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Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken

A sweet and spicy Crockpot chicken recipe made with chunky salsa, all-fruit preserves, peppers, herbs, and spices for a simple and delicious weeknight meal.

Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Chicken recipe

I am always experimenting with new easy slow cooker recipes. Our weekdays are BUSY and my kids are on the go, so we need healthy meals that don’t require a lot of fuss and preparation. We had this simple Mexican-inspired chicken recipe this week and it turned out so good! The nutrition stats are also great with 26 grams of protein, 3 grams of fat, and 16 grams of carbs per serving!

Two bowls of sweet and spicy crockpot chicken over brown rice with a side of guacamole

How To Make Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken

 
Ingredients You’ll Need:
  • 6 (4 oz) boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 16 oz jar of medium or hot chunky salsa (I love the Trader Joe’s Peach Salsa in this recipe, or use your favorite brand)
  • 1/2 cup tomato sauce
  • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 small Vidalia onion, finely chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 cup apricot or peach All-Fruit preserves
  • freshly ground pepper and salt, to taste

Directions:

No time to thaw? You can use fresh or frozen chicken breasts for this recipe. I’ve included cooking times for both. Don’t worry if you forgot to pull the chicken out of the freezer…the story of my life. I’ve got you!

Place chicken breasts in the bottom of a slow cooker sprayed with olive oil cooking spray.

Raw chicken breasts in the bottom of a slow cooker

Top with chopped peppers, onions, and garlic.

Peppers, onions and garlic chopped on top of chicken breasts in a slow cooker

Mix all remaining ingredients in a bowl.

Salsa, jam and spices ready to whisk for crockpot chicken

Whisk until combined.

Sauce mixture prepared to pour over chicken and vegetables in the slow cooker

Pour over chicken.

Cook 3-4 hours on low (until internal chicken temperature reaches 165 degrees F) for fresh chicken breasts or 5-6 hours on low for frozen chicken breasts.

Easy Sweet and Spicy Crockpot chicken served with rice

What To Serve With Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken

I served it over brown rice, but you could also shred it up for tacos. You can easily make this a low-carb dish and serve it on top of riced cauliflower. 

Toppings that I love for this recipe are chopped fresh cilantro, homemade guacamole, sliced fresh jalapeños or pickled jalapeños, and sour cream or Mexican crema. You can also never go wrong with my favorite spicy jalapeño margaritas. 😉

This one will remain a favorite in our dinner rotation. Everyone loved it! This recipe also works great for meal prep!

Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken with rice and guac topped with fresh parsley

*This post has been updated on May 11, 2020 from the original post published on Jan 24, 2012.

sweet and spicy crock pot chicken in a blue bowl

Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken

A sweet and spicy Crockpot chicken recipe made with chunky salsa, all-fruit preserves, peppers, herbs, and spices for a simple and delicious weeknight meal.
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Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 197kcal
Author: Amee

Equipment

  • slow cooker

Ingredients

  • 6 (4 oz) boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 16 oz jar medium (or hot) chunky salsa *I love the Trader Joe's Peach Salsa in this recipe
  • 1/2 cup tomato sauce
  • 2-3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 small vidalia onion chopped fine
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 cup apricot or peach All fruit preserves
  • 1 green pepper chopped
  • fresh ground pepper and sea salt to taste

Instructions

  • Place chicken breasts in the bottom of a slow cooker
  • Top with peppers, onion and garlic
  • Mix all other ingredients in a bowl and pour over the chicken
  • If using fresh chicken breasts (not frozen) cook on low for 3-4 hours or until the internal temp of chicken breast reaches 165 degrees F. If cooking frozen chicken breasts cook on low for 5-6 hours.

Nutrition

Calories: 197kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 73mg | Sodium: 789mg | Potassium: 797mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 785IU | Vitamin C: 23mg | Calcium: 49mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @ameecooks or tag #ameecooks!

 

Amee Livingston
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50 Comments

  1. Hi, I just made this for the first time and love it. Do you know the nutritional information for this dish? Thank you so much.

  2. Would it be okay to use fresh salsa instead of jarred salsa in this recipe? Also, I only have 4 chicken breasts. Would it be too saucey if I follow the directions as is or should I decrease the liquids??

    1. Hi Jamie! It’s great to use fresh salsa and should be fine with 4 breasts. You’ll just have more tasty sauce for the rice. 🙂

  3. I made this without the tomato sauce (forgot to buy it) and used chicken thighs I had in freezer, it was great! Loved it! Served over rice perfect easy dinner .

  4. HI Amee 😉

    This looks great, just wanted to know if I doubled it how much longer do you think I should cook it

  5. Amee, this looks great! Do you use 6 SKINLESS AND boneless chicken breast HALVES for this recipe? Many thanks!

    Maggie

  6. Hi I am a beginner cook and also have some questions. I added 1/4 cup more of tomato sauce instead of salsa. (in place of the fruit because my husband also has type 1 diabetes and celiacs). Is that ok? Also what should I put in place of the garlic? Can I used garlic powder or salt? Also what kind of rice goes well with this meal? Thanks!

    1. Hi Alison! The salsa, preserves and fresh garlic gives this dish great flavor. There are a lot of salsas that you can use that have no sugar in them. Can your husband have fresh fruit? If so, use some chopped fresh apricots or peaches instead of the preserves. If you can’t use fresh garlic, go for a little garlic powder and salt (to taste). I serve this over brown rice. It’s the least refined and tastes delicious. Enjoy!

  7. I am so glad that you enjoy my blog! I have thought about including the nutritional stats for my recipes, but it is a lot of calculating and I haven’t found the time to get it done. I wish that there was a simple plug-in to do it all for me! Maybe in the future I can implement that feature. Thank you for the feedback. 🙂

  8. Amee, I am so excited to find your new recipes. I am a beginner cook, but have married a man with Celiac’s disease and a diabetic. These recipes look very natural and perfect for a gluten-free diet. Would it be hard to also list how many carbohydrates are in the meal or a serving of the meal? That would be really helpful too!

  9. I am only cookin for two people would itbe okay if Ihalf this recepie? I ws actuallygingot make this tomorrow, so it wll b ready when i get back from church. The c hickens alreay thawed out, so it should only take 34 hours right??

  10. Amee, I love to make recipes in the crockpot and this one looks easy and tasty. I will be trying it soon. I enjoy recipes that combine sweet and spicy flavors. I just did a kale coconut curry that has raisins which provided the sweet and spicy bite that I enjoy. Thanks for sharing!

  11. So glad to hear back from you Barbara. 🙂 I completely understand about the picky eaters! I have two myself. 😉 I am so happy that your son loved it!!

  12. Good Morning! Just getting back to you on the fresh canned peaches in this dish. They worked great! I did not add sugar or honey. My ADHD son is a VERY picky eater and he LOVED this recipe! I will use the homemade canned salsa in it next time though. Again due to the picky eaters I have for children. LOL

  13. Liesbeth, thanks for the feedback! So glad you loved it!! Marsha, thanks so much, I was so excited to see my feature this morning! 😉

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