Slow-Cooker Chicken and Okra
This is an old favorite recipe for chicken thighs and drumsticks cooked in a slow-cooker with okra, peppers and rich tomatoes and red wine sauce. We’ve added in bell peppers, olives and parsley to make it full of veggies and flavor! The slow braising makes the chicken ultra-tender.
Table of contents
Why We Love This Chicken and Okra Crockpot Recipe
This recipe has been a favorite since a friend made it for me back in the late nineties. It consists of slowly braised bone-in chicken legs in a rich sauce of tomatoes, peppers, and okra with green olives and parsley. It is sort of a mash-up of Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore and Crockpot Chicken Gumbo!
When I used to work in the test kitchen at EatingWell Magazine, I was lucky enough to contribute this recipe to their Serves Two cookbook. Today I make it when I want a totally healthy yet comforting hands-free meal that can be set up in the crockpot and left to slowly tenderize and cook all day.
I just love the savory tomato sauce with the veggies and olives. We love it with cornbread, crusty homemade sourdough bread or Whole Wheat Bread. It is also great with rice or egg noodles.
More Southern-Inspired Favorites
Ingredients For This Slow Cooker Chicken and Okra Recipe
- 4 bone-in chicken legs
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
- 3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 large onions, sliced (French cut)
- 1 ½ teaspoon dry Italian Seasoning
- ½ cup dry red wine
- 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1/3 cup chopped green olives
- 2 bell peppers any color, or 4 cubanelle peppers, cored and sliced
- 3 cups fresh or frozen sliced okra
- ½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Step-By-Step Instructions For Chicken and Okra
Cut The Chicken Pieces
Cut chicken legs into two pieces, along the fat line that runs between the thigh and drumstick.
Remove skin, trimming at the bottom of the drumstick if necessary. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
Brown The Chicken
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the chicken and cook, turning once, until browned, 2 to 4 minutes per side. (Note: The chicken will not be cooked through.) Transfer the chicken to the insert of a slow cooker. Repeat with the remaining chicken, reducing heat to medium as necessary to prevent scorching.
Saute The Veggies
Add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil to the skillet. Add garlic, onion, Italian seasoning, the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and the remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring often until the vegetables are just starting to brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer the onion mixture to the slow cooker.
Add the wine to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits, about 1 minute. Stir in tomato and olives, increase heat to high and bring to a simmer. Pour tomato mixture over the onions. Add peppers to the slow cooker and cover.
Cook In The Slow Cooker
Turn slow cooker on low for 8 hours or high for 4. In last half hour of cooking, remove lid and layer okra on top. Cover and let continue to cook the remaining 30 minutes.
Serving Instructions
To serve gently remove chicken pieces to pasta bowls. Stir the vegetables together. Ladle the vegetable mixture around the meat and top with a generous amount of parsley.
FAQs and Epert Tips
Yes, but only if you have a large Instant Pot. Otherwise, the pressure cooker will be too full. Or you can do a half batch in a regular-sized Instant Pot. Cook on pressure cook for 40 minutes. Natural release for a 20 minutes.
You can use boneless chicken but note that it will fall apart and resemble pulled chicken more than whole pieces.
Chicken breast is lean and doesn’t take to braising as well as dark meat chicken does. It can be dry. That said if you do not like chicken leg meat, you can use the breast meat, just note that the texture will seem dry.
More Slow-Cooker Chicken Recipes To Try
If you are a fan of your slow cooker and you love chicken as much as we do here are a bunch more recipes to check out!
- Our White Chicken Chili is made a freezer to slow cooker recipe!
- This Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is full of veggies and has an easy meal prep freezer option too.
- This creamy Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Coconut Soup has lots of extra veggies added to it as well.
- This Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup is a healthier version of the classic.
- Our Crockpot Ham and Bean Stew has tender shreds of chicken in it for added protein.
Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!
Happy Cooking! ~Katie
PrintSlow Cooker Chicken and Okra
- Total Time: 4 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
This is an old favorite recipe for chicken thighs and drumsticks cooked in a slow-cooker with okra, peppers and rich tomatoes and red wine sauce. We’ve added in bell peppers, olives and parsley to make it full of veggies and flavor! The slow braising makes the chicken ultra-tender.
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in chicken legs
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
- 3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 large onions, sliced (French cut)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon dry Italian Seasoning
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 1 28–ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1/3 cup chopped green olives
- 2 bell peppers any color, or 4 cubanelle peppers, cored and sliced
- 3 cups fresh or frozen sliced okra
- 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Instructions
- Cut chicken legs into two pieces, along the fat line that runs between the thigh and drumstick.
- Remove skin, trimming at the bottom of the drumstick if necessary. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
- Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the chicken and cook, turning once, until browned, 2 to 4 minutes per side. (Note: The chicken will not be cooked through.) Transfer the chicken to the insert of a slow cooker. Repeat with the remaining chicken, reducing heat to medium as necessary to prevent scorching.
