Slow-Cooker Chicken Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is a comfort food classic, and this slow-cooker chicken stroganoff is a low-effort variation on the theme. With just a handful of ingredients and minimal hands-on prep, there’s just as much “comfort” here for the cook as there is for the diners.

Making chicken stroganoff in a slow cooker is a no-brainer. You can be doing other things for the first three hours while the chicken cooks, and then after one more addition to the cooker you’re on your own again until the meal is ready. Like other slow-cooker recipes, it’s ideal for days when you’re around the house but are kept busy outside the kitchen.

Ingredients for Slow-Cooker Chicken Stroganoff

• Chicken thighs: Chicken thighs pack a lot of flavor in a small package, and boneless thighs are easy to find. Also, they’re usually friendlier to your budget than breasts.
• Cream of chicken soup: The condensed cream soup provides a quick and easy sauce that’s pre-seasoned and ready to go.
• White wine (or chicken broth): The added liquid thins your sauce and also adds flavor.
• Portobello mushrooms: Mushrooms are part of the classic stroganoff experience, and baby Portobellos bring flavor as well as a visual contrast with the chicken.
• Sour cream: Sour cream brings a distinctive richness and tang to the sauce. Like the mushrooms, it’s also an iconic ingredient in stroganoff and a key part of its flavor profile.
• Egg noodles: Cooked egg noodles are the traditional accompaniment to stroganoff.
• Parsley (optional): The chopped parsley is optional but adds a bright pop of color to what’s otherwise a relatively bland-looking (but tasty) dish.

Directions

Step 1: Assemble the main ingredients

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Combine the chicken, soup and wine in a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker. Cook, covered, on high until a thermometer inserted into the chicken reads at least 165°F, about three hours. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces, and return them to the slow cooker.

Step 2: Finish the stroganoff

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Add the mushrooms to the slow cooker and continue cooking, covered, on high for another 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours, until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the sour cream and salt.

Step 3: Serve

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Serve the chicken stroganoff over egg noodles, with a sprinkling of pepper and chopped parsley, if desired.

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Slow-Cooker Chicken Stroganoff Variations

• Switch to turkey: The turkey industry has worked very hard at encouraging us to use turkey year-round, which means turkey thighs are readily available and often attractively priced. Swapping out the 3 pounds of chicken thighs for the same quantity of turkey thighs is a quick way to change up the meal. Boneless turkey thighs are a 1-to-1 replacement by weight. If you can only find bone-in thighs, buying 4 pounds bone-in should yield 3 pounds once you’ve removed the bone.
• Change up the soup: Although the recipe calls for a specific variety of concentrated creamed soup (and then wine or chicken broth to thin it), you can switch up the soup for any other creamed soup that appeals to you. This might include condensed cream of celery or cream of mushroom, or you can omit the added broth or wine and simply use your favorite homemade cream soup. Something like cream of broccoli isn’t exactly a canonical option for stroganoff, but the end result will still taste good.
• Pass on the noodles: Buttered egg noodles are the traditional accompaniment for beef stroganoff, but if you’re already switching beef for chicken, you shouldn’t feel wedded to the noodles either. You have plenty of options to choose from: other pasta shapes like penne, mashed or baked potatoes, rice and other grains. Serve it over bread as a hot sandwich, or even go with something completely left-field like soft polenta (or grits, if you’re a Southerner). They’re all good.

How to Store Slow-Cooker Chicken Stroganoff

Any leftover Crockpot chicken stroganoff should be removed from the slow cooker’s insert as soon as possible for cooling (because the whole point of a slow cooker is to retain heat). Portion it into one or more food storage containers with tight-fitting lids, and put the leftovers in your fridge as soon as possible. Shallow containers offer faster cooling, and small containers cool faster than large ones. Leave the lids off for faster cooling if the stroganoff is still above room temperature.

How long will this Crockpot chicken stroganoff last?

Like most leftovers, chicken stroganoff will keep for up to five days in the refrigerator. This assumes that you’ve refrigerated the leftovers promptly, without them sitting at room temperature (or worse yet, in the still-warm slow cooker) for any length of time. If the leftovers were left out for an hour or more, it’s prudent to use them up within two to three days. If they stayed out for more than two hours, they should probably be discarded.

Can I make slow-cooker chicken stroganoff ahead of time?

You bet! Remove it from your slow cooker once it’s done, and refrigerate it immediately. The flavors will only improve overnight as it sits. Preparing the chicken further in advance is possible, but working two days ahead is usually a practical limit. Otherwise it cuts into the stroganoff’s total five-day fridge life, and you won’t have much time to eat up the leftovers.

Can I freeze chicken stroganoff?

The basic dish freezes well enough, though you may find that the sour cream “weeps” moisture into the sauce as it thaws. Sour cream tends to curdle or “break” when heated (this is why you add it last), but you can counter this tendency. Just whisk a spoonful of cornstarch into a small quantity of water and then stir it into the stroganoff after it’s thawed, but before it’s reheated. That stabilizes the sauce and helps keep the sour cream from breaking when you warm up your meal. Alternatively, freeze your chicken stroganoff without the sour cream, if you’re making it ahead of time, then add the sour cream at the last minute after reheating.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Stroganoff Tips

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I prefer white meat, can I use chicken breasts?

You sure can! The only issue with using chicken breasts in a slow-cooker recipe is that they can overcook and become dry, since they’re leaner than thighs. Obviously this isn’t a show-stopping issue, because we have several dozen slow-cooker recipes for chicken breasts. Cooking the breasts whole and then dicing them helps prevent that, and you may need to shorten the cooking time by an hour or so (test the breasts’ temperature with a thermometer). Alternatively you can switch your slow cooker from its high to its low setting, then leave your cooking time the same. Looking at a few of our other chicken breast slow cooker recipes should give you all the guidance you need (and inspiration for future meals, as well).

Can I use frozen chicken thighs?

It would be convenient, but sadly, it’s a bad idea. Slow cookers come up to temperature slowly (that’s the whole point). Modern models are designed to raise your food to a food-safe temperature without spending too much time in the food safety “danger zone” between 40° and 140°, but that won’t happen if you start with frozen meats. It’s best to thaw first. Thawing doesn’t take very long, and where food safety is concerned, “better safe than sorry” is a very good rule.

Can I make this recipe in my Instant Pot?

Sure, just set it on slow-cooking mode and follow the same instructions. We also have a pressure-cooker recipe for beef stroganoff that you can adapt for chicken, if you’d prefer a quicker-cooking meal.