist.
6. Check the sauce, then finish it. Taste it now rather than earlier, because stock and parmesan vary a lot in salt and a long cook changes the pot. If the sauce is thinner than you want, take the lid off for the last half hour and let some liquid go, or whisk a tablespoon of cornflour into a tablespoon of cold water and stir that in thirty minutes before the end. Be gentle: the chicken is fragile by this point and breaks up if you stir hard, and hard stirring is also what pushes melted cheese back into a lump. Then scatter over the grated parmesan, the chopped basil and the cherry tomatoes, off the heat. If the sauce ever tightens or looks grainy, a squeeze of lemon or a splash of white wine will usually bring it back.
7. Serve it over something that will soak. Pasta, mashed potato or rice, and bread on the table. The sauce is the whole point of this dish and you want as little of it left on the plate as possible. A sharp green salad on the side is a good idea if you find it rich.

Recipe Card for Slow Cooker Marry Me Chicken

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Ingredient Substitutions

• Chicken breast - swap for boneless thighs; they are more forgiving and stay juicy over a longer cook.
• Heavy cream - full-fat crème fraîche or mascarpone hold up beautifully and resist splitting; steer clear of low-fat versions.
• Sun-dried tomatoes - a spoonful of tomato paste with a few fresh cherry tomatoes gives a similar sweet-tangy depth.
• Plain flour - cornflour for a gluten-free sauce. Use about 4 tsp in place of the 2 tbsp, because cornflour thickens more for its weight, and whisk it into the tomato paste at the start exactly as you would the flour. It slackens a little over a long cook, so if the sauce is looser than you want, a teaspoon slaked in cold water in the last half hour finishes it.

Storing, Freezing and Reheating

It keeps in the fridge in an airtight container for up to three days, and the flavour is arguably better on the second day once it has settled.

Reheat it gently. Low heat on the hob, or short bursts in the microwave with a stir between them, and stop before it reaches a hard simmer, because that is what splits cream. If it has tightened in the fridge, a splash of cream or stock brings it back.

I would not freeze it. Cream sauces separate as they thaw and come back grainy, and no amount of stirring quite fixes it. If you want to get ahead, freeze the cooked chicken on its own and make the sauce fresh on the day. For more of this sort of cooking there is a slow cooker cookbook worth a look.

What to Serve With Slow Cooker Marry Me Chicken

🍽 This one is all about the sauce, so give it something to soak into. I love it spooned over buttery mashed potato or a tangle of pasta, though rice works just as well if you want to catch every drop. A few steamed greens on the side and some crusty bread to mop the plate, and you have a proper cosy dinner. If you would rather have something sharp against all that cream, a leafy side salad cuts through it better than the greens do.

FAQ for the Marry Me Chicken Crock Pot Recipe

Can I use frozen chicken for the recipe?

No, I recommend you to defrost the chicken first before cooking. Cooking chicken directly from its frozen state can lead to uneven cooking, with the exterior becoming overcooked while the interior remains undercooked. Additionally, it can cause the chicken to fall apart or become too dry. Properly thawed chicken ensures even cooking and retains the meat’s tenderness and flavour.

Can I freeze the leftovers?

While you technically can, I wouldn’t advise it. Freezing dishes with creamy sauces can lead to texture changes upon reheating, causing the sauce to separate or become grainy. For the best quality and taste, it’s preferable to consume the dish fresh or refrigerate and consume it within a few days.

How can I make this recipe lower in fat?

Use less cream rather than leaner cream. Drop it to half a cup and make the difference up with stock, and accept a slightly thinner sauce. Low-fat and single cream are the one substitution I would avoid here: the fat is what holds the sauce together over a long cook, and lighter creams split.

What wine goes well with Marry Me Chicken?

“Marry Me Chicken” pairs beautifully with red wines such as Merlot and Pinot Noir. If you prefer white wine, Chardonnay is a great choice.

Can I use chicken thighs instead of breast?