- Add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil to the skillet. Add garlic, onion, Italian seasoning, the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and the remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring often until the vegetables are just starting to brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer the onion mixture to the slow cooker.
- Add the wine to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits, about 1 minute. Stir in tomato and olives, increase heat to high and bring to a simmer. Pour tomato mixture over the onions. Add peppers to the slow cooker and cover.
- Turn slow cooker on low for 8 hours or high for 4. In last half hour of cooking, remove lid and layer okra on top. Cover and let continue to cook the remaining 30 minutes.
- To serve gently remove chicken pieces to pasta bowls. Stir the vegetables together. Ladle the vegetable mixture around the meat and top with a generous amount of parsley.
Notes
To make ahead, prepare through step 5. Cover and refrigerate up to 12 hours ahead. Continue with step 6.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 hours
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup vegetable 1 piece of chicken
- Calories: 368
- Sugar: 5 g
- Fat: 19 g
- Carbohydrates: 12 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 21 g
I made this for my husband who’s never had okra before. He said he loved it and asked when I would make it again. Thanks for sharing it.
I am flattered and so happy to hear it! Thanks Deb!
This is such a hearty and comforting meal!! It was the perfect family dinner for us tonight!
Thank you so much Anjali.
Hi. I would like to know if using frozen okra, do I need to defrost it first?
Thank you.
No you do not. Enjoy!
Is there an alternative to wine?
You can omit it altogether or just use a little water. The tomatoes will give it plenty of acidity.
I wonder why no one has rated this yet?
I think I’m gonna try this tomorrow. Gotta cook for 5 adults plus leftovers, and I only got actual drumsticks (a value pack with 14 pieces).
The recipe is very intriguing though. Most drumstick recipes I found are your typical flavor varieties. Garlic/herb, chili/lime, bbq, generic Asian and so on.
But I always search for more holistic recipes that include a good load of vegetables in the actual cooking process and suggest a carb side with it. The pics of yours with all the veggies and the brown (?) rice look fantastic! And I love okra, peppers, onions and tomatoes.
The green olives, were they in a can or jar? Because jarred green olives in brine is the only kind available to me.
I’m sure you won’t see my comment before I cook this (tomorrow or the day after) but I’m looking forward to your input on this!
Hi Birgit. I only recently switched my recipe plug-in to allow ratings. So you’ll get to be the first! Yes that’s brown rice. I recommend jarred green olives.
I’m assuming you used a 4.5 quart slow cooker?
If not, what size?
Mine is a 6-quart actually. Hope that helps. Have a good one Morgan!
What if someone else in the family does not like olives? Will it change the taste munch?
That’s totally fine Nancy. Go ahead and just add a pinch of salt to it instead.
Thanks for the great story and cute pics! I am not very experienced with okra and my neighbor just gave me some beautiful red okra. So I am having breaded fried okra for breakfast (yum) and today I will use this recipe in my wee one-person crockpot with a Cornish Game Hen, baby carrots, tomato, mini peppers, okra, onion, and garlic. And skin on. I figure if someone has to give up chicken skin, they’re just eating too damn much chicken.
I love hearing that Mary! Hope it was great.
LOL. what a Jimmo story! Loved it! And look at you pregnant. And you can write! You really opened up this year.:) Pinned!
Aww thank you Olena. It is a good story, if a long one. Glad you read it. Thanks for pinning!
Katie — your site is always my go to when i need a great recipe. Made this last night and it was a huge hit!!
Oh thank you so much Jen. I am so glad everyone loved it. My girls did too, though my little one liked it better if I took the chicken off the bone for her.
Love this story! I’m a huge okra fan and I really like the idea of putting it with chicken. Definitely making this! Great post, Katie.
I thought you would like this one Bill. And now I am falling over because I just clicked through to your recipe, and it is so funny while we had this down in the Cayman Islands we talked about Brunswick Stew and what it was and if Jimmos was sort of like that. Too funny of a coincidence!!
This is my new favorite way to eat chicken of uncertain provenance. As the said buyer of the “road birds” as well as mother of our dear Katie and grandmother of Jimmo, I am grateful for your rescue and for the great story.
Awww Ma, you can get excited at the farmers’ market any day in my opinion. I loved the added challenge. And it brought back this recipe, and added a new chapter.
Thanks. I am still cringing at the fact that I decide to include that photo in this post. My bump didn’t seem so little to me. I miss those days with the striped tights. Sigh.
look at you preggos!! so adorable, what a cute little bump you had! and it goes without saying your daughter is killing it with those striped stockings – cuteness overload! and obviously I’m loving this chicken, so easy, healthy, and comforting.
I have a confession. I have never in my life eaten okra! I might just have to try it now though because this looks awesome! Also your daughter is so freaking adorable.
Don’t be afraid of okra. I know it looks really weird and it gets slimy inside. This stew isn’t slimy at all, the okra gives the sauce body. And thanks about my girl. I loved looking through her baby pics to find that shot.