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    Bless This Mess > Recipes > Easy Dinners > Chicken

    5 Ingredient Slow Cooker Chicken Legs

    Published: Oct 30, 2018 · Modified: Dec 14, 2020 by Melissa · 149 Comments

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    This 5 Ingredient Slow Cooker Chicken Legs recipe is flavor-packed and easy to prepare with a few simple ingredients. These chicken legs, made with soy sauce, require almost no effort - dinner is done in 10 minutes!

    cooked chicken legs in a plate

    Easy 5 Ingredient Crockpot Chicken Legs Recipe

    This meal is super simple and a major crowd pleaser, and it all comes together with 10 minutes of prep time, 5 ingredients, and a slow cooker. I’ve made this at least a million times, maybe more, and it’s a hit. Every. Single. Time. It’s basically a slow cooker version of my very favorite (and sort of internet famous) baked chicken legs recipe, but it takes jam instead of honey. (Both are delicious, by the way, and add a nice touch of sweetness to an otherwise savory dish!)

    The best part about this recipe? You hardly have to do a thing. Seriously! The slow cooker does practically ALL the heavy lifting -- all you do is place the chicken legs in the slow cooker, mix up the other 4 ingredients, and pour it over the top. Turn on the ol’ slow cooker, and let it go to town! The sauce that the ingredients create is pure heaven, too… I recommend serving it over some rice with steamed vegetables.

    The sauce created from the juices is delicious. Feel free to serve it over rice with your meal.

    Flavor-packed slow cooker chicken legs take 10 minutes to put together, are easy to make, and only have 5 ingredients you already have in your pantry!

    What Do You Need to Make Slow Cooker Chicken Legs?

    This recipe to make chicken legs in the slow cooker is a joy because you only need FIVE ingredients: 3-or-so pounds of chicken legs or drumsticks, 1 cup of jam or jelly, ½ cup of ketchup, ⅓ cup of soy sauce, and 2 teaspoons minced garlic.

    How Long Do the Chicken Legs Last?

    If you have leftover chicken legs, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can cut the leftover chicken from the bone and use it in a stir fry and a salad to remix the meal. Store leftover sauce separately in an airtight container for up to 5 days, as well.

    How Can You Customize Slow Cooker Chicken Legs?

    There are PLENTY of ways to make this recipe your own! You can use all kinds of jams and jellies in the recipe, but I particularly like grape, apple, apricot, and peach. They add a really nice flavor without being too fruity or seedy (I usually avoid seedy ones, like blackberry or strawberry).

    You can also add a couple tablespoons of Sriracha or another favorite hot sauce to amp up the spice levels, or throw in some smoky seasonings to make it even richer. It’s super versatile, so add whatever flavors you love!

    You can pair this with just about any sides that you like! It’s pretty rich and so very delicious, so even a nice and simple side salad would go well, or some steamed rice to soak up that yummy sauce with steamed veggies.

    Flavor-packed slow cooker chicken legs take 10 minutes to put together, are easy to make, and only have 5 ingredients you already have in your pantry!

    Tips and Tricks for Making Slow Cooker Chicken Legs

    • You can use all kinds of jams and jellies for this recipe. My favorites are grape, apple, apricot, or peach. They have a nice flavor and sweetness without being too fruity. I normally avoid jams with seeds such as blackberry.
    • You can add so many things to these chicken legs! Add a tablespoon or three of Siracha or other favorite hot sauce for some spice, add a teaspoon of Montreal Steak Seasoning for a little bit of smokiness, or throw in some favorite spices like onion powder, cumin, or ginger. It's very flexible and very versatile.
    • The sauce that the cooking chicken creates is delicious. Feel free to serve it over rice. Add a side of steamed veggies and you have yourself a complete meal.
    • I normally plan on two chicken legs per person as a serving size. This is a great recipe for a crowd and scales up and down really nicely.
    • If you like your chicken legs a little crispy on the outside, you can remove them from the slow cooker after they're finished cooking and put them on a rimmed baking sheet. Brush them with additional sauce left in the slow cooker. Broil them in the oven for around 5 minutes until you reach your desired crispiness.
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    Bowl of slow cooker chicken legs

    5 Ingredient Slow Cooker Chicken Legs


    ★★★★★

    4.7 from 42 reviews

    • Author: Melissa Griffiths
    • Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
    • Yield: Serves 6-8 1x
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    Description

    This 5 Ingredient Slow Cooker Chicken Legs recipe is flavor-packed and easy to prepare with a few simple ingredients. These chicken legs, made with soy sauce, require almost no effort - dinner is done in 10 minutes!


