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!
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.
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, 1/2 cup of ketchup, 1/3 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.
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.
5 Ingredient Slow Cooker Chicken Legs
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6-8 1x
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Pin RecipeDescription
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
- 3 to 3.5 pound chicken legs or drumsticks
- 1 cup jam or jelly, see notes
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
Instructions
- Place the chicken legs in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- In a small bowl add the jam or jelly, ketchup, soy sauce, and garlic. Mix to combine well.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken legs.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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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.
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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I have chicken leg quarters. Should I follow directions as is? I’m not good at improvising and am still learning.
They will work great!
Do you use Frozen or thawed chicken?
The recipe is written for thawed, if you wan to use frozen you’ll just need to cook it longer.
The recipe doesn’t say whether the chicken legs should be skinless or skin-on. Which is it? Thank you.
I use skin on.
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
★★★★★
“Don’t lose the recipe” is so great to hear! Thank you for sharing and taking the time to leave a review!
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!
★★★★★
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!
★★★★★
Could this recipe be adapted to the instant pot?
This recipe turned out better than I expected! The chicken was very tender. I used soy sauce, ketchup, garlic spice (I had no garlic), and peach preserves jam.
★★★★★
The chicken was delicious 😋, family enjoyed it. I used boneless skinless legs. 3.39lbs. I added 2 additional garlic.
★★★★★
I just bought a crock pot for the first time, and this is the first thing I’ve made in it. I followed the recipe exactly and was delighted with chicken. It will definitely be going into regular rotation.
★★★★★
Our new favorite dish! I used peach jam, bbq sauce& ketchup. I didn’t have soy sauce so I used a couple shakes of Worcestershire instead. Also, to solve the “dryness” issue I added about a 1/2 cup of chicken broth. The legs were fall-of-the-bone tender and the generous amount of sauce soaked beautifully into white rice!
★★★★★
Mine did not turn out as expected. I had some quarter chicken pieces with thighs and legs to use up so I double the sauce and used the raspberry jam from Aldi. Because I used more meat, I had it in there for 5 1/2 hours on high and it was way too long. The sauce was starting to burn and was not salvageable. I shredded the meat and will use it for a meal, but was disappointed in the sauce because I cooked it too long. I may make the sauce on its own to try out.
★★★