It’s comfort food season, baby! What’s the best way to ring it in? A deliciously cozy, hearty bowl of stew that just so happens to involve wine, too.
I made this incredible slow cooker white wine chicken stew a little over two years ago and you all fell in LOVE. I get it! When I tried it for the first time I was seriously blown away and how delicious it was. It’s thick and creamy without being too heavy and filled with a wonderful blend of herbs and flavors that will keep your heart and belly full.
If you haven’t noticed, fall and winter are my absolute favorite seasons for cooking. I grew up on the best comfort foods like my mom’s slow cooker beef stew and this amazing lightened up chicken pot pie and they always give me such a warm, nostalgic feeling. This healthy chicken stew combines all of the best parts of chicken pot pie and beef stew and gives you a protein-packed meal that will impress anyone.
We’re adding a little dry white wine to the broth as well because we’re feelin’ fancy, right? Some for the stew, and some for your glass (of course). I hope you love this cozy hug-in-a-bowl. Enjoy with your fav sides all season long!
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Everything you’ll need to make this white wine chicken stew
The list may look long, but this slow cooker white wine chicken stew is basically made with lots of fresh herbs, veggies, broth and chicken. OH, and wine, because if you’re like me you could use a glass this time of year. Here’s everything you’ll need:
- Chicken: I like to use boneless skinless chicken thighs because I think they have the best flavor and texture in the stew.
- Broth: we’re using chicken broth, dry white wine, Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar to cook the chicken and veggies. They give the stew an incredible, rich flavor.
- Herbs & spices: don’t forget the fresh rosemary, thyme, oregano, and garlic! You’ll also need plenty of salt and pepper.
- Veggies: this stew has a hearty dose of veggies like carrots, peas, onion and potatoes.
- To thicken: you’ll also need a bit of all purpose flour and almond milk to help thicken the stew. More on this below!
Can I make it without wine?
I love the flavor that dry white wine gives the chicken stew but feel free to use more chicken broth in place of the wine.
Customize your stew
This crockpot chicken stew is easy to customize with ingredients you have on hand. Here’s what I can recommend:
- Add more veggies. I think mushrooms would also be delicious in the stew!
- Use dried herbs. I highly suggest using fresh herbs for the best flavor, but if you only have dried feel free to swap in about 1 1/2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning instead.
- Keep it gluten free & dairy free. Use a gluten-free all purpose flour, and be sure to check the label to ensure your Worcestershire sauce is gluten free. Then use your fav dairy-free milk.
- Make it richer. If you’re not dairy free, you can also use regular milk or heavy cream in this recipe.
How to make white wine chicken stew in the slow cooker
- Brown the chicken. You’ll start by browning your chicken in a skillet with some olive oil, salt and pepper to give it a nice sear. Then add it to your slow cooker.
- Add the broth & herbs. Next, stir in all of the broth ingredients, along with the fresh herbs.
- Add veggies & cook. Finally, add in the garlic, onion, carrots and potatoes. Save the peas for later! Cover the crockpot and cook the stew on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 7-8 hours.
- Thicken it up. Once the chicken stew is cooked, you’ll want to remove 1/2 cup of the broth and transfer it to a medium bowl. In that bowl, you’ll stir in the milk and whisk in the flour until there aren’t any lumps. Pour this back into the slow cooker and stir it all up. This is where you’ll stir in the peas, too! Leave the stew uncovered and cook it on high for 15-20 more minutes.
- Adjust & serve. The stew will thicken up, then it’s time to taste and add more salt and pepper if you’d like. Once it’s good to go, serve it up warm with some fresh thyme!
Three keys to the best slow cooker chicken stew
This cozy stew is easy to make, but don’t forget these tips for making it extra delicious:
- Sear the chicken. I know it might be tempting to just add the chicken right to your slow cooker for ease, but searing it in a skillet beforehand truly gives it the best flavor. Don’t skip it!
- Cook it low & slow. Yes, you can cook the chicken stew on high for 4-5 hours, but I really do like to cook it low and slow for that 7-8 hours to help the flavors really meld together. It’s a labor of love but SO worth it!
- Don’t skip the thickening. Instead of dumping flour and milk right into the stew (uh oh) be sure you whisk the two with that 1/2 cup of broth. Otherwise, you’ll end up with chunks of flour in the stew.
Storing this stew for later
- To store: store any leftover slow cooker white wine chicken stew in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. Simply reheat in the microwave or in a pot on the stovetop.
