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This Slow Cooker Chicken goulash is what I reach for on the days when my mind is blank, the pantry is thin, and I still want something warm on the table. Five ingredients, no browning, no fuss — just layer everything in the Slow Cooker and let it do its thing. Simple, thrifty, and dependable in the best possible way.
Why I Keep Coming Back to This One
Only 5 ingredients — Chicken, canned tomatoes, onion, salt, and paprika. That’s the whole list.
Zero prep cooking — no browning, no sautéing, no extra pans. Everything goes straight into the slow cooker raw.
Hands-off from start to finish — set it in the morning and walk away. Dinner takes care of itself.
Budget-friendly — stretches a couple of chicken breasts into a full, satisfying meal for four.
Endlessly flexible — serve it over noodles, rice, or potatoes, and it tastes like you spent way more effort than you did.
About the Ingredients
The chicken: I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts most of the time because that’s what I usually have. But I’ll say this — thighs work better. They always do. They come out more tender and a little richer, and they’re usually cheaper, which in this recipe, given that we’re already working with pantry staples, feels like a bonus on top of a bonus. I’ve made this with both and I prefer the thighs when I remember to buy them.
The tomatoes: Just a standard 14.5-ounce can of diced, with the juice — don’t drain it. That liquid is part of what creates the gravy. I’ve used store brand, I’ve used the fancy Italian ones from the nicer grocery store across town, and honestly I cannot tell the difference once it’s all cooked down for six hours.
The paprika: Sweet paprika is what I reach for. Regular paprika is fine. Smoked paprika will change the flavor noticeably — not badly, just different, a little more campfire-ish. If that’s what you have, go ahead. The one time I used smoked by accident, my son thought I’d done something new and interesting and asked me to make it again. I haven’t, but I’ve thought about it.
Salt: A teaspoon, though I’ll usually taste it at the end and add a pinch more. The tomatoes bring a little acidity that can make it feel underseasoned until you taste it over the noodles, so don’t go overboard before it’s done.
Ingredients
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (roughly 1½ pounds — or go with thighs if you have them)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, with all their juice
1 small onion, finely chopped — about a cup, more or less
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
That’s it. Five things. I want you to really sit with that for a second.
How to Make It
Lay your chicken breasts flat on the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. Don’t stack them if you can help it. They’ll cook more evenly side by side.
Scatter the chopped onion over and around the chicken. I do mine fine because I don’t want big chunks of onion in the finished dish — by the time it’s done cooking they practically dissolve into the sauce anyway, but I still chop them small out of habit.
Sprinkle the teaspoon of salt and the teaspoon of paprika over everything. I do a light hand here and adjust later. Open the can of tomatoes — don’t shake off the juice, don’t drain it, pour the whole thing right over the top — and spread it around as evenly as you can be bothered to.
Put the lid on.
Cook on LOW for five to six hours or on HIGH for two and a half to three hours. I almost always do LOW because I’m usually starting it around noon and I want dinner at six. If I forget — and sometimes I do forget — HIGH gets you there faster.
When the chicken pulls apart with a fork without any resistance, you’re done. Use two forks to shred it right in the slow cooker. Stir it all together so every strand of chicken gets coated in that tomato-onion sauce. Taste it. Add salt if it needs it. It usually needs just a pinch.
Serve over buttered egg noodles. Or boiled potatoes — the way that uses every bit of the gravy. White rice works perfectly well too. I’ve even spooned it over mashed potatoes when there were mashed potatoes leftover from something else, which is not exactly traditional but was extremely good.
Green beans on the side, or peas, or just a plain green salad. Buttered bread if you want something to mop the bowl with. I always want something to mop the bowl with.
Variations
If you want a little more depth without adding ingredients, throw in a clove of minced garlic with the onion. Or half a teaspoon of garlic powder if you don’t feel like peeling a clove. A small pinch of sugar can cut the tomato’s sharpness — softer, rounder somehow. I’ve done it since when I remember.
To make it go further — and I’ve done this on weeks when I needed it to feed more people than the recipe technically serves — stir in a drained can of navy beans or kidney beans during the last half hour of cooking. Or cook some elbow macaroni separately and fold it in at the end. That turns it into something more like old-fashioned goulash, and I mean that in the best possible way.
If you finish it with a spoonful of sour cream stirred in at the end, it gets a little creamier and a little more Eastern European in character. Not traditional to this recipe exactly, but good.
Leftovers
This reheats beautifully. Better the next day, really. I’ve said that about a lot of dishes over the years and it’s not always true, but in this case it is — the flavors settle overnight and the sauce gets a little thicker.
Keep it in a covered container in the refrigerator, it’ll be fine for three or four days. Reheat it on the stovetop with a splash of water if it’s gotten too thick, or just microwave it and don’t overthink it.
The other thing I’ve done with leftovers — and this was a happy accident one afternoon rummaging through the fridge — is pile the shredded chicken onto soft dinner rolls. Just like a sloppy joe, basically. It works. Better than I expected.
There’s not much else to say about this one. I almost didn’t write it up because I thought, who needs a recipe for something this simple? But then I thought about how many times I’ve needed exactly this — a recipe that requires almost nothing of me and still delivers something real at the end of it.
Some days that’s enough. Some days that’s everything.
Slow Cooker 5-Ingredient Chicken Goulash
Ingredients Â
- 1.5 lb chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- 1 can diced tomatoes 14.5 oz, with juice
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
InstructionsÂ
- Place chicken breasts in a single layer at the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Scatter chopped onion over the chicken.
- Sprinkle salt and paprika evenly over the top.
- Pour diced tomatoes with their juice over everything.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 5–6 hours or HIGH for 2.5–3 hours.
- Shred the chicken directly in the slow cooker and stir to coat in the sauce.
- Taste and adjust seasoning if needed, then serve warm.
