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Home » Main Courses » Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara

Published: Nov 6, 2019 · Updated: Oct 21, 2020 · By: Bec · 8 Comments

Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara

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Marinara pasta sauce is an Italian classic; it’s super simple but oh so versatile! My recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara is a brilliant easy slow cooker recipe meal that only takes a few moments to make. It can be prepared using standard stock cupboard ingredients but is still wonderfully flavourful.

Side view of Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara with pasta.

What is Marinara pasta sauce?

In short, it’s a basic tomato sauce that often accompanies a variety of types of pasta. It’s thought to derive from recipes that cooks aboard the Neapolitan ships in the 16th century once made, hence the name Mariner’s sauce.

Now it’s widely used as a sauce in it’s own right or as a base in a variety of dishes (think lasagne, cannelloni etc) and is particularly popular in Italian-American cuisine.

The sauce itself is comprised of only a few core ingredients, namely tomatoes, garlic, onions and basil. Cooked right, it really is delicious.

Due to it’s simplicity it’s been adapted many times to a variety of well known dishes such as Cod Marinara, Seafood Marinara and the recipe I have here, Chicken Marinara.

However, don’t let the simplicity of the ingredients or preparation lead you to think that there is a lack of flavour in this dish, nothing could be further from the truth!

The beauty of this recipe is really appreciating the flavours of the sweet tomatoes and basil.

Overhead view of Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara.

More Chicken Slow Cooker Recipes

Chicken and crockpots are a match made in heaven! Try some of these suggestions:

  • Slow Cooker Whole Chicken
  • Slow Cooker Chicken Pie
  • Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken

How is Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara different from classic Marinara sauce?

My recipe uses the classic list of marinara ingredients as a base with the addition of chicken thighs and black olives. I really didn’t want to deviate too far from the original flavours when creating this one!

I think the result is a lovely pasta sauce perfect for serving with tagliatelle or linguine and lashings of Parmesan cheese!

Can I freeze Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara?

The pasta sauce will keep in the fridge for up to two days in an airtight container. The sauce will also freeze for up to three months.

Defrost and reheat thoroughly and cook with fresh pasta for best results.

Side view of Chicken Marinara and pasta

Slow Cooker Chicken Marinara

A classic Italian tomato and herb sauce slow cooked with chicken and olives.
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 8 hrs
Total: 8 hrs 10 mins
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 559kcal
4.5 from 2 votes
Print Pin Rate

Equipment

  • Slow Cooker (3.5L)

Ingredients

  • 500 g (1 lb) chicken thighs – skinless and boneless
  • 400 g (14 oz) chopped tomatoes – canned
  • 350 g (2.5 cups) tomato passata
  • 4 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 onion – diced
  • 3 garlic cloves – crushed
  • 1 chicken stock cube
  • 2 tbsp dried basil
  • 2 tbsp dried oregano
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper – ground
  • 100 g (3.5 oz) Parmesan cheese – to serve
  • 200 g (7 oz) pasta – tagliatelle, linguine, spaghetti etc
  • 2 tbsp fresh basil – chopped
  • 75 g (2.5 oz) black olives – pitted and finely sliced
  • 50 ml (0.25 cups) water – hot

Instructions

  • Place the chicken thighs in the slow cooker and sprinkle over the salt and pepper.
  • Dice the onion and crush the garlic and add to the cooker along with the sliced, pitted olives.
  • Sprinkle over the dried basil, oregano and sugar and pour over the chopped tomatoes, passata, and the stock cube dissolved in the hot water. Then add the tomato paste.
  • Stir everything through well and set the slow cooker to low and leave for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
  • Approximately 15 minutes before cooking time has ended, cook the pasta in a pan of boiling water on the hob with a little salt. Check the manufacturers instructions for the exact recommended cooking time.
  • Once the chicken marinara sauce has cooked, take two forks and roughly shred the softened chicken into the sauce. Then add the roughly chopped fresh basil and stir through well.
  • Add the cooked pasta to the slow cooker pot and mix well with the sauce to ensure the pasta is fully coated.
  • Serve immediately with fresh Parmesan cheese.

Notes

  • It’s worth investing in good quality canned tomatoes for this recipe to ensure that you get a natural softness and sweetness to the sauce, otherwise the amount of sugar that will need to be added may increase.
  • Similarly, if you find that the tomatoes used cause the sauce to be slightly acidic, add a few tablespoons of milk to neutralise this.
  • The dried herbs used in this recipe were Bart’s Basil and Oregano.
  • The chicken stock cube used in this recipe was Kallo Organic Chicken Stock Cube.
  • If you’re keen to reduce the calories, using less Parmasan cheese will bring this under 500 calories.

Nutrition

Calories: 559kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 44g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 136mg | Sodium: 1924mg | Potassium: 1283mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 1219IU | Vitamin C: 25mg | Calcium: 454mg | Iron: 7mg
Cooked this recipe?Snap a picture and tag @SlowCookerClub!
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
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Filed Under: Chicken, Easy, Italian, Main Courses Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links – as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you buy the product we get a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ann-Marie says

    October 12, 2020 at 10:11 am

    5 stars
    Great recipe, thank you so much. This will be a regular for us, it’s so delicious. I was wondering if it would be possible to use white fish fillets instead of the chicken for a change? If so, do you have any recommendations as to timings for it? Thanks again and please keep up your good work!

    Reply
    • Dave says

      October 21, 2020 at 11:36 pm

      Glad you enjoyed the recipe! White fish sounds like it’d be lovely, but we haven’t tried that – sorry! If you try it out please let us know how you get on…

      Reply
  2. Amber Cull says

    January 10, 2020 at 1:58 pm

    4 stars
    Another great recipe!! Perfect for a quick running-late-need-to-chuck-it-in kind of dinner!
    Thanks guys.
    Ps tried to take a photo and it was all gone by the time I remembered!

    Reply
    • Dave says

      January 13, 2020 at 9:08 am

      Thanks Amber, glad you enjoyed it! 😊

      Reply
  3. Connie says

    November 28, 2019 at 1:33 am

    Not all of us use the metrics system, need help with conversion! This looks so good.

    Reply
    • Dave says

      December 09, 2019 at 3:53 pm

      I’ve added imperial/US measurements for you, thanks for the feedback 🙂

      Reply
  4. David Hurry says

    November 14, 2019 at 12:43 pm

    You have sugar in many of your recipes. I need to cut sugar out of my diet. Can I substitute ‘Splenda”? – this is said to not be destroyed on cooking. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Dave says

      November 15, 2019 at 11:01 am

      The sugar in this recipe is to take any bitterness there may be out of the sauce, caused by the tinned tomatoes. I would start by not using any sugar, but ensure that you use good quality tinned tomatoes and see how you get on. You may find that the recipe is to your taste without it – but our preference is a tiny bit of sweetening.

      I’ve not used Splenda before, but I do know it’s a sucralose based sugar replacement so the taste may be a little funny in a tomato sauce. Spoon out a little sauce and try it in a small quantity – that way if the taste isn’t great you won’t waste anything.

      Reply

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