- To freeze: let the healthy chicken stew cool completely, transfer it to a freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, let the stew thaw in the refrigerator overnight before heating it in the microwave or on the stovetop.
Our fav ways to serve this chicken stew
What’s a cozy stew without some delicious sides? Here are some of our fav things to serve with a hearty bowl:
- Toasted french bread
- Homemade fluffy cornbread (or pumpkin cornbread muffins)
- Easy paleo crackers
- Buttermilk biscuits
- Brussels Sprouts Kale Honeycrisp Apple Salad (for a little freshness)
More healthy comfort foods you’ll love
- Spicy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sour Cream Sauce
- Groovy Skillet Chicken with Thyme Parmesan Mushroom Gravy
- One Pot Cheesy Mushroom Spinach Beef Pasta
- Blow Ya Mind Cheddar Broccoli Chicken Pot Pie
- Healthy Tuna Noodle Casserole
Get all of our comfort food recipes here!
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I hope you love this slow cooker white wine chicken stew! If you make it be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Slow Cooker White Wine Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
- 2 cups chicken broth
- ½ cup dry white wine*
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce**
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (fresh is best!)
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme (fresh is best!)
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- Lots of freshly ground black pepper
- 6 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1 large yellow onion, cut into chunks
- 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch diagonal slices
- 1 pound yukon gold potatoes, diced into ½ inch cubes
- ¼ cup all purpose flour (or sub all purpose gluten free flour)
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk (or heavy cream or regular milk will work)
- ⅔ cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a large skillet and place over high heat. Add chicken pieces and generously season with salt and pepper, brown the meat so that you give the meat room for a nice sear. This should take about 5-6 minutes. You do not need to cook all the way through, we just want these nice and browned. Transfer to a large 6 or 8-quart slow cooker.
- Next add the following to the slow cooker with the chicken: chicken broth, dry white wine, worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, thyme, rosemary, dried oregano and salt and pepper. Stir together with the chicken until combined, then add in garlic, onion chunks, carrots and diced potatoes. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. I prefer to cook this slow and low so that the chicken flavors really come out and the flavors have time to meld together, so 7-8 hours is really best for flavor here!
- Next, remove 1/2 cup of chicken broth from the slow cooker and transfer to a medium bowl, then stir in ½ cup of milk and whisk in ¼ cup flour until there aren’t any lumps remaining. Add mixture back to the slow cooker and stir to combine. Stir in frozen peas and cook uncovered on HIGH for 15-20 more minutes until chicken stew thickens up a bit. Taste and season with more salt and pepper, if necessary. Serve immediately with fresh thyme, toasted french bread, cornbread, crackers, or even buttermilk biscuits. Serves 4.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on October 25th, 2021, republished on January 8th, 2022, republished on January 8th, 2023, and republished on January 4th, 2024.
If you don’t want as much prep work, I put frozen chicken breast straight into the crockpot with shredded carrots. I diced the potatoes and onion and stuck everything right in. I had dried rosemary (thankfully because fresh herbs definitely made a difference) but I used ground thyme (1/2 tsp). Once the chicken was cooked in the crockpot pot, I took it out to shred it then put it back in. It turned out delicious! Very savory and nutritious! Our house smelled great while it was cooking! This is a recipe I will hang onto.
Love it! Great tips!
This was so easy to make! And absolutely delicious! Can’t wait to make it again.
So glad you enjoyed!
I loved this recipe, as did my husband who is typically not a stew guy. I’m going to add this to our dinner rotation, as well as store some in the freezer for postpartum (I’m currently pregnant). Looking forward to eating this again!
So happy to hear that! It’ll be a wonderful postpartum meal 🙂
Delicious stew! So nice to eat in winter after a long day. Prep time only took me 10 minutes so I feel like I missed something, because so many reviews say they spent an hour prepping.
I always find this so easy, too! Glad you enjoyed!
My family and I love this creamy chicken stew! It has so much flavor. It’s so easy to throw everything in the crockpot! Thank you!
So happy to hear that!
With the exception of dried herbs for fresh, recipe was followed as written. Cook time was accurate. Results were acceptable but bland and uninspired. Served to guests and wished I hadn’t. Will not keep recipe.
Sorry to hear that! I’m not sure what could’ve gone wrong here as so many readers (and my family) find this delicious and flavorful.
