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. Slow cooker chicken drumsticks are going to be a super easy kid friendly meal that makes it onto your meal rotation in no time!
Ingredients:
- Chicken legs or drumsticks: I love using this cut of meat, it's inexpensive and easy to fine, plus it's fun to eat! You can always use chicken thighs too.
- Jam or jelly: I like something without seeds like a peach, apricot, apple or other light jam
- Ketchup: this adds a tomato base to the sauce
- Soy sauce: this adds so much great salt and flavor to the dish
- Minced garlic or garlic powder: this is the flavor of the dish
How to Make Slow Cooker Chicken Legs
- This is so easy! Just pop the chicken in the slow cooker.
- Mix all your sauce ingredients together and pour it over the chicken.
- Let it cook! Serve and Enjoy.
- Don't waste the sauce, serve it over rice and cooked veggies. It's very flavorful and good to eat!
Tips and Tricks for Making Slow Cooker Chicken Legs
- You can add so many things to these crock pot 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
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.
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, or mashed potatoes to soak up that yummy sauce with steamed veggies.
Storing Leftovers
Store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. These reheat well in the air-fryer or the microwave.
More chicken recipes:
- The Best Baked Chicken Leg Quarters
- Chicken Kabobs
- The Best Baked Chicken Legs
- One Pot Coconut Chicken and Rice
If you’ve tried this Slow Cooker Chicken Leg Recipe or any other recipe on Bless this Mess, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories.
Print
Slow Cooker Chicken Legs
- Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6-8 1x
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
- 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
- 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.
- 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
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.
Mooi
I want to try this recipe today. Can I use apple sauce instead of jam?
Janice Enright
Is it okay to mix different flavor jams together and use as I have all these sampler jams I would like to use. Also, what vegetables or potatoes would be good to toss in while cooking this in crockpot.
Melissa
Yes, I use this to use up odds and ends all of the time, no issue with mixing up flavors. I like this with roasted veggies and rice or I'll put a piece of foil or parchment on top of the cooking chicken and but in medium/smaller washed whole potatoes and they "bake" on top the the chicken while the chicken is cooking without getting too much in the flavor or without getting too sticky/gooey. I don't really like any vegetables cooked in with the chicken really but I'm a little picky about vegetables.
Jules
Hi, can you use orange marmalade?
Melissa
Yes and we like it a lot, I tend to use a little less than the recipe calls for though as it has a powerful flavor!
Nicole P
I made this for dinner tonight. They were sooo good! I used grape
Jelly and a tsp of Montreal Steak seasoning.
★★★★★
Melissa
Ohhhh a little Montreal Steak seasoning is a fabulous idea!
Niki
I’ve made this a ton of times now. It’s my 5 year olds favorite recipe. With the current quarantine I bought a ton of different jelly so it could change the taste and we swap between frozen breasts and frozen drumsticks. Tonight is seedless blackberry. Look forward to different flavors. GREAT EASY RECIPE
★★★★★
Melissa
Yay!!! I'm so glad that you are making it work with what you have and loving it!
Emily N
Have you ever made this without the skin? It’s not too calorie friendly but I want to try it tomorrow night! I’m thinking I should probably just cook it with the skin on and remove it before we eat?
Melissa
I'd just remove it after you cook them, but I'm sure it would be fine removing it before hand.
sarahbwyse@gmail.com
Can I mix chick leg and breast together for this recipe? Different family members like dark and white meat.
Melissa
Yes! It'll work great. I'm excited for you to make it!
Rob
High there.. does anyone know if I should take the skin off the legs first?
Melissa
Just leave it on!
Rose Martine
YUMMY!!!!! Thanks for sharing your recipe! I’ve heard about your blog a couple of times and will now spend my afternoon reading 🙂
Melissa
Enjoy! And if there's something you'd like a recipe for that you don't see, I'm always up for suggestions!
