This New Orleans-inspired Slow Cooker Chicken and Sausage Creole simmered in a rich tomato broth, is perfect to make for Fat Tuesday!
Slow Cooker Chicken and Sausage Creole
This delicious one-pot creole dish is a quick and easy weeknight meal that’s light in calories, but heavy in flavor. Just put all ingredients into the slow cooker (it takes just 15 minutes to prep) and let it simmer all day. It’s wonderful served over rice (or cauliflower rice).
I’m excited to share another guest post from my friend Heather K. Jones. She’s a dietitian and the nutrition expert for The Skinnytaste Cookbook and Skinnytaste Fast and Slow (affil link), please welcome her!
Hi Everyone, I’m Heather K. Jones. I’m a registered dietitian and the founder of Feel Better Eat Better, an online weight loss program for women who struggle with emotional eating, binge eating, overeating or body image issues—click HERE to sign up for my free weight loss workshop coming soon!
I love New Orleans… and I love creole food! It’s hearty, comforting and soooooo satisfying. Creole cuisine is a blend of the many cultures of New Orleans including French, Spanish, West African, Haitian, German, and Italian, just to name a few.
How To Make Chicken and Sausage Creole
More Easy Crock Pot Chicken Recipes:
Slow Cooker Chicken and Sausage Creole
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
- 9 ounces chicken Andouille sausage, sliced into rounds
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 1/2 cup chopped carrots
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 3 ounces 1/2 a 6-ounce can tomato paste
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1 ¾ teaspoons Creole seasoning
- Dash of cayenne pepper
- 3 scallions, chopped (for garnish)
- 3 cups cooked brown rice, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Place all of ingredients in the slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
- Shred the chicken and add it back to the slow cooker. Evenly distribute the creole among 6 bowls and top each with green onions. Serve alone or over brown rice.
Does the nutrition info include the brown rice?
No, rice is optional.
Love this recipe! I do switch out the tomato sauce and diced tomato for the same combined amount of canned of crushed fire roasted tomatoes. Only because it was what I had on hand one day and liked it!
One of my favorites! I put a tiny bit less of the Cajun seasoning and omit the cayenne since I am a spice wimp. Poor planning on my part forced me to use partially frozen chicken, 2 cups of frozen onion and pepper mix, and tubed garlic paste. It did not affect the flavor at all and I may just use frozen and paste moving forward to save prep time. Excellent and easy recipe!! I had it tonight over quinoa and brown rice and sliced avocado on top. YUM!
This was my first time making this recipe! And I pretty much followed every step and every ingredient, did add celery … Did not have creole seasoning , I used Cajun seasoning compared the two (I needed to add oregano and thyme. ) My slow cooker on low cooked this about an hour quicker than most. And at the very end, I took a chance and added one cup of rice. It cooked it perfectly! I cannot believe how delicious this was and my family agreed!
I’ve been making this for recipe years and I swear it gets better each time! Definitely one of my absolute favorites! Some things I’ve added/changed that I’ve really enjoyed are:
– browning the sausage
-diced red and yellow bell pepper as well
-diced celery
-diced jalepeno
-can of green chilies
-garlic (the more the merrier in the opinion)
-slap ya mama- hot creole seasoning
-frozen cut okra – adding 30 minutes before done
Thank you so much for such a great recipe.
By no means necessary but fun to change it up 🙂
OMG!!! Amazing!
I tweaked it a little based on what I had at home and some of the reviews.
I only had 1 andouille chicken sausage link so I added a sweet Italian link. I used breast meat that I chopped into small pieces. I also switched out the carrots for chopped celery to give it more of the Cajun authenticity. I seared the veggies first then the meats. I bumped up the creole seasoning to 2 teaspoons.
Everything went into the Instant Pot for about 18 minutes. My husband & I loved it
I doubled creole spice; I enjoyed, not for the faint of heart.
Really love this one! I dump all ingredients into the instant pot and cook for 24 minutes. I go a little heavy on the creole spice. It’s even better the next day. Pour over cauli rice for me and regular rice for the boys who can eat anything and still be skinny!
Awesome!
I could only find cooked Chicken Andouille Sausage. Would I still throw it in at the beginning with the raw chicken or is it better to wait and put it in towards the end of cooking? Thanks for all your amazing recipes! I can’t wait to try this one.
I haven’t read all the comments. I did not use carrots but green bell pepper instead, used a can of rotel tomatoes, no cayenne and next time will add some Okra to thicken it just a smidge. Splash of Tabasco in my bowl and this was AWESOME! Might throw in a few shrimp at the end next time .. just because 😎
Would it be ok to substitute a chicken sausage in this recipe?
This recipe is a family favorite. We found it too soupy for our tastes, so I omitted the chicken stock and instead threw in a teaspoon of Penzey’s chicken soup base for flavor.
This was realllllyyyy good. We love Cajun food so this was an easy healthy option for us.
This came out delicious and couldn’t be easier. I didn’t have creole seasoning so I googled a recipe for it and had all the spices on hand! I will definitely make this again. I think next time I’ll dump a bag of frozen cauliflower rice in the crockpot when it’s done. That will cool it off and keep it low carb!
I hate people that change recipes and then complain, I did change some things but the overall recipe was a winner. Some said it was a little under spiced but from a spice and garlic standpoint, the “masses” don’t always like things heavy so adjust to your taste. True andouille sausage or kielbasa are already cooked/smoked so you should not worry about adding “raw” sausage.
I spent a lot of time in New Orleans on work so here are a few things I changed up. I added 5 cloves of garlic and 1 tablespoon of the seasoning. The “Trinity” in creole and cajun recipes is always onion, celery, bell pepper – not carrot. That might be what some found “missing”. I used celery and sauteed the sausage slices first (in my Instant Pot).
Super tasty!
I’d like to try adding the rice into the crockpot so it can absorb the flavours. How much time do you think it needs? And how much extra chicken broth?
Great! I added celery and a can of kidney beans. Cooked,in the Instant pot 15 minS, with NPR 5 minutes. Served with cheesy grits. Extra for the freezer for later.
Do you have the calorie count without the rice?
Does left-overs freeze well
Can I use chicken breasts instead of thighs?
Was excellent..I used chorizo instead of chicken saushe and used chicken breasts, 20 kinres before done cooking i added a can of drained corn
I don’t have a crock pot so how long would I cook it in the oven and at what temperature?
Delicious! Next time I will add shrimp as they would be a great addition to this. I had it with cauliflower rice and, interestingly, it seemed to complement the flavor such that I probably would opt for always using cauliflower rice for this rather than regular rice. My husband asked me to freeze the leftovers so that we could take it as a dinner for our next RV trip. That’s always the sign that he really likes it! 😉
One of the best slow cooker meals I’ve had in a while. I’m in Canada and couldn’t find andouille sausage or creole seasoning so I used smoked turkey sausage and cajun seasoning instead. Came out perfect! Will definitely be making it again.
My boys loved this recipe. It was great. I did blend up the peppers and tomatoes because otherwise my boys would pick them out or just not eat them. Anyway, it was fabulous.
Thank you
I made this in my Instant Pot. Diced the chicken into bite-sized pieces, sauteed the sausage, then chicken, then vegetables. Added a splash of chicken broth the de-glaze the pot, then put everything in and cooked for 20 minutes. Stirred in a cup of frozen okra and a some peeled shrimp and cooked on saute a little longer. It was excellent! very much like gumbo. Served it over grits. It was even better the next day.