This is honestly the only crockpot meal I would ever serve to guests. It is delicious! I stretch the recipe a bit farther by adding celery, leeks, and white beans. I’ve even thrown in mushrooms.
Perfect! This one’s great for customizing 🙂
My first real attempt at a recipe. I saw this and knew it was perfect for dinner with son and family. I followed the recipe as precisely as I could, peeling and chopping and stripping leaves and weighing and measuring. My wife thought it was a Lot of effort for a simple stew. Let me tell you it was worth every minute of buying and preparing. It was praised by all, except 3 1/2 year old grandson, who ate home made bread and butter, then chocolate pudding and trifle. I was unsure about an 8 hour cooking time, but I am more confident now. The smell wafting through our little bungalow was sublime. The flavour was amazing. Coupled with home made garlic bread, made with my own garlic confit I had a meal that I would have been happy to pay for in a restaurant. Thank you.
Sounds like the perfect dinner! I’m so happy you gave this one a try – it’s one of my family’s favorites, too 🙂
I made the soup following all of the directions and was not super happy with it. The prep time took me close to an hour, cutting up all the vegetables and getting everything else. It turned out good in the crockpot, but I wasn’t happy about the spices. It seemed the taste was a bit off.
Sorry to hear that you didn’t love this one! I’m not sure what flavors could’ve been off in here — it’s a reader fav on my site, but everyone’s taste preferences are different!
This was absolutely tremendous. I followed the recipe to almost a T. I did use actual heavy cream, but I let it cook on the stove for the majority of the afternoon (the chicken ended up shredding apart) and when I tell you that my friends and boyfriend could not get enough of this. Flavorful, hearty, perfect for a cold day (and the supper potion of our Lord of the Rings marathon). It’s just the chopping of the veggies and searing of the chicken that takes time but really I feel like you can get it on the stove in less than 30 minutes. Will make this again and again. Thank you!!
A winter (and Lord of the Rings) staple! I love it!
The flavours are absolutely DELICIOUS! I made on the stove instead of in the crockpot, so that might have affected it, but it didn’t have much broth and next time I would double the broth. Otherwise we enjoyed it very much.
Thank you!
I made this after a cold winter snowstorm. My family loved it and said it’s a keeper. I actually cooked it on the stovetop in my Dutch oven pot instead of the slow cooker and it still came out great!! I cooked it about 4-5 hours on Med-low. I used baby carrots & cut them in half diagonally but otherwise I followed the recipe. The heavy cream really changed the recipe to make a nice creamy sauce. It was delicious and perfect for these frigid days in the northeast. Great recipe!!
This sounds delicious in a snowstorm! Hope it kept you warm and cozy!
This is amazing! Curious if I could make this in a Dutch oven? I assume I would cook the chicken and veggies, let it simmer, then finish it off as mentioned in the directions?
Yes you definitely could!
I love this recipe and am wondering about using my InstaPot instead of a slow cooker. Any help would be awesome!!
I actually don’t own an Instant Pot, so I’m not sure what the instructions would be. Sorry!
You can absolutely make this in the pressure cooker. Saute the veggies and the chicken in the pressure cooker and then add everything but the flour and heavy cream. I don’t use flour. Instead, I made a cornstarch slurry with a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch and a couple of tablespoons of cold water and set that aside. I set the pressure cooker to 4 minutes. I find this timing gives the potatoes the perfect texture. Release the pressure and change to saute. I then add the heavy cream and the corn starch slurry and mix until thickened. You can always make a bit more corn starch slurry if it isn’t thick enough.
This meal was fantastic! Such simple ingredients but full of flavor. This meal was perfect for a cold night when you just want the perfect comfort food to warm you up. Coming home to this after cooking all day in the slow cooker was perfection. Highly recommend!
Absolutely! One of our go-to’s for winter 🙂
Delicious and so easy to make! I was out of worcestershire so I subbed in low sodium soy sauce. The flavor was warm and comforting, perfect on a cold, January night. This will go into the regular rotation.
Perfect swap! Glad you enjoyed!
This was absolutely amazing!! Made this for my grandparents and I. We used a full carton of chicken broth though. We also added celery, and used dry herbs since we didn’t have fresh. Since we had to use chicken breasts we added about a tbsp of chicken bouillon like an earlier comment suggested. Since we added the rest of the chicken broth, I added maybe a heaping tbsp of more flour and although the consistency was of course, thinner- it was still an amazing comforting stew. We ate it with sourdough bread too. Will absolutely be making this again!