Linda
Thank You for the recipe Melissa 🙂 I was wondering if you think subbing fresh fruit such as pineapple, peaches or even apples for the jelly or jam would be acceptable. I could sprinkle a little sugar with it. I usually dont eat jelly or jams. Maybe I could freeze the leftover jelly? Thank you for any advice and even a guess or two. TIA Linda
★★★★★
Melissa
I think fruit JUICE would be a better option that just the fruit!
Sarah
Does raspberry jam work with this? Sounds awesome
Melissa
Yep, we didn't like it quite as much if it wasn't seedless (the seeds are fine but the crunch is just not what we prefer) so seedless is a better option than not, but it will work with either.
Gary Turberville
This looks and sounds so delicious! Whould grape jelly work as well?
★★★★★
Melissa
Yes! That's one that I use very often, it's doesn't have much flavor when cooked, just sweet.
Gary Turberville
Thanks for the reply back! I made it lastnite and it was awesome, thanks for the recipe.
★★★★★
Melissa
I love to hear that! So easy isn't it!? I'm glad you liked them too.
Gary Turberville
Yes it was very easy..
★★★★★
Lorraine
You're 100% correct! My family loved this! I used pineapple preserves and added a little cayenne pepper. Even my 21-year old picky eater grandson came back for seconds! Thank you, loved the ease of it too.
★★★★★
Melissa
Ohhhh pineapple preserves is such a great idea! That's one I haven't tried yet but now I can't wait to. Thank you for the idea!
Liz
Everyone at home loves this recipe and I love cooking easy meals 🙂 The first time I made this I only had red chili spread in my pantry that is like jelly and it turned out delicious!, Thanks for the recipe! I have made this several times now and using different jellys and every time I get a yummy meal easy to make.
★★★★★
Melissa
Yay! I love that you use different jellys and jams too, I always seem to use something that needs to be used up and it turns out great each time. Thank you for the review.
Jessica Cloutier
Do you usually remove the skin?
Melissa
Nope, I cook them skin on!
Julie
Our oven just broke 🙁 So my crockpot is about to get used like never before. I had already taken leg quarters out. I made Smothered chicken last night with my thighs in the crockpot. Easy. But had no Idea what to do with the legs other then BBQ sause. Currently making this Recipe. Just added a little Montreal steak seasoning and onion powder. Smells very strong of soy sauce. This is the 1st time Ive tried an online recipe EVER. Praying for the best lol I'll give you an update later. Thanks for having this available for dinner ideas.
Melissa
Welcome to the world of internet recipes! I hope you loved every bite!
samuel
Update on your first internet recipe?
Laurie
Just bought my first slow cooker and this was the first thing I made. It's really good -- can I freeze the leftovers?
★★★★★
Melissa
Congrats on getting a slow cooker! It opens a world of possibilities!
Abby
Sorry this was a bit disappointing. Didn’t have much flavor. I probably will have to place it in a pan and put some spices or something to it so it can have a bit of flavor.
★★
Christina
I marinated the defrosted chicken drumsticks overnight with my mom's homemade marinade (Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, vinegar, salt, pepper, ginger, brown sugar, minced garlic, and water) and made this recipe. It turned out wonderful! I did place the drumsticks on a "bed" of sliced onions before topping with the sauce. Thank you so much for this recipe, it is a keeper. Wonder if you could use apple butter instead of apple jelly/jam? I may try that next time.
★★★★★
Melissa
Yesssss that sounds amazing! I love the chicken on a bed of onions trick too! I do that often with my pork loins too. Thank you for sharing!
Tiffany LeClaire
Just put this in the crock pot. I doubled the recipe and used apricot-pineapple preserves and about 1/2 tsp extra of minced garlic. It smells so good already. Can't wait to try it. I also love how you put the nutrition facts on here.
★★★★★
Melissa
Ooohhhh apricot pineapple sounds AMAZING!! I can't wait to here how it turns out! Thank you!