    Ingredients

    Scale
    • 3 to 3.5 pound chicken legs or drumsticks
    • 1 cup jam or jelly, see notes
    • ½ cup ketchup
    • ⅓ cup soy sauce
    • 2 teaspoons minced garlic (or ½ teaspoon garlic powder)

    Instructions

    1. Place the chicken legs in the bottom of the slow cooker.
    2. In a small bowl add the jam or jelly, ketchup, soy sauce, and garlic. Mix to combine well.
    3. Pour the sauce over the chicken legs.
    4. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 5-6 or until the chicken is cooked through.
    5. Enjoy the chicken hot.

    Notes

    • You can use all kinds of jams and jellies for this recipe. My favorites are grape, apple, apricot, or peach. They have a nice flavor and sweetness without being too fruity. I normally avoid jams with seeds such as blackberry.
    • You can add so many things to these chicken legs! Add a tablespoon or three of Siracha or other favorite hot sauce for some spice, add a teaspoon of Montreal Steak Seasoning for a little bit of smokiness, or throw in some favorite spices like onion powder, cumin, or ginger. It's very flexible and very versatile.
    • The sauce that the cooking chicken creates is delicious. Feel free to serve it over rice. Add a side of steamed veggies and you have yourself a complete meal.
    • Prep Time: 5 minutes
    • Cook Time: 4 hours
    • Category: Dinner
    • Method: Slow Cooker
    • Cuisine: American

    Keywords: chicken legs recipe, easy chicken legs recipe, slow cooker chicken recipe, slow cooker chicken legs recipe, easy chicken crockpot recipe, easy chicken dinner recipe, best chicken legs recipe

    Did you make this recipe?

    Tag @blessthismessblog on Instagram and hashtag it #blessthismess

    plate of cooked chicken legs

    Other Chicken Leg Recipes You’ll Love

    • Lemon Garlic Baked Chicken Legs
    • 4-Ingredient Honey Mustard Baked Chicken Legs
    • Crispy Panko-Crusted Baked Chicken Legs
    • The Best Baked Chicken Legs
    • 8 Must-Make Recipes for Chicken Legs
    • The Best Oven Baked Chicken Leg Quarters

    A few more recipes you'll love:

    • Slow cooker pork tenderloin: if you like using your slow cooker, you'll love this recipe!
    • How to cook asparagus on the stove top: goes great as a side for the chicken!
    • Deli-Style Broccoli Salad

    So many great chicken and slow cooker recipes! I hope you have time to make this one because it's a keeper. You'll love making crock pot chicken drumsticks because they are so easy to make and your whole family will love them too.

    Flavor-packed slow cooker chicken legs take 10 minutes to put together, are easy to make, and only have 5 ingredients you already have in your pantry!
    Flavor-packed slow cooker chicken legs take 10 minutes to put together, are easy to make, and only have 5 ingredients you already have in your pantry!

    Related Posts:

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    About Melissa

    Melissa is dedicated to helping parents figure out the nightly questions, "What's for Dinner?!" with her no-fuss approach to cooking. Read more...

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      Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

    1. Adrianna

      April 13, 2022 at 9:54 pm

      I haven’t tried this recipe yet but I’ll be cooking it in a few days but I was wondering if you can marinate the chicken and leave it overnight and cook it the next morning?

      Reply
    2. Stephanie

      March 19, 2022 at 2:36 pm

      Is the minced garlic in this recipe dried or fresh?

      Reply
      • Melissa

        March 19, 2022 at 3:50 pm

        I used fresh, I haven't seen dried. If it is similar I bet you could use it...

      • Stephanie

        March 20, 2022 at 8:40 am

        Thanks, Melissa!
        That's what I figured since dried would be a LOT of garlic--but then, can one ever have too much garlic? 🙂
        It IS sold, dried, in jars and is labeled Minced Garlic, which is why I questionned it. If you had said, "2 tsp, garlic, minced," I would have had no doubt. Getting it ready to go in the crock pot now!

