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Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken and Rice

In a world of quick and easy recipes, this slow cooker salsa chicken and rice deserves a place among the quickest and easiest. Your favorite salsa deserves to be enjoyed this way.

These are two bowls of salsa chicken & rice. There is shredded chicken mixed with rice and topped with cilantro. There are tortilla chips surrounding the bowls.

Slow cooker salsa chicken

Chicken and rice show up as staples in many different cuisines, and for good reason. While each ingredient is great on its own merit, the combination basically acts as a blank slate for delicious spices and flavor combinations.

From curries to cream-of-mushroom casseroles, the chicken-rice duo is certainly versatile. This slow cooker recipe takes your favorite salsa and turns it into a full-on meal.

If you're skeptical that this is a winning combination, hear me out for a second. Do you like chicken? What about rice?

Now imagine your favorite salsa. Mouth watering yet? Just throw it together, add some broth to nail the consistency, and you're on your way to dinner (and lunches/dinners for the week, if you meal prep)!

Slow cooker salsa chicken ingredients

Salsa. Chicken. Instant Rice. Broth.

In bullet form:

  • Chicken Breast
  • Salsa
  • Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
  • Instant Rice

Still looks the same right? Yeah. Just those ingredients.

Those form the core of the recipe. You can serve this with cilantro, chips, cheese, tortillas, avocados—whatever you want! Toppings make this awesome, but it's also perfectly good as-is.

This is a slow cooker filled with salsa chicken & rice. There are two bowls of chicken and rice next to the slow cooker.

How to make slow cooker salsa chicken

You'll sometimes see this category of recipe called "dump and bake" because, well... you dump it all together and then bake.

This is basically one of those recipes but for whatever a slow cooker does. So... "dump and cook," I guess! Dump and cook. It's a thing.

Here's what's going to happen:

  • Gather ingredients.
  • Add chicken breast, salsa, and chicken broth to a slow cooker.
  • Cook on high for 4 hours.
  • Shred chicken and place back into the slow cooker. Cut the heat of the slow cooker to warm.
  • Add instant rice to slow cooker and cook for about 10 mins.
  • Stir together well. Serve with tortillas, cilantro, chips, cheese, avocado, or whatever you want!

Not too bad, right? The most work you'll do is shred the chicken, which isn't that much work at all, especially if you follow the hack I share below.

What can I do with a lot of salsa?

Imagine you find yourself with about 24 ounces of salsa. Perhaps you bought a giant jug of the stuff at the store and only used a little bit at the party. Maybe the farmer's market had some extra masons jars.

Whatever the reason, even the most dedicated struggle to down a ton of salsa with tortilla chips alone. Sometimes, you need to call in the heavy hitters, like this slow cooker salsa chicken recipe, to get the job done.

How do I thicken slow cooker salsa chicken?

Sometimes, in recipes involving chicken and some kind of liquid, it's hard to know whether you're in for some tender meat or a full-blown soup (not that soup's a bad thing). I've tried to set up the ratios in this recipe so you don't have excess broth/salsa hanging around after the cooking is done, but your mileage may vary.

The rice sets the textural tone here. If you've got an extra thin salsa, you may need to use less of it to avoid excess liquid. If it's chunky, maybe add some more broth.

Generally stick to the ratios here and you should be in the ballpark.

This is a bowl of salsa chicken & rice. There is shredded chicken mixed with rice and topped with cilantro. There are tortilla chips surrounding the bowls.

How long do you cook boneless skinless chicken breast in crock pot?

Four hours on high is plenty to cook this chicken breast all the way through, but it's a good idea for you to check the temperature using a thermometer to make sure it's come up to 165F, the recommended temperature for chicken.

Food safety. It's important!

How do I shred a chicken breast?

This depends on how much chicken you're making. For small recipes, I'll pull the chicken out onto a baking sheet or into a large bowl and shred it with forks.

If you're making a larger batch of chicken, it's possible to shred it using your stand mixer. Yes, I'm serious—I do it all the time! You still might want to go in stages so as not to overwhelm your KitchenAid.

This is a bowl of salsa chicken & rice. There is shredded chicken mixed with rice and topped with cilantro. There are tortilla chips surrounding the bowls.

Looking for more recipes?

Check out one of these Jordo's World staples:

These are two bowls of salsa chicken & rice. There is shredded chicken mixed with rice and topped with cilantro. There are tortilla chips surrounding the bowls.
Print Recipe
5 from 14 votes

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken and Rice

In a world of quick and easy recipes, this slow cooker salsa chicken deserves a place among the quickest and easiest. Your favorite salsa deserves to be enjoyed this way.
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time4 hrs
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
Keyword: chicken and rice, salsa chicken, slow cooker chicken
Servings: 6
Calories: 364kcal
Author: Jordan Smith

Equipment

  • Slow Cooker

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs chicken breast boneless skinless
  • 24 oz salsa whatever spice level
  • 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
  • 2 cups instant Rice
  • serve with: cilantro, chips, cheese, tortillas, avocado, etc.

Instructions

  • Gather ingredients.
  • Add chicken breast, salsa, and chicken broth to a slow cooker.
  • Cook on high for 4 hours.
  • Shred chicken and place back into the slow cooker. Cut the heat of the slow cooker to warm.
  • Add instant rice to slow cooker and cook for about 10 mins.
  • Stir together well. Serve with tortillas, cilantro, chips, cheese, avocado, or whatever you want!

Nutrition

Calories: 364kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 50g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 130mg | Sodium: 847mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 14mg
Recipe Rating




KarynV

Wednesday 8th of March 2023

OMG, this was so super easy to make and absolutely delicious! Hubby could not get enough. We ate it straight out of the crockpot with shredded cheddar cheese on top. I am thinking of all the wonderful ways to eat the leftovers. Burritos, Bowls, Nachos. Oh, the possibilities are endless. This recipe will definitely be in the rotation for sure. Hubby just said again that was so good! ❤️

Tiffany Cantrell

Thursday 26th of January 2023

Love this recipe! So easy and good! The only thing I wish I had was the serving size - it says 6 servings and no where has the size in grams or ounces or cups even so trying to figure that out is a little hard. I love your recipes so much I wish you would use grams to calculate the nutrition so it’s easy to log in macros first or MyFitnessPal. Please consider this as I know a lot of other people would like that too! Thanks so much!

Tanya

Tuesday 17th of January 2023

IYKYK.. this is so easy my husband made it for me!!! I love I can use any flavor salsa to change the taste. Just used a peach salsa and it turned out great!!

Melissa

Tuesday 17th of January 2023

This is delicious!!! I made a batch today and shared some with my son to take to college for easy meal prep and kept some for me. It’s a definite addition to my regular rotation.

Ashley

Saturday 14th of January 2023

Can't wait to try this recipe as it is cooking in my crock pot right know. I changed the servings to 8 but I'm wondering what the serving size is?

Jordan Smith

Tuesday 17th of January 2023

Hi Ashley! This recipe makes 6 servings and the nutrition corresponds to 1 of the 6 servings. You can totally split to 8 servings instead! To figure out the nutrition for 8 serving, I recommend calculating in a nutrition app with the exact ingredients you use. That way no matter how many servings you break it down to, you'll know the nutrition! Hope that makes sense!