5 Ingredient Slow Cooker Chicken Legs
on Jan 30, 2023
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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!
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, 1/2 cup of ketchup, 1/3 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.
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.
Slow Cooker Chicken Legs
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.
Delicious and easy to make. I made it with chili pepper jelly and added paprika and siraccha to spice it up and cut the sweetness. I did drumsticks and thighs. Amazing on basmati rice. Thank you for sharing this recipe it will be one of my go tos.
Can I use bbq sauce instead of ketchup?
Yes, it would be delicious.
Hello, an awesome recipe! All we added was 1 TBS of Frank’s Hot Sauce. It’s so easy my 15-year-old son made it. Thank you
Ohhh sounds like a perfect addition! And way to go, getting your kid in the kitchen, it’s a life skill!
This was so simple & delicious. After the chicken legs were cooked, I removed them to a platter to allow them to cool. Then I removed the meat from the bones to shred and put back into the sauce. I served over rice along with streamed broccoli. Thank you for this recipe.
Yessss the sauce is so good over rice and veggie, glad you used it!
My favorite chicken leg recipe to this day. I like to also take the sauce that it cooks in, and when it is done cooking, add a cornstarch slurry and make it thick and put the sauce and chicken over rice. It has been fun mixing up the type of jam I use. This recipe has been used AT LEAST once a month since discovering it.
Yay! This is totally how I approach this recipe, mix it up and make it often! Thank you for including a picture, it’s SO much fun to see it in your home!
When I calculated the ingredients I used, I got 2,136 calories for 6 drumsticks. I took off the skin and dumped the extra sauce mixture in the trash. Any idea what the calorie count would be per drumstick in this case?
Thank you!
It’s hard to tell but there’s no way it’s that mush since you don’t eat all of the sauce…
Was delicious and took no time at all to prepare for the slow cooker-literally 5 minutes. I opted for apricot preserves and we all loved the flavor. I also used the tip to crisp in the broiler after finished in the slow cooker. Will definitely make this again!
Found this recipe originally on Pinterest, and it was super easy and tastes great!! Thanks!
Can this be made with frozen chicken wings
Yep, just add some cooking time, about 30-60 minutes.
I want to make this today. Can I use apple sauce instead of jam?
Hmmmm, I have no idea. In my mind it’ll be too thick. The jam essentially turns into liquid as the sugar melts, applesauce wouldn’t do that. BUT if you do try it, will you let us know how it goes?