Name: Slow-Cooker Chicken Breasts With Creamy Mustard-Leek Sauce
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h 45 min
Yield: Serves 2 to 4 people
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/3 cup mayonnaise; 2 tablespoons cider vinegar; 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for the slow cooker; 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely minced; 1 tablespoon fresh sage, finely minced; 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts; 1 shallot, finely minced; 1 leek, trimmed and cleaned, cut into thin half moons; 3/4 cup chicken stock; 1 tablespoon cornstarch; 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard; 2 tablespoons dry white wine; 1/3 cup heavy cream; 12 ounces egg noodles; 3 tablespoons butter; 1 handful fresh chives, finely chopped

Slow-Cooker Chicken Breasts With Creamy Mustard-Leek Sauce

Photo by Ty Mecham

Test Kitchen-Approved

Author Notes

An editor at Food52 asked me to develop a recipe for chicken breasts prepared in a slow cooker. I was initially concerned that the lean meat would dry out. But this recipe produces tender, savory chicken that's also marinated overnight, which helps impart flavor. The mustard-leek sauce is rich and flavorful, with a nice tinge of acidity from the mustard. It's based on classic French preparations of rabbit in mustard sauce. —Josh Cohen

Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 2 hours 45 minutes
Serves 2 to 4 people

Ingredients

For the Marinade
¹/₃ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
¹/₂ teaspoon salt, plus more for the slow cooker
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely minced
1 tablespoon fresh sage, finely minced
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

For the Slow Cooker
1 shallot, finely minced
1 leek, trimmed and cleaned, cut into thin half moons
³/₄ cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
2 tablespoons dry white wine
¹/₃ cup heavy cream
12 ounces egg noodles
3 tablespoons butter
1 handful fresh chives, finely chopped

In This Recipe

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Directions

To make the marinade, add all the marinade ingredients except the chicken to a mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Nestle the chicken in the marinade. Cover and store in the refrigerator overnight.
Add the shallot and leek to the slow cooker, along with a pinch of salt. Add the chicken stock and cornstarch to the slow cooker, and stir to combine. Make sure the cornstarch is dissolved in the chicken stock with no lumps. Add the mustard, white wine, and heavy cream, stirring once more to combine everything.
Add the marinated chicken to the slow cooker, discarding any excess marinade. If some marinade and herbs are clinging to the chicken when you add it to the slow cooker, that's fine. Set the slow cooker to low, and cook for 2 1/2 hours. When about 2 hours have passed, boil water in a large pot and cook the egg noodles according to the directions on the package. Toss the cooked egg noodles with butter and set aside.
After 2 1/2 hours, check to see if the chicken is fully cooked. If it's less than 165°F at its thickest point, continue cooking. Check the chicken every 15 minutes until it's fully cooked.
When the chicken is fully cooked, transfer it to a cutting board and slice it into medallions. Taste the sauce in the slow cooker. Add more salt as needed.
To serve, arrange some chicken atop a portion of egg noodles. Top with sauce. Garnish with chives.

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Josh Cohen
Lesterj2
jacci fletcher
Phil P

Review

Born and raised in Brooklyn, I’m perpetually inspired by the diversity of foods that exist in this city. I love shopping at the farmer’s market, making ingredients taste like the best versions of themselves, and rolling fresh pasta. I learned how to make fresh pasta in Italy, where I spent the first 6 months of my career as a chef. I've been cooking professionally in New York City since 2010.

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11 Reviews

Lesterj2 October 7, 2019

Pros: Sauce was fabulous. We didn't find it too thin given that it was served over noodles, and my family all agreed they'd happily eat the sauce with anything - it was that good. Recipe was easy to pull together and the crock pot preparation minimized clean up.
Cons: I made the mistake of NOT checking the chicken until nearly 2.5 hours and by the time I did it was overcooked and pretty dry. My breasts were over 1/2 pound each but I suspect would have been done a good half hour earlier. My fault. Also the dish is very beige, even with the addition of the chives and the herbs in the sauce.
Next time I will probably try some or all of: adding some chopped spinach/kale/etc to the sauce; browning the chicken before adding to the sauce ingredients; making it on the stove top or in the oven.
But with some tweaks, it's definitely a keeper if for the sauce alone!

jacci F. July 7, 2019

So just made this tonight for dinner. The only thing I did differently was use boneless, skinless thighs because that is what I had. The flavor was great! Here are my issues: For me, the entire point of a crockpot dinner is to fix it in the morning and come home to a fragrant cooked meal, with minimal additional work to get it to the table. I don't find any reason to use a crockpot other than that., it is not a superior cooking method. At 2 1/2 hours this does not only not meet that criteria - it means, if I start to cook it when I get home from work - I am at least 3 hours in until dinner- that doesn't work. My second observation is that, First, why on earth would I cook and butter the noodles 1/2 an hour before the chicken was done? Cold, congeled noodles add nothing to a dish! So I timed that entirely differently so that the warm buttered noodles were (supposedly) done at the same time. My last issue with this dish is that the sauce was so watery it was not usable to dress the dish as is. I dissolved more cornstarch and water and cooked it to thicken it to a gravy consistency. I have about a cup and a half of sauce (delicious) left. I am thinking it would be delicious on a seared pork chop one night and that is what i am going to use the leftovers for. I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on my observations.

Phil P. June 30, 2019

When I tried this, the sauce seemed a little thin and might benefit from thickening, which surprised me since it has a tablespoon of cornstarch. Has anyone else experienced this? Thoughts?

Author Comment

Josh C. July 1, 2019

If the sauce is a little too thin for your liking, you can always experiment with adding an extra teaspoon of cornstarch

NYA June 29, 2019

I just made this and was so excited to eat it, but the milk curdled/clumped/broke...did this happen to anyone else? Is it OK to eat it? How do I prevent this from happening next time??

Phil P. June 30, 2019

Did you use milk or cream? Did you check the date? With cornstarch acting as an emulsifier, you shouldn't get any curdling even if you used milk AND the wine had gone to vinegar.

Author Comment

Josh C. July 1, 2019

the recipe calls for 1/3 cup of heavy cream - there is no milk in this recipe

Christine G. June 12, 2019

I made this last night and it was fantastic. My 8 yr old twins loved it. I did embellish, I caramelized the Leeks and Shallots in olive oil before adding them to the crockpot, I also added fresh thyme, more white wine and garlic. When the chicken was finished I did have to adjust for salt and pepper, I also added just a pinch of sugar. A nice french dinner on a summer night. DELICEUX!!

Janice H. June 9, 2019

This looks really tasty. However, chicken breasts vary in size so much. How many ounces of chicken breast is this? Thanks!

Author Comment

Josh C. June 10, 2019

Hi Janice, one raw chicken breast should weigh approximately 8 ounces. So, this recipes uses about 1 pound total of chicken breast meat. That being said, if you're over or under by a few ounces, it shouldn't make a real difference.

Janice H. June 30, 2019

Thanks! I think it would be helpful to state ounces, because chicken parts vary so much in size.

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Slow-Cooker Chicken Breasts With Creamy Mustard-Leek Sauce

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Recipe by: Josh Cohen

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11 Reviews