Chicken is on the table more than anything else in most American kitchens, and fall is when it stops being a quick grilled breast and turns into something braised, roasted or baked under a crust.
These 20 chicken dinner recipes are grouped by how they cook. The slow cooker recipes start in the morning and finish themselves. The skillet recipes are done in 35 to 40 minutes. The oven recipes sit in the middle, with casseroles at about an hour and a whole roast chicken at two.
Every entry lists the real total time from the recipe card and how many it serves. Whatever you pick, cook chicken to 165°F in the thickest part. Thighs can go higher and only get more tender, which is why so many of these recipes call for them.
A good instant read thermometer is the one tool that makes every recipe here better. It takes the guesswork out of cutlets that cook in minutes and out of thighs that sit in the slow cooker all day. Check the thickest part, away from any bone, and pull the chicken the moment it is done.
Slow cooker chicken dinners
Thighs are the right cut for the slow cooker. They stay juicy through a long cook where breasts dry out and shred into strings. Put the chicken in fully thawed, leave the lid on, and use the LOW and HIGH times in each recipe.
Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings
Shredded chicken thighs and vegetables in a creamy thyme broth, topped with from scratch drop dumplings that steam on HIGH for the last hour or so. The dumplings are flour, baking powder, cold butter and milk, mixed in two minutes. Keep the lid on while they cook or they turn dense.
Time: about 7 hours 50 minutes | Serves: 6
Get the full Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings recipe with the printable card
Slow Cooker Creamy Tuscan Chicken
Thighs in a Parmesan cream sauce with sun dried tomatoes, garlic and fresh spinach folded in at the end. The sauce is rich enough to coat pasta or mashed potatoes, and it comes together in three to four hours on LOW. This is the one to make when you want something that feels like a restaurant dish.
Time: about 4 hours | Serves: 6
Get the full Slow Cooker Creamy Tuscan Chicken recipe with the printable card
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
Chicken thighs cook in honey, soy sauce and garlic, then the liquid is thickened with a cornstarch slurry into a glossy glaze. It is sweet, salty and kid approved. Serve over rice with steamed broccoli and spoon the extra sauce over everything.
Time: about 3 hours 40 minutes | Serves: 6
Get the full Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken recipe with the printable card
Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
Chicken simmers in salsa, lime and homemade taco seasoning until it shreds with two forks. Pile it into warm tortillas with whatever toppings you have on hand. Leftovers turn into burrito bowls, quesadillas and nachos for the rest of the week.
Time: about 5 hours 10 minutes | Serves: 8
Get the full Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos recipe with the printable card
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
Bone in thighs braise with tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, white wine and herbs, then olives and basil go in at the end. It has all the depth of a Sunday braise with five minutes of hands on work. Serve over polenta or pasta.
Time: about 6 hours | Serves: 6
Get the full Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore recipe with the printable card
Slow Cooker Chicken Curry
A mild coconut chicken curry with potatoes and peas that simmers gently through the afternoon. The coconut milk and tomatoes give the sauce body without any cream. Rice or warm naan for scooping is all it needs.
Time: about 5 hours 50 minutes | Serves: 6
Get the full Slow Cooker Chicken Curry recipe with the printable card
Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice
Thighs cook with onion, carrot, celery and thyme, then long grain rice goes in near the end so it stays fluffy. Dinner and the side cook in the same pot. Stir the rice in once and then leave the lid alone until it is tender.
Time: about 5 hours 15 minutes | Serves: 6
Get the full Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice recipe with the printable card
Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
Shredded chicken, white beans and green chiles in a creamy broth finished with cream cheese and lime. It is milder than a red chili and makes eight servings. Crushed tortilla chips, cheese and jalapeños on top let everyone adjust the heat.
Time: about 6 hours 45 minutes | Serves: 8
Get the full Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili recipe with the printable card
Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
A smoky tomato broth with shredded chicken, black beans and corn, topped with crisp baked tortilla strips, avocado and lime. Chipotle in adobo and fire roasted tomatoes give the broth its smoke. Bake the tortilla strips while the soup finishes so they are still warm and crunchy.
Time: about 6 hours 55 minutes | Serves: 8
Get the full Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe with the printable card
Skillet chicken dinners
These are the weeknight rescues. Each one starts with boneless breasts sliced into thin cutlets so they cook in minutes and stay juicy, then a pan sauce is built on the browned bits left behind. Have everything measured before the pan gets hot, because these move fast. Slice each breast in half horizontally and pound it to an even half inch, then pat the cutlets dry so they brown instead of steam. A 12 inch skillet gives them room to sear without crowding.
Chicken Piccata
Thin flour dusted cutlets are pan seared until golden, then finished in a bright lemon, white wine and caper butter sauce. Pounding the breasts to an even half inch is what makes them cook in three to four minutes per side. It is on the table in 35 minutes and tastes far fancier than that.
Time: about 35 minutes | Serves: 4
Get the full Chicken Piccata recipe with the printable card
Chicken Alfredo
Seared chicken cutlets over fettuccine in a homemade Parmesan cream sauce. The sauce is just butter, garlic, cream and finely grated Parmesan stirred in off the heat so it stays smooth. Reserve a cup of pasta water to loosen the sauce as you toss.
Time: about 35 minutes | Serves: 4
Get the full Chicken Alfredo recipe with the printable card
Marry Me Chicken Pasta
Seared cutlets and penne in a creamy sun dried tomato, garlic and Parmesan sauce with a pinch of red pepper flakes. The oil from the sun dried tomato jar goes into the pan for extra flavor. Done in 40 minutes and one of the most popular recipes on the site.
