Make this Three Ingredient Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken to put in tacos, serve over nachos, make an enchilada filling or make heaping burrito bowl. This classic recipe prepped in just 5 minutes for the slow cooker is a huge fan favorite!
I first found out about this recipe a few years ago from a reader (thank you!), she said it was super simple and needed just two ingredients – chicken and salsa. I’ve made it ever since, with an adjustment or two, because complicating things is one of my specialties. 😀 This is such an addicting recipe to make that we incorporated the same concept into our Pumpkin Salsa Chicken recipe as well.
🍽️ Why This Recipe Works
Five Minutes Prep – I love meals that you can seriously throw together in just five minutes! This is so quick to make.
Low Calorie – If you want a low calorie dish, this one only has 260 calories per serving.
Juicy – There are some methods for cooking chicken that leaves it dry, but making it in your slow cooker keeps it juicy and moist.
🌽 Ingredients
The ingredients go together beautifully. I can’t wait for you to sink your teeth into this incredible meal. Let’s talk about what you will need really quickly.
Chicken: For best results, use boneless skinless chicken breasts. You could also use boneless skinless thighs.
Salsa: Any kind of salsa will be fantastic! We alternate between hot and mild depending on the day.
Corn: Either frozen or canned corn is awesome in this recipe. They both work well with the other ingredients and cook great.
🍗 Instructions
Step One: Spray your slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray (or brush with olive oil).
Step Two: Pour in the salsa, chicken and corn. Mix well, cover and cook on high for three to four hours.
Step Three: Shred chicken with two forks and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve in tortillas, or over rice.
❄️ Meal Prep/Freezer Directions
It is so, so easy. You can definitely make this a freezer meal. Just pour the ingredients into a freezer bag, shake it up and store it in the freezer. When you are ready to cook, put it in the fridge the night before to defrost and toss the ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning!
📌 Expert Tips
- Add your favorite toppings like sour cream, cilantro, fresh-squeezed lime juice, hot sauce, and avocados.
- We served them in tortillas, squeezed a little lime juice over the top, and added a couple of avocado slices and a dollop of sour cream.
- If you don’t want to use tortillas, build it up as a burrito bowl over rice using the same toppings.
- Serve without shredding and scoop the salsa/corn mixture on top. Serve with vegetables and have an incredible weeknight meal made in just a few minutes.
Recipe FAQs
Yep! Feel free to swap the chicken breast for chicken thighs. Make sure you use boneless, skinless chicken for best results. Otherwise, you will have to pick out the bones and that’s not going to be fun at all.
Nope! Simply put the raw chicken in the crockpot and it will do all the cooking for you. It will lock in the flavor and it’s so easy.
No, it’s best to use thawed chicken breasts instead of frozen. Putting frozen chicken in the crockpot increases your risk for food-borne illness. To thaw the chicken, put it in the fridge overnight.
Yes, just allow it to cool and put in freezer safe bags for up to three months. Take it out the night before and place in the refrigerator to thaw.
Related Recipes
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Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Chicken Breast boneless, skinless
- 24 oz Salsa mild, medium or hot, your choice!
- 12 oz Corn frozen or canned
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Spray the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray (or brush with olive oil)
- Pour salsa, chicken and corn into slow cooker. Mix well. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours.
- Shred chicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in tortillas, or over rice.
Notes
Nutrition
We’ve made this three times: once with chicken breasts, once with chicken thighs, and once with pork roast. It was heavenly each time. We used a medium salsa but added hot pepper sauce to ramp up the heat for more adventurous groups.
Can you use frozen chicken for recipe? If so what should I increase the cook time to?
Thanks! 🙂
Could you use chicken thighs instead of breasts?
I have the ingredients in my slow cooker right now~! I’m excited to try this 🙂
I’ve always made shredded bbq chicken but it never occurred to try salsa. I’m going to try that this week. It’s quick and easy enough! Thanks for sharing:)
Super quick and easy! Hope you enjoy. 😀