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Slow Cooker Green Chile Chicken

Averie Sunshine

4.64 from 30 votes

Updated: May 04, 2026

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🫑🍋 Slow Cooker Green Chile Chicken features tender, juicy chicken simmered with green chiles, jalapeño, salsa verde, onions, garlic, and spices for the most FLAVORFUL and versatile green chile chicken! Use it in tacos, burritos, casseroles, sandwiches, or as a meal prep recipe. Best of all, it’s SO EASY because your slow cooker does ALL the work!

Easiest Slow Cooker Green Chile Chicken

This juicy, fall-apart tender slow cooker green chile chicken is packed with bold Mexican-inspired flavors and foolproof to make. Just dump everything into your slow cooker, no searing, marinating, or blending required.

The chicken cooks to perfection and shreds easily with a fork. Serve it in tacos, salsa verde enchiladas, sliders, burritos, bowls, add it to burrito bowl salads, or enjoy it on its own. A flavorful, fuss-free dinner the whole family will love, it’s perfect for busy weeknights!

The crock pot chicken salsa verde was as delish as I thought it would be. Simple tasty ingredients. My family loved it and ate it in a flour tortilla topped with Avacado, sour cream, lime and cilantro. I ate mine over Spanish rice. Looking forward to serving it to friends during our football parties. I just ate the last of it with scrambled eggs! YUM!

Cheryl Rossebo

Ingredients You’ll Need

You need just a few easy-to-find ingredients to make this dairy-free slow cooker recipe, and you might already have a few of them at home.

• Veggies: Yellow onion, green bell pepper, garlic cloves, and canned green chiles
• Jalapeño Peppers: You can substitute canned jalapeños. Just make sure to adjust the amount according to your taste preferences. Canned jalapenos are also usually sitting in a bit of juice, and you can add that right in too. Use one 4-ounce can in place of one fresh jalapeno pepper
• Spices: Ground cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper
• Olive oil: Avocado oil also works well, if preferred
• Boneless skinless chicken breasts: You can use chicken thighs or a mix of thighs and breasts if preferred
• Salsa verde: I used Herdez Mild Salsa Verde; Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde is also a great choice if you have one in your area
• Lime juice, for garnishing: Freshly squeezed is best
• Cilantro, for garnishing: Feel free to omit or replace with flat-leaf parsley

Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.

How to Make Slow Cooker Green Chile Chicken

With so little prep time, this is the ultimate set-it-and-forget-it recipe!

Literally, toss all of the ingredients into your slow cooker and let it slowly cook your chicken to melt-in-your-mouth perfection.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Add all the ingredients (minus the salsa, lime juice, and cilantro) to a 6 to 7-quart slow cooker, and stir well. There’s no need to sauté the veggies first! They soften right up, and the flavor is fine. However, if you want to take the extra step, sautéing the onions, bell peppers, and garlic in a skillet with a little oil before adding them to the slow cooker can help deepen their flavors.
2. Pour in the salsa verde, cover, and cook on low for 6 – 8 hours or on high for 4 hours, depending on your preference.
3. Once the chicken is cooked, use two forks to shred the chicken on a cutting board.
4. Add the chicken back into the slow cooker, and add the lime juice and cilantro. If you think it looks like too much sauce for your liking, remove 1/2 to 1 cup of it. Add the chicken, stir, and see how it looks. You can always add green sauce back in. If there’s not quite enough sauce for your liking, you can always add another 1/2 to 1 cup of salsa verde after the cooking process, or as desired.
5. Now you’re ready to serve the crockpot green chili chicken over rice, in tortillas with taco toppings, make for meal prep, or any other way you’d like to eat it!

What to serve with slow cooker green chile chicken

Honey Cornbread Muffins

Instant Pot Refried Beans

Sweet Potato Cornbread

Loaded Guacamole Nachos

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4.64 from 30 votes

Slow Cooker Green Chile Chicken

By Averie Sunshine

🫑🍋 Tender, juicy, chicken that’s simmered with green chiles, jalapeño, salsa verde, onions, garlic, and spices for the most FLAVORFUL and versatile green chile chicken! Use it in tacos, burritos, casseroles, sandwiches, or as a meal prep recipe. Best of all, it’s SO EASY because your slow cooker does ALL the work!

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 6 hours hours

Total Time: 6 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 10 servings

Equipment

• 1 6 to 7 quart slow cooker

Ingredients 

• ▢ 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
• ▢ 1 medium to large green bell pepper, seeded and diced small
• ▢ 1 medium to large jalapeño, seeded and diced very small
• ▢ 3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• ▢ 1 ½ to 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• ▢ 2 to 3 teaspoons chili powder, or to taste*
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste if desired
• ▢ 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste if desired
• ▢ one 4-ounce can green chiles, do not drain
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil, or avocado oil
• ▢ 3 pound boneless skinless chicken, I used 2lb chicken breast, 1lb chicken thighs, but any combination is fine
• ▢ 1 ½ cup salsa verde**
• ▢ Juice of 1 large lime, or to taste
• ▢ ¼ cup chopped cilantro, plus more for garnishing

Instructions 

• To a large 6 to 7-quart slow cooker, add the onion, green bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic, cumin, chili powder, canned green chiles, evenly drizzle with oil, and stir to coat evenly and combine.
  
• Place the chicken on top, evenly spaced.
  
• Evenly drizzle the salsa over the top, cover with the lid, and cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours, or on LOW for 6 to 8 hours, or until the chicken is done. Tip – When it's done, it will shred extremely easily with two forks.
  
• Remove the chicken from the slow cooker, place it on a cutting board, and shred with two forks. Tips – If for some reason there looks like a ton of cooking liquid and juices in your slow cooker and you don't want your final dish as juicy, remove the juices, 1/2 cup at a time, or as desired. This isn't likely necessary and we love the juiciness of the final dish and I keep all the juices in the bottom of the slow cooker, but it's up to you. On the contrary, if it doesn't look like there's enough juices or liquid, add additional salsa verde 1/2 cup at a time, as desired.
• Add the shredded chicken back into the slow cooker, drizzle with lime juice, sprinkle with cilantro, and stir to combine.
  
• Taste the chicken for seasoning balance, and if desired, add additional salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, or a pinch of cayenne for those who want it spicy.
• Serve immediately as desired. As shown, I served it as tacos in corn tortillas, sour cream, a tiny bit of hot sauce, and additional cilantro. Flour tortillas are also fine. You can also use the filling in burritos, sandwiches, sliders, wraps, or as desired. Extra chicken will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 4 months. Reheat gently in the microwave as needed.
  

Notes

*Chili Powder – This is highly dependent on personal preference. If you don't want the flavor quite as bold, use 1 teaspoon. If you're trying to increase the heat level, use at least 3 teaspoons and after cooking, you can always add a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper, to taste. Make sure to start with the tiniest bit, stir well, taste, and then be very careful if you think it needs more.

**Salsa Verde – I used Herdez Salsa Verde (mild) for the recipe. Some grocery stores sell a medium heat version but it's hit or miss. Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde is also a great choice if you have one in your area.

If you want to make homemade salsa verde, take a peek at the blender portion of my Vegan Pozole Verde. It includes tomatillos, poblanos, jalapenos, and white onion. All you have to do is add a splash of vegetable or chicken broth or stock to thin it out to salsa consistency. 

Another option for homemade salsa verde is this Chunky Tomatillo Avocado Salsa, minus the avocado. Super easy and so good!

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 327cal, Carbohydrates: 10g, Protein: 40g, Fat: 13g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 121mg, Sodium: 629mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 5g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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