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This Slow Cooker apricot Chicken is one of those set-it-and-forget-it dinners that somehow disappears faster than anything else I put on the table. Three ingredients, almost zero effort, and it tastes way more “from scratch” than it has any right to. Perfect for busy weeknights when you still want a real home-cooked meal.
Why You’ll Love It
Only 3 ingredients — chicken, apricot preserves, and a packet of onion soup mix from the back of your pantry
True set-it-and-forget-it — pour, cover, walk away for 4 to 5 hours
Sweet, savory, and surprisingly complex — the apricot preserves caramelize into a glossy sauce that tastes nothing like jar jam
Incredibly forgiving — slightly overcooked? It just gets more tender. Needs more salt? Easy fix at the end.
Great leftovers — the flavor gets even better the next day, and it reheats beautifully over rice or noodles
A Few Notes on the Ingredients
The preserves. Use a good one, or at least a real one — not diet, not low-sugar, not “fruit spread.” You want the full-fat, full-sugar apricot preserves because the sugar is what helps the sauce caramelize a little around the edges of the chicken. Smuckers works fine. I’ve used store-brand and it was totally acceptable. One time I used a fancy jarred one from a farmers market and it was noticeably better, but I’m not going to tell you that’s necessary because it isn’t.
The onion soup mix — I use Lipton, always have. I’ve seen recipes call for “French onion dip mix” or “beefy onion soup mix” and I’m sure those all work, but the original yellow Lipton packet is what I know and trust. If you’re watching sodium, they do make a reduced-sodium version. I forget the brand. I’ve used it. It’s fine.
The chicken. I use boneless skinless breasts because that’s what I buy in bulk and freeze, but honestly this recipe was maybe meant for thighs. They’re more forgiving in the Slow Cooker and the extra fat makes the sauce even better. I switch back and forth depending on what’s in the freezer. Either works.
What You’ll Need
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs — see above)
About 1½ cups apricot preserves, give or take — I sometimes add a little more if the jar’s almost gone anyway
1 packet dry onion soup mix (the standard 1-ounce size)
Let’s Make It
Pull out your Slow Cooker. I use a 6-quart oval one that I’ve had forever — I think I got it as a housewarming gift around 2008 or 2009, or possibly earlier, from someone who knew me well enough to know I needed a Slow Cooker and not another decorative thing for my mantle.
Lay the chicken in the bottom. If the pieces are thick, try to get them in a single layer-ish. It’s okay if they’re snug — they’ll shrink down as they cook. I’ve stacked them slightly and it always turns out fine.
In a bowl, stir together the apricot preserves and the soup mix. It’ll look weird — thick and chunky and kind of orange-brown with all those little onion flakes in it. That’s exactly right. Pour it over the chicken. Try to get most of the chicken coated, but don’t stress if it’s uneven — it’ll all mingle together as it cooks.
Put the lid on. Walk away.
LOW for 4 to 5 hours is my preference. The chicken is more tender and the sauce develops better. HIGH for about 2½ to 3 hours works if you forgot to start it early, which I do at least twice a month. Both are fine. The thing I’ve noticed is that on HIGH, the sauce sometimes splits a little — goes a bit watery around the edges — but if you give it a stir and let it sit on WARM with the lid cracked for ten or fifteen minutes, it pulls back together.
When it’s done, the chicken should shred easily with two forks or just fall apart when you poke it. Taste the sauce. Add a small pinch of salt if it needs it, though usually the soup mix has done that work for you.
If you want the sauce thicker — and sometimes I do, especially if I’m serving it over rice — leave the lid cracked on WARM for a bit longer. If you want it looser, add a splash of water and stir.
I serve it whole sometimes, sliced. But mostly I shred it right in the slow cooker and let everything get all mixed up together.
Variations I’ve Actually Tried (and One I Wouldn’t)
There’s a version with Dijon mustard — swap out some of the preserves for maybe a quarter cup of mustard, skip the onion soup mix entirely, and add a little garlic. It’s good. It’s a different dish, really — more of a French thing — but if you’re not into the onion soup flavor, that’s a direction worth trying.
For heat: a pinch of red pepper flakes into the preserve mixture before it goes over the chicken. It doesn’t make it hot, just a little interesting.
I tried once to use peach preserves instead of apricot. Don’t. It was too sweet and kind of one-note. Apricot has an edge to it that peach doesn’t — something almost sour that balances the sugar. Peach just tasted like dessert.
Frozen meal prep: I’ve done this where I throw the raw chicken, the preserves, and the soup mix all in a zip-top bag and freeze it flat. The night before I want to make it, I move it to the fridge. In the morning I dump the whole bag into the slow cooker. Works perfectly. It’s one of maybe four freezer meals I actually come back to.
Leftovers and Storage
This keeps in the fridge for three or four days, easily. The sauce tightens up overnight and the flavor gets even better the next day — one of those things that’s genuinely improved by sitting.
Shredded apricot chicken in a warm pita with a little bit of arugula and a smear of something creamy — cream cheese, Greek yogurt, whatever you have — is a wildly good lunch that sounds like it shouldn’t work but does.
Rice is the classic base. Egg noodles are arguably better. I’ve also done it over mashed potatoes, which is not traditional but is very, very good on a cold evening when you want something that asks nothing of you.
Roasted broccoli on the side. Steamed green beans. A piece of bread to drag through whatever sauce is left in the bowl. That’s it. That’s dinner.
Some nights that’s genuinely all you need.