Time: about 40 minutes | Serves: 4
Get the full Marry Me Chicken Pasta recipe with the printable card
Chicken Tikka Masala
Yogurt marinated chicken thighs are broiled until charred, then simmered in a creamy spiced tomato sauce. The total time includes an hour of marinating, so the active cooking is closer to 40 minutes. Serve with basmati rice and naan to soak up the sauce.
Time: about 2 hours | Serves: 6
Get the full Chicken Tikka Masala recipe with the printable card
Oven, sheet pan and casserole chicken dinners
The oven does the work here. Casseroles come together in an hour and can be assembled a day ahead. The roast chicken and sheet pan thighs give you crisp skin and roasted vegetables from a single pan. Rotisserie chicken works in every casserole and saves half an hour of poaching. Bake casseroles on a rimmed sheet pan to catch drips, and let them rest 10 minutes before serving so the sauce thickens enough to scoop cleanly.
Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables
A whole chicken rubbed with herb butter, some of it pushed under the skin, roasted at 425°F over carrots, parsnips, potatoes and red onion. The vegetables cook in the drippings and the skin comes out deep golden and crisp. Rest the bird 15 minutes before carving. This is Sunday dinner in one pan.
Time: about 2 hours 5 minutes | Serves: 6
Get the full Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables recipe with the printable card
Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs with Root Vegetables
Bone in thighs roast skin side up among carrots, parsnips, sweet potato and red onion with smoked paprika and thyme. Patting the skin very dry before seasoning is what makes it crisp. Everything is done in about an hour with one pan to wash.
Time: about 1 hour 5 minutes | Serves: 4
Get the full Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs with Root Vegetables recipe with the printable card
Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
A creamy chicken, vegetable and thyme filling under a flaky double crust. The filling is thickened on the stove and cooled before it goes in so the bottom crust bakes through instead of turning soggy. Let the pie rest 15 minutes so the filling sets before you cut it.
Time: about 1 hour 25 minutes | Serves: 6
Get the full Homemade Chicken Pot Pie recipe with the printable card
Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Chicken, blanched broccoli and rice baked in a homemade cheddar sauce with a buttery panko topping. Blanching the broccoli for two minutes first keeps it green and tender in the oven. It is ready in an hour and it is the casserole kids reliably eat.
Time: about 1 hour | Serves: 6
Get the full Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole recipe with the printable card
Chicken and Stuffing Casserole
Shredded chicken and vegetables in a homemade herb cream sauce, baked under a loose layer of stuffing that turns golden and crisp. The stuffing goes on top, not mixed in, so the textures stay separate. It is Thanksgiving in a 9 by 13 dish and it is done in an hour.
Time: about 1 hour | Serves: 8
Get the full Chicken and Stuffing Casserole recipe with the printable card
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole
Wild rice, shredded chicken and browned mushrooms in a creamy Parmesan sauce with a panko crust. The wild rice takes 40 to 50 minutes to cook, which is most of the total time, but it gives the casserole a nutty flavor white rice cannot. Feeds eight.
Time: about 1 hour 50 minutes | Serves: 8
Get the full Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole recipe with the printable card
Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Corn tortillas, shredded chicken, black beans, corn and cheese layered with red enchilada sauce and baked until the edges crisp. A little cream cheese in the filling keeps it creamy. It is enchilada night without rolling a single tortilla, and it feeds eight.
Time: about 1 hour 5 minutes | Serves: 8
Get the full Chicken Enchilada Casserole recipe with the printable card
How to use this list
Buy thighs in bulk. Boneless skinless thighs work in every slow cooker recipe here, and bone in thighs work for the sheet pan and cacciatore. They are cheaper than breasts, they freeze well in family packs and they are far more forgiving of extra cooking time. Keep two pounds of breasts on hand for the skillet recipes, where thin cutlets matter.
Cook once, eat twice. A rotisserie chicken or the leftovers from the roast chicken give you the three to four cups of shredded meat that the casseroles and the enchilada bake call for. Poaching thighs in salted water for 15 minutes does the same thing. For a full week built around this idea, see the two week fall weeknight meal plan.
Swap with care. Breasts can replace thighs in the skillet recipes and casseroles with no change. In the slow cooker, breasts cook faster and dry out, so cut the LOW time by about an hour and check early. Bone in and boneless thighs are interchangeable in the slow cooker on the same schedule.
Plan the leftovers. Cooked chicken keeps 4 days in the refrigerator and reheats to 165°F. Casseroles, the tikka masala and every slow cooker recipe here freeze for up to 3 months. The skillet cream sauces are best eaten fresh, since cream sauces can separate when frozen. For freezer specifics, the fall freezer meal prep plan walks through a weekend of cooking ahead.
Frequently asked questions
What internal temperature should chicken reach?
Cook all chicken to at least 165°F in the thickest part, checked with an instant read thermometer. Bone in thighs are more tender at 175°F to 185°F, so it is fine to take them further. Breasts dry out past 165°F, so pull them right at temperature.
Can I use chicken breasts instead of thighs in the slow cooker?
Yes, but breasts cook faster and get stringy if left too long. Cut the LOW cook time by about an hour and check for 165°F. Thighs are the better choice for long cooking because their extra fat keeps them juicy.
Which chicken dinners are fastest?
Chicken piccata and chicken alfredo take 35 minutes and marry me chicken pasta takes 40. Chicken broccoli rice casserole and chicken and stuffing casserole are done in an hour, and both can be assembled the night before.
How long does cooked chicken keep in the refrigerator?
Refrigerate cooked chicken within two hours and use it within 4 days. Reheat leftovers to 165°F. Shredded chicken freezes well for up to 3 months in a sealed bag with the air pressed out.
Is it safe to put frozen chicken in the slow cooker?
No. Frozen chicken spends too long between 40°F and 140°F, the range where bacteria multiply. Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight first, or in a sealed bag in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes.
About the author
