19 Easy Slow Cooker Boneless Chicken Thighs Recipes

Looking for easy dinner ideas? Check out these 19 simple yet delicious slow cooker boneless chicken thighs recipes that will make your meal planning a breeze. From spicy to sweet, you’ll find a flavor to satisfy every craving. Perfect for both busy weeknights or lazy weekends. Bonus – using chicken thighs pretty much guarantees perfectly cooked chicken every time!

broth being poured over chicken and vegetables in slow cooker

Chicken thighs – and all the dark meat – have always been my favorite part of a chicken. It’s always moist, tender, and full of flavor thanks to the added fat that the breast doesn’t have.

It’s also usually one of the most inexpensive cuts of chicken, making it a frugal choice when you want to keep within your budget.

Thighs vs. Breasts in a Slow Cooker

Since thighs have more fat than breast meat, they are a great choice for long cooking in a slow cooker.

With breasts, you should cook on low in order to not dry out the meat, but you don’t have to worry about that with thighs, you can cook on either low or high, whichever is best for your schedule.

And if you need recipes to cook while you’re away from home for a while, thighs are your answer – breasts need only a few hours in a slow cooker or they risk overcooking.

Bone-in vs. Boneless in a Slow Cooker

You can definitely use bone-in chicken thighs in a slow cooker – in fact I do in this favorite cassoulet recipe and recommend them. Sometimes it’s the best choice (even though the skin should be removed as it doesn’t slow cook well).

Other times, the convenience of boneless, skinless chicken thighs can’t be beat. There’s no skinning needed and they are easy to cut or shred as a recipe requires.

Boneless, skinless thighs are also easier to eat whole than slow cooked bone-in thighs since there are no bones to deal with on your plate.

Finding good crockpot recipes that use boneless chicken thighs, though, isn’t always easy. Even if you search specifically, you’ll find recipes that use bone-in thighs as well.

Plus, so many of the recipes seem to be SO sugar laden. Recipes with brown sugar and honey, sometimes in ridiculously large amounts, seem to come up first in a search, whether it’s barbecue, sesame, or garlic.

(Soapbox: why is everyone always surprised when their families like these recipes?? Put that much sugar on almost anything and gee, “everyone loves it”…sigh.)

So here I’m presenting you with nineteen boneless chicken thigh recipes you can make in a slow cooker that don’t use a lot of sugar, are all real food, and cover all flavor profiles from American, to Asian, to Indian, and more.

slow cooker chicken vegetable dinner on white plate close.

1. Slow Cooker Chicken Dinner with Vegetables

A hearty and healthy dinner idea, adding vegetables to chicken makes a perfect one-dish, one-pot meal.

This is a recipe where you can use either bone-in or boneless chicken, using the alternative cooking time for boneless found in the recipe card note. This is your answer for an easy, nutritious and delicious dinner everyone will love.

lentil and chicken curry in slow cooker above

2. Slow Cooker Chicken, Vegetable & Lentil Curry

If you’re looking for flavorful, healthy, fix-it-and-forget-it meal perfect for cold, wintery evenings, this is it! A one-bowl meal served with naan or artisan bread and a spoonful of yogurt.

3. Slow Cooker Chicken Chili

This recipe uses easy pantry staples like corn, tomatoes, chicken and beans for a Tex-Mex inspired dish everyone loves. Served with tortilla chips and topped with cheese, this is equally good for family weekday meals as it is for casual entertaining.

chicken and vegetables over noodles above

4. Slow Cooker Sweet Chili Chicken & Vegetables

This is a flavorful slow cooker chicken and vegetables recipe that uses the boneless chicken thighs as well as fresh and frozen veggies to be able to make it anytime. It’s flavored with an easy homemade honey sweet chili sauce, though you can use store bought, too.

5. Slow Cooker Chicken & Broccoli with Soy Honey Sauce

Some honey sauces for chicken call for up to a full cup – this one only uses 1/4 cup mixed with chicken broth, soy sauce and seasonings. Some of the sauce is saved to make a cornstarch-slurry before serving and the broccoli isn’t added until the last 30 minutes of cooking to make sure they aren’t overdone. Serve over rice for a one-dish dinner.

