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.
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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.
Annette
was to say BBQ sauce
Annette
i used BNQ sauce instead of ketchup,it was so good
★★★★★
Melissa
That's a great suggestion! Thank you for sharing!
Kim
I thought that all meat in a slow cooker was meant to be covered by liquid. I would really love to try this recipe, but I’m worried there is not enough liquid to cover the meat. Please help.
Melissa
It'll be ok! Let it cook!
Annette
THERE WAS ENOUGH<I COOKED 5 HRS ON LOW
Mercedes
Can you make this in the air fryer???
Adrianna
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?
Stephanie
Is the minced garlic in this recipe dried or fresh?
Melissa
I used fresh, I haven't seen dried. If it is similar I bet you could use it...
Stephanie
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!
Linger, Kristy Murray
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.
★★★★★
Lisa
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.
★★★★★
Christy
Sorry, I was trying to type Crockpot not crack pot...Lol!
Christy
Could you please tell me what size of crack pot you used for this recipe? Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Melissa
hehehe 🙂 I use a 6 quart!
Christy
Thank you! Can't wait to try!
Yoko Edmon
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??
Melissa
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.
Legion
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!
★★★★★
BREE
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.
★★★★★
Janice
So I improvised with duck sauce
Janice
I did not have jelly do I improvised with duck sauce.Yummy!
★★★★★
Kitkat
I have chicken leg quarters. Should I follow directions as is? I’m not good at improvising and am still learning.
Melissa
They will work great!
Beth
Do you use Frozen or thawed chicken?
Melissa
The recipe is written for thawed, if you wan to use frozen you'll just need to cook it longer.
Saff
The recipe doesn't say whether the chicken legs should be skinless or skin-on. Which is it? Thank you.
Melissa
I use skin on.
Lisa
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
★★★★★
Melissa
"Don't lose the recipe" is so great to hear! Thank you for sharing and taking the time to leave a review!
Julie
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!
★★★★★
Courtney
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!
★★★★★