Yes, and they are the more forgiving choice. Thighs carry more fat and connective tissue, so they stay juicy if the cooker runs an hour longer than you meant, where breast starts to go dry and stringy. Use about ten boneless thighs in place of the five breasts and give it the longer end of the cooking time.

Why did my sauce split or curdle in the slow cooker?

Almost always the cream, and it is either too lean or the pot got too hot. This recipe puts the cream in at the start, which works because it is full-fat and a slow cooker never brings the liquid to a boil. If yours has split before, or you are working with something lighter than double cream, hold it back and stir it in at the end instead, once the chicken is cooked and the cooker is off.

When should I stir the cream in?

At the beginning, with the stock, which is how this recipe is written. Full-fat cream takes a long low cook perfectly well. If you would rather be certain, the alternative is to leave it out at that stage, cook the chicken in the stock alone, then push the chicken to one side and stir the cream and parmesan into the hot liquid at the end. Both work. What splits cream is heat rather than time, so if you are adding it early, do not cook this on high.

Why is it called Marry Me Chicken?

The name comes from the idea that it is good enough to prompt a proposal. The dish is usually credited to Delish, who published it in 2016, and the story that goes with it is that someone in the office joked they would marry whoever made it. It is a modern invention rather than an Italian classic, whatever the sun-dried tomatoes suggest, and the slow cooker version came later still.

Can I use cream cheese instead of cream?

Yes, and it is the more common version in Britain. Cream cheese cannot split the way pouring cream can, so it takes the risk out of a long cook, and it gives a thicker, slightly tangier sauce. Use about 100 g in place of the cup of cream and stir it through at the end until it melts. You may want a little less flour, since the cheese is doing some of the thickening.

Can I make it dairy-free?

Full-fat tinned coconut milk in place of the cream, with a tablespoon of nutritional yeast standing in for the parmesan, is the swap people actually make and report back on. It will taste faintly of coconut, which suits the paprika better than you might expect. Keep the flour, and check the seasoning at the end, because you have lost the salt the parmesan was contributing.

Can I double it?

Yes, and on the same cooking time, as long as your cooker is big enough that the chicken still sits submerged rather than stacked. Double the chicken, the stock, the cream and the flour, but not the seasoning. Salt and paprika do not scale in a straight line in a pot this size. Start at about one and a half times, then taste and adjust at the end.

Can I make it gluten-free?

Yes, and the swap is cornflour for the plain flour. Use about 4 tsp in place of the 2 tbsp, because cornflour thickens more for its weight, and whisk it into the tomato paste at the start exactly as you would the flour. Most gluten-free advice tells you to leave the flour out and thicken at the end instead, and I would not do that here: the starch is doing two jobs, thickening the sauce and holding the cream together over a long cook, and taking it out for the first three hours gives up the second one. Starch does slacken if it is held hot for hours after it has thickened, so the sauce may finish a shade looser than the flour version. A teaspoon of cornflour slaked in cold water, stirred in for the last half hour, sorts that out. Check your stock too, since that is the other place gluten hides.

Why does chicken breast dry out in a slow cooker?

Because breast is lean and carries almost no connective tissue, so there is nothing in it to keep it moist once it is past done, and it turns stringy rather than tender. Thigh meat is the opposite: it is full of connective tissue that keeps softening the longer it cooks, which is why it is so much more forgiving and why the card gives ten boneless thighs as an alternative. For breast the answer is not more time, it is less. Use low rather than high, start checking at three hours instead of running it to the end of the window, and go by temperature rather than the clock: 74C in the thickest part and no further, because it is at its best right there and falls away quickly after. Slow cookers vary more than people expect, so three hours in yours is not three hours in mine.

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A Few Words from the Chef

Marry Me Chicken is really a variety of Tuscan chicken, and the slow cooker takes all the work out of it. Set it going in the morning and it looks after itself. If you would rather cook it on the hob, my Marry Me Chicken Pasta builds the same sauce in a pan.