Serve a heart-warming meal out of your slow cooker tonight! This tuscan white bean crock pot chicken stew is sure to please everyone around the dinner table.
Stew is one of my favorite dinners to cook. It’s so simple! This is a healthy chicken stew you can make in your crockpot. It has rustic Tuscan flavors and makes a hearty red tomato based sauce. This is simple homemade comfort food at its best!
Let the slow cooker do the work for you and enjoy a heart warming old fashioned country stew around the dinner table with your family at night. We love this during the cold fall and winter months – such a cozy meal!
Recipe tips
Browning before slow cooking
Stew, especially crockpot stew, can be surprisingly labor-intense when it comes to prep.
The flavors are simply the most intense if both the meat and all the veggies are browned before you add the liquid. When you make stew in the crockpot, you also have to then transfer everything from a stovetop pot to the slow cooker.
However, it is not crucial to make the recipe work. So if you’re very short on time, simply add all prepped vegetables to the crockpot. Place the chicken on top. Bring the wine and broth to a boil, stir in the tomatoes and pour into the crockpot. Add all seasoning and aromatics and cook as directed in the recipe.
Thickening
My husband likes his stews fairly brothy, so I usually don’t do much to thicken the liquid.
If you like a thicker stew, you can do one of the following:
- Replace half of the waxy potatoes with starchy ones
- Cook the stew uncovered for the final 30 minutes of the cooking time
- 10 minutes before the stew is done, remove the lid and stir in a slurry of 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 2-4 tablespoons cool water. Cook without the lid until thickened.
Chicken cuts for this recipe
You are pretty much free to use whatever chicken you have on hand.
Wings, cubed chicken breast, bone-in thighs… They all work!
I prefer using deboned thighs because then I don’t have to worry about the kids choking on bones and they are a little fattier than breast so they make for a juicier stew, but I’ve made it with all of the above and it tastes great either way.
More slow cooker soups & stews
PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.
Printable recipe
Crock Pot Tuscan White Bean Chicken Stew
Recipe details
Equipment
- Large Dutch Oven
- wooden spoon
- crock pot
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 red onion chopped
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic sliced
- 3 medium carrots cut into bite-sized chunks
- 2 red peppers cut into bite-sized chunks
- 1 green pepper cut into bite-sized chunks
- 3 medium celery stalks sliced
- 1 pound boneless chicken thighs
- ⅓ cup white wine OR extra chicken broth
- 1 (28-oz) can fire roasted tomatoes
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- black pepper
- 1 (15-oz) can white beans drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ lbs waxy potatoes
Instructions
- Sauté the vegetables: Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven. Add both onions and cook for one minute. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the carrots, peppers and celery and cook until starting to brown and soften, about 5 minutes. Stir from time to time. Remove the vegetables to a 5 quart crockpot.
- Brown the chicken: Bring the Dutch oven back up to medium-high heat. Add another tablespoon of oil and brown the chicken on all sides. Remove and place in the crockpot on top of the vegetables.
- Heat the liquids: Pour the wine (if using, otherwise use the extra chicken broth) into the hot Dutch oven. Scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Bring the wine to a boil and cook until it is almost evaporated (about 1-2 minutes). Add the tomatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Take off the heat and cool for a few minutes.
- Cook the stew: Very carefully ladle the hot liquid into the crockpot (heating the liquid will help the crock to reach a safe temperature faster). Add all remaining ingredients, including the potatoes, and close the lid. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours.
Notes
- Replace half of the waxy potatoes with starchy ones
- Cook the stew uncovered for the final 30 minutes of the cooking time
- 10 minutes before the stew is done, remove the lid and stir in a slurry of 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 2-4 tablespoons cool water. Cook without the lid until thickened.
Tina says
Thank you so very much, I thought my mind was on total shutdown. Lol. I’m making this tonight for hubby I know it will be delicious. Thank you so much.
Nora says
I hope you and your husband enjoyed the stew, Tina!
Tina says
Hey there my husband has chosen this recipe for this weeks menu. Unfortunately I have read it backwards and forwards and can’t find the bean portion of the recipe. Now I have had a stroke so maybe I’m just not seeing it?
Nora says
Hi Tina! Oh my gosh, I am so sorry for your troubles. That can of white beans completely slipped my editing – what a mistake to make in a recipe that has “white beans” in the name! Thank you so much for catching it – it is one can white beans that gets added to the crockpot with all the other ingredients! I’m adding it to the recipe right now. Thanks again!