    3. Linger, Kristy Murray

      March 02, 2022 at 11:55 am

      This slow cooker chicken leg recipe looks scrumptious! How can you possibly go wrong with crock pot recipes? They are always the best! Thanks for sharing.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    4. Lisa

      February 16, 2022 at 2:00 pm

      Thawed out chicken and I didn’t feel well, I made this accorded to directions; just used whole chicken parts. My Brother(who I cook for). Loved it! Really bragged on it.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    5. Christy

      October 04, 2021 at 10:15 pm

      Sorry, I was trying to type Crockpot not crack pot...Lol!

      Reply
    6. Christy

      October 04, 2021 at 10:12 pm

      Could you please tell me what size of crack pot you used for this recipe? Thanks for the awesome recipe!

      Reply
      • Melissa

        October 04, 2021 at 11:17 pm

        hehehe 🙂 I use a 6 quart!

      • Christy

        October 04, 2021 at 11:38 pm

        Thank you! Can't wait to try!

    7. Yoko Edmon

      September 14, 2021 at 11:44 am

      I’m so excited to try this out, but I have question. Since I work longer hours, slow cooker will be on for 10 hours, if I put on “low” do you think 10 hours will be ok? Or should I put more liquid so that meat don’t get dry and sauce don’t get burn??

      Reply
      • Melissa

        September 14, 2021 at 1:54 pm

        You won't need more liquid for more time, your chicken will just get really tender and fall off the bone, so just pan on scooping it out with a spoon instead of eating it off the bone.

    8. Legion

      August 26, 2021 at 2:51 am

      I usually just go to the laundry mat and put a few frozen chickens in the clothes dryer. It sounded like I had a wet bag of hammers in there. Let me tell you about how this method is WAY better! Now I wont get dysentery from my shirts! I cant thank you enough!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    9. BREE

      August 18, 2021 at 9:06 am

      I made this with apricot preserves, and instead of straight ketchup, I used 1/4 c ketchup and 1/8 c each spicy brown mustard and BBQ sauce. I also seasoned the legs with garlic, onion and parsley before pouring the sauce over them. It was delicious served with an Asian steamed vegetable mix and rice. Tonight, I'm going to remove the meat from the remaining chicken legs, shred it and use the sauce and rice to make a flavorful fried rice remix. Thank you for posting - I think I'll be making this a lot! My husband loved it.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    10. Janice

      August 15, 2021 at 12:10 pm

      So I improvised with duck sauce

      Reply
    11. Janice

      August 15, 2021 at 12:09 pm

      I did not have jelly do I improvised with duck sauce.Yummy!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    12. Kitkat

      July 22, 2021 at 2:57 pm

      I have chicken leg quarters. Should I follow directions as is? I’m not good at improvising and am still learning.

      Reply
      • Melissa

        July 22, 2021 at 11:31 pm

        They will work great!

    13. Beth

      July 03, 2021 at 5:33 pm

      Do you use Frozen or thawed chicken?

      Reply
      • Melissa

        July 06, 2021 at 12:34 pm

        The recipe is written for thawed, if you wan to use frozen you'll just need to cook it longer.

    14. Saff

      May 24, 2021 at 12:48 pm

      The recipe doesn't say whether the chicken legs should be skinless or skin-on. Which is it? Thank you.

      Reply
      • Melissa

        May 25, 2021 at 11:12 am

        I use skin on.

    15. Lisa

      April 18, 2021 at 7:16 pm

      OMG! Made it exactly as described and it was delicious! I used strawberry preserves and didn't have any problems with seeds. Instead of rice, we put the sauce over riced cauliflower and it was great! I believe my husband's exact words were "don't lose the recipe." Four quart slow cooker, 10 legs for 6 hours on low and the meat was falling off the bone

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Melissa

        April 18, 2021 at 10:49 pm

        "Don't lose the recipe" is so great to hear! Thank you for sharing and taking the time to leave a review!

    16. Julie

      March 18, 2021 at 2:23 pm

      Thank you for this easy, delicious chicken leg recipe! I made it with a 10 oz jar of polaner all fruit jelly (peach flavor) and the rest of the ingredients as listed. The reviews from my family and friends have all been 5 stars for this fall off the bone chicken.
      One mistake I made was to put the crockpot on warm at the end of the 4 hours and forget to turn it off. It was overcooked and I had to throw it out. Lesson learned!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    17. Courtney

      March 13, 2021 at 10:40 pm

      This was so easy and delicious. It was a hit with my family of 7. I used grape jam, and added ground ginger. I sprinkled the drumsticks with Montreal seasoning before I put them in the crockpot. This will definitely go in my dinner rotation! Thank you!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
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