6. Crock Pot Smothered Chicken

Here’s an easy dump-and-go creamy chicken recipe that doesn’t use a can of soup! Mix a creamy sauce in a bowl at the end and stir right into the slow cooker to thicken. The addition of kale, onion, and mushrooms helps make this a one-dish option. Uses either bone-in or boneless thighs.

7. Easy Crock Pot BBQ Boneless Chicken Thighs

While you can just throw some store bought or home canned BBQ sauce over chicken before cooking, why not add a few more seasonings to amp up the flavor? This recipe does that and has great reviews. I’d love it served with garlic mashed potatoes and garlic skillet green beans.

8. Crockpot Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

This sounds like perfect, easy comfort food! Layer chicken, wild rice, veggies, and seasonings in a slow cooker, add broth and let it cook all day. You come home to a bowl full of deliciousness perfect for cold days.

9. Tuscan Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs

With a creamy sauce full of spinach, dried tomatoes, and shallots, this Tuscan flavored chicken dinner would be equally good with roasted potatoes or on pasta. Served with parmesan cheese and a green salad with a simple balsamic-maple vinaigrette, and dinner is done.

10. Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs with Creamy Lemon Sauce

Oh, this looks so flavorful! And while you do have to brown the chicken and then thicken the sauce in a pan after cooking, it will be worth it to have that perfect sauce to drizzle on the chicken. I would serve this with a pan of roasted veggies that could benefit from a little of the sauce overflow, as well as an easy baguette.

11. Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This Italian flavored chicken dish feeds a crowd with just 20 minutes of prep time. With peppers, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms this could serve as a one-dish dinner served with pasta or a crusty bread.

12. Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken

I love Thai peanut flavored sauces and this one has got all the best ingredients – coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, vinegar, and spices – all easily mixed into the crockpot. While the recipe card calls for boneless chicken breasts, in the tips section the author says you can use boneless chicken thighs. Bonus – using thighs would allow you to cook the dish longer if you’re away from home!

13. Jamaican Coconut Curry Chicken

What amazing flavor this will have with all the seasonings included. There are a few more steps to this dish (especially an overnight marinade, which is suggested), but it seems really worth it if you go by the reviews in the comments section!

14. Crock Pot Lemon Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs

What a simple recipe – boneless chicken thighs topped with seasoned broth, butter and lemon slices. Perfect to serve with rice, noodles, or potatoes. One of the options for the recipe is to add a layer of cauliflower florets under the chicken before cooking to make it a one-dish meal.

15. Tex Mex Chicken and Rice

This is an unusual recipe in that the rice cooks along with the vegetables and chicken – and the chicken isn’t shredded like a casserole. Basic pantry and freezer ingredients like beans, corn, salsa, and rice make this recipe easy to fit into a menu plan. While the recipe calls for boneless chicken breasts, you can always substitute boneless chicken thighs since they cook for the same amount of time.

16. Slow Cooker Chicken Curry Recipe

This is an Indian flavored curry dish that has just three steps – add all the ingredients to the slow cooker, cook, and serve. Love recipes like this! Again this recipe calls for boneless chicken breasts, but you can use cut-up thighs and cook for the same amount of time.

17. Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

I love a good Tikka Masala and the sauce is always a hit when I serve it, so I know that this recipe with boneless chicken thighs would be popular. You do have to make your tikka masala sauce in a pot on the stove first, but it seems totally worth it for all the flavors. Oh, you can definitely add veggies to the chicken and sauce about an hour before the cooking ends – I suggest cauliflower and/or greens like kale or spinach in recipes like this.

18. Slow Cooker Butter Chicken (Chicken Makhani)

Finding a butter chicken recipe that actually has butter in it was surprisingly hard, but traditional Indian butter chicken really does have butter in the sauce. This recipe contains butter as well as spices like garam masala, curry powder, ginger, and garlic among others. It’s described as mildly spicy, and served over rice with a salad would make a wonderful meal.

19. Taqueria-Style Chicken Tacos

A refreshingly simple recipe that doesn’t call for a jar of salsa – you rub chicken thighs with taco seasoning and flavor it with butter and lime juice for a more authentic chicken for tacos. There are directions for both stove top and slow cooker, but I love how easy it is either way.