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Slow-Cooker Lemon-Pepper Chicken with Green Olives and Potatoes

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  • Prep 35 min
  • Total 5 hr 35 min
  • Servings 6
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Buttery olives, rich chicken, creamy potatoes in a luscious sauce brightened up with lemon and fresh herbs—this isn’t just a tasty dinner, this recipe is also a lesson in great slow cooking. We say this because it uses several techniques to maximize flavor, while still delivering on the hands-off convenience that slow cookers promise. Here’s what we mean: This recipe starts with browning the chicken on the stove—we know, we know, this doesn’t seem very convenient, but bear with us—browning is a chemical reaction that creates flavor, and it can’t happen inside a slow cooker, which cooks at too low a temperature for this process to occur. So yes, you have to wash a skillet, but it will pay off in terms of flavor—and the washing is actually made easy because of the deglazing step. But before we get to that, there are the onions. As long as the skillet is dirty, it makes sense to sauté the onions as well. Onions that go into the slow cooker raw can end up undercooked and acrid-tasting, so browning the onions in the chicken fat left behind in your skillet is setting you up for success. Adding some broth, after you’ve cooked and removed the onions, will allow you to scrape up the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the skillet—and those little bits are cooking gold. Adding the deglazing liquid to the slow cooker means all the complex flavor you’ve developed through the simple act of browning will infuse the finished dish. And like we said, washing your skillet is a breeze after deglazing because you’ve already gotten rid of the sticky bits without any scrubbing. With such a flavorful start, your dish only needs low heat and time to cook up into something truly excellent and absolutely impressive.
By Betty Crocker Kitchens
Updated Dec 19, 2019
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Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lb baby Yukon Gold potatoes, halved
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning
  • 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 1/2 lb)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup Progresso™ chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
  • 3/4 cup Castelvetrano green olives, unpitted
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
  • Lemon wedges
Make With
Progresso Broth

Steps

  • 1
    Spray 5-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Add potatoes, 1 teaspoon of the lemon pepper seasoning, 1 teaspoon of the thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper. Toss to coat.
  • 2
    Season chicken with remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Arrange chicken thighs, skin-side down, in skillet; cook, turning once, 6 to 7 minutes or until browned.
  • 3
    Transfer chicken to slow cooker.
  • 4
    Drain all but 1 tablespoon drippings from skillet. Add onion; cook and stir 4 minutes over medium heat. Add garlic; cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until onions are lightly brown. Transfer onion mixture to slow cooker.
  • 5
    Add broth and lemon peel to skillet; heat to boiling over medium heat, scraping up brown bits on bottom of skillet. Transfer to slow cooker.
  • 6
    Add green olives to slow cooker. Cover; cook on Low heat setting 5 to 6 hours or until chicken is cooked through (at least 165°F) and potatoes are tender.
  • 7
    Garnish with remaining 1 teaspoon thyme and the parsley. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Tips from the Betty Crocker Kitchens

  • tip 1
    It’s tempting to speed up cooking by using the High heat setting, but don’t give in to the urge. Cooking this dish on Low will result in moist, tender chicken and perfectly creamy potatoes.
  • tip 2
    When cooking potatoes in the slow cooker, put them in the bottom of the pot where liquid will keep them from oxidizing (turning an unappealing brown).
  • tip 3
    This recipe uses bone-in skin-on chicken thighs. Thighs are our chicken cut of choice when slow cooking, because they’re fattier than breasts—but don’t be put off, because that fat means they don’t dry out as easily. We use both boneless skinless and bone-in skin-on chicken thighs when slow cooking, but we prefer the latter in this recipe, because they have just a little more flavor and juiciness.
  • tip 4
    Castelvetrano olives are mild, buttery and so delicious, we’ve seen olive skeptics change their mind after trying one. We prefer using pit-in olives in this recipe, because they have a firmer texture and are less likely to fall apart after slow cooking—just don’t forget to warn diners about the pits. Find these olives in condiment aisle or olive bar of your grocery store.
  • tip 5
    If this recipe includes more prep work than your schedule allows, no worries. We’ve got plenty of dump-and-go slow-cooker recipes too! Peruse the rest of our slow-cooker recipes.

Nutrition

410 Calories, 20g Total Fat, 34g Protein, 24g Total Carbohydrate, 2g Sugars

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 Thigh and 3/4 Cup Vegetables
Calories
410
Calories from Fat
180
Total Fat
20g
31%
Saturated Fat
4 1/2g
24%
Trans Fat
0g
Cholesterol
100mg
33%
Sodium
970mg
40%
Potassium
960mg
27%
Total Carbohydrate
24g
8%
Dietary Fiber
4g
15%
Sugars
2g
Protein
34g
% Daily Value*:
Vitamin A
4%
4%
Vitamin C
15%
15%
Calcium
8%
8%
Iron
20%
20%
Exchanges:
1 1/2 Starch; 0 Fruit; 0 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Skim Milk; 0 Low-Fat Milk; 0 Milk; 0 Vegetable; 4 Very Lean Meat; 0 Lean Meat; 0 High-Fat Meat; 3 1/2 Fat;
Carbohydrate Choice
1 1/2
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
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