Tender, juicy chicken breasts with just 5-minutes of prep! This slow cooker gluten-free balsamic chicken is as easy as it gets for a weeknight dinner. Soaked in maple balsamic dressing and cooked slowly over the day, this chicken recipe makes the perfect busy mom, weeknight dinner.
This slow cooker gluten-free chicken recipe was made with busy weeknights in mind! Just like sheet pan dinners, the crock pot is a staple.
Learn more about slow cookers and choosing the best one for your family (and how to use it!).
And unlike somegluten-free crockpot recipes, this maple chicken doesn’t require a ton of prep. No marinating, soaking, or even mincing (just like these honey mustard chicken thighs).
This recipe keeps dinnertime ultra-simple busy weeknights (as do these awesome speedy, gluten-free dinner recipes geared towards busy mamas!).
And as a Certified Nutrition Coach, I love this gluten-free chicken dinner because it's:
- Easy to whip together
- Can be served over rice, noodles, or even spaghetti squash
- Dairy-free and paleo
- The maple chicken makes a great meal prep recipe for the rest of the week (learn how to keep meal prep simple)
Ingredients You’ll Need
With only 4 main ingredients, you don’t need much for this slow cooker gluten-free dinner recipe!
Chicken: opt for high-quality chicken breasts. You’ll want to trim the cartilage and any major white parts off of them but that’s it.
Maple Syrup: you need to use real maple syrup for this recipe as man-made syrup may burn off and congeals differently.
Oil: we use avocado oil when heating at higher temperatures but the choice is yours. Choose wisely though as some oils are carcinogenic at high temps.
Balsamic Vinegar: any balsamic vinegar should work however the brand you choose will affect the flavor of the crock pot chicken slightly.
Step By Step Photos
How To Make Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken
- Place the chicken at the bottom of the crock pot.
- Whisk together the oil, vinegar, and maple syrup.
- Pour the maple balsamic dressing over the chicken.
- Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
- In the last 45 minutes before cooking, trim the beans and place them on top of the chicken, recover and let them steam.
- When ready to eat, thicken the sauce if desired and serve over your choice of grain.
Important Teaching Tips
This gluten-free slow cooker chicken recipe is sweet but not too sweet. Likewise, because it’s cooking all day, the chicken breasts are tender. They can be used for a full dinner or they can be shredded and used as meal prep all week long in any of the recipes below.
The recipe can be made with full chicken breasts or strips of breasts (which will cook faster). It has not been tested with chicken thighs.
If you're using chicken thighs, know that there will be much more liquid in the slow cooker but the flavor will be awesome.
You can use the maple balsamic dressing as is or make a sticky version. Or, top the chicken with something like mango habanero salsa for a summery twist.
To thicken the dressing and make a gluten-free sauce: mix together 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder to 3 tablespoons water and whisk into the sauce with the chicken before placing the beans on top.
Likewise, you can add the arrowroot powder to the remaining juices into a small pot on the stove and heat at a rolling boil for 2-3 minutes.
Green beans are used in this recipe but cauliflower or broccoli florets work too.
To make the recipe paleo-friendly, serve the chicken on top of more steamed veggies or spaghetti squash.
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So long as you're cooking the chicken for an extended period of time (4-6 hours), you can put raw chicken in the slow cooker. The fewer ingredients you put into the slow cooker with the chicken (and the smaller the pieces of chicken) the less time it will take to cook fully.
If overcooked, a chicken breast will become dry even if it's in a crock pot. One way to avoid overcooking the chicken is to ensure there is a lot of liquid in the crock pot for the chicken to absorb.
More Easy, Gluten-Free Recipes You'll Love
- ·Meatball bowls
- Turkey meatballs on spaghetti squash
- One pot chicken alfredo
- Sheet pan sausage & veggies
- One pot, dairy-free pasta
- Teriyaki chicken skewers
- Gluten-free chicken fajita bowls
- Easy, healthy dinner ideas
- 30 minute dinner recipes
Gluten-Free Crockpot Recipes
- Slow cooker teriyaki chicken
- Slow cooker beef and brococli
- Dairy-free, Slow Cooker Tuscan Chicken
- Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo
- Slow cooker chicken curry
Gluten-Free Maple Balsamic Slow Cooker Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breast roughly
- ⅛ cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 4 cups green beans trimmed
- 3 cup rice cooked
Instructions
- Place the chicken at the bottom of the crockpot
- Whisk together the vinegar, oil and syrup.
- Pour over the chicken and stir until chicken is coated.
- Cook on low for 4-5 hours (though there’s lots of liquid so it can cook for longer).
- Prep/trim the beans.
- In the last hour of cooking, before eating, place the green beans on top of the chicken, put the lid back in place and let steam.
- Hack: the sauce stays very thin. If you prefer something thicker, mix together 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder to 3 tablespoons water and whisk into the sauce with the chicken before placing the beans on top.
- Serve over rice.
Disclaimer:
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data"
Nutrition
If ever there was an easy way to cook dinner crock pot chicken takes the cake! Place the ingredients into it the night before (or the morning of if you were lazy) turn it on and walk away!
This slow cooker chicken recipe helps keep busy moms sane… and full! Plus, it only contains four ingredients and it’s also dairy-free and gluten-free.
If you’re struggling to fuel your family with quality meals my advice to you is this: keep it simple. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. Make simple meals, stay sane and stay healthy.
Renee D Kohley
Such an easy weeknight dinner - my girls will love this!
fitasamamabear
Simple is best lol otherwise it's chaos 😛
ChihYu
Love simple meals, especially crockpot chicken !
fitasamamabear
Right?! Simple keeps you sane lol
Hope
Love simple healthy meals like this! My crockpot is a life saver for busy days! So funny what you say about working from home that everyone thinks you have loads of time for household chores, people think the same about me too - I feel like my house should be spotless as I work from home but it really is far from that!
fitasamamabear
Ugh yes! People don't really grasp that you're actually working/busy lol crockpots save lives haha It should be their slogan!
Cathy
I love that this recipe calls for just adding the ingredients to the slow cooker without any advance preparation! Thank you for sharing.
fitasamamabear
I like to keep things as simple as humanly possible lol
Carol Little R.H. @studiobotanica
Just today I made a similar dish in my Ipot.. Great flavours together, agreed!!!
What's not to love about maple and balsamic together!
Really SO very good!!
fitasamamabear
It really is a killer flavor combo!
Glenda
My entire family loved this easy recipe! Anytime I can pull out my slow cooker and prepare an entire delicious meal, I'm in heaven. The balsamic and maple are a perfect flavor combination to season the tender juicy chicken. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
fitasamamabear
Slow cookers save lives lol <-- true statement! So happy you loved it!