Perfect! So glad it was a hit!
Do you have to add flour or can i leave that out?
The flour is what will thicken it into a creamy stew, but if you’d like it to just be “broth-y” you can omit it.
This is one of my favorite slow cooker meals ever! I want to make it for a larger dinner party and was wondering how to double it?
One of mine, too! Feel free to double all of the ingredients if you have a large enough slow cooker.
What kind of wine do you use? Like a Pinot Grigio or Sav blanc. Please help.
A dry pinot grigio or sauv blanc are perfect!
This recipe was easy to follow and the stew is delicious!
So glad you loved it!
I’m trying to make this gluten free. How do I substitute the flour mixture at the end? Can I use corn starch or gluten free flour?
Feel free to use all-purpose gluten-free flour!
I have a 7 or 8 quart crockpot. What size is yours with this recipe?
It’s an 8 quart!
This was so good! I love the wine in the sauce. Perfect for the cold, rainy day we had in Massachusetts yesterday!
Absolutely! One of our favorite cold-weather meals 🙂
Could this be made on the stovetop in a Dutch oven instead of in a slow cooker? Any adjustments?
Yes! Many readers have made it on the stovetop successfully. Here’s what they did: “cook the cut up chicken pieces first to brown them until they aren’t pink, then remove them from the pot. Cook the carrots, onion, and garlic until soft and then deglaze the pot with the white wine. Next, add the potatoes, broth, herbs/seasoning, worcestershire, balsamic and the chicken – bring to a boil uncovered, then cover and simmered it for maybe 45 mins-1 hr. Lastly, add the milk/broth/flour mixture and peas and cook on high for 10 minutes.”
Will this fit in a 4 quart slow cooker?
I *think* you could get away with it, but it might get a bit too full. You could try halving the recipe for a smaller slow cooker 🙂
Made this last night and it is amazing fresh herby and savory! It was hard to stop eating 🤣 lol highly recommend! The prep time is more like an hr but so worth it and still simple! It will look like u need to dbl to be broth in the beginning but trust the process because it came out perfect 😍 👌🏻 I guess the chicken or something releases fluid so even though you can barely see the liquid when it starts it will be enough and you will get perfectly cooked everything with the glossy delicious texture ❤️
Yes, always trust the process! So glad you enjoyed!
I knew from looking at the recipe that it would taste good. But, it was much better than good. Prep was fairly simple, too. Just had to remember to pick up some wine. You won’t be disappointed.
So glad you enjoyed!
This dish is amazing. I have made it several times. Do you think I could make it in the instant pot? I want to make it for a fall girls night but I wont have all day to do it in a slow cooker as I will be traveling to the event.
Thanks for the amazing recipe! Could I use coconut milk, instead of almond milk, or will this significantly change the flavour & you not recommend it? Thank you!
I think that should work, just be aware that the coconut milk might add a bit of sweetness!
This stew was so delicious! I left the chicken thighs whole when I was browing them, then shredded them at the end (really they fell apart they were so tender). After browning the thighs I deglazed the pan with the wine and broth. The flour mixture at the end made the stew a perfect consistency.
Perfect! Such a great cozy dinner!
This stew was so delicious! When I seared the chicken thighs I left them whole because I was feeling lazy. I shredded them (really they fell apart) at the end before serving. I also deglazed the skillet with the wine and chicken broth before adding it to the slow cooker. The flour mixture at the end made it a perfect consistency.
Made this for first time today. Delicious and easy. Great to come home to wonderful aroma of the stew cooking and dinner ready in the 20 minutes to thicken the sauce. Followed the recipe except for the peas. Will definitely make again
Absolutely! Glad you enjoyed!
This was so delicious and comforting! I followed the recipe exactly (including the suggestion of also adding some mushrooms) and it turned out beautifully. Mine wasn’t quite a thick as these pictures seem, so I think I might do more flour mixture or a little bit of instant potatoes. But absolutely no complaints here! Fantastic
Love that! Glad you enjoyed 🙂 And yes, feel free to make more of that flour mixture if you’d like, and let it cook a bit with the lid off to thicken up more!
I’ve made this twice now – in a Dutch oven – and it’s been outstanding each time. Like all of your recipes, Monique, so tasty, nutritious, and easy-to-make. Another family favorite!
So happy to hear that!
I made this tonight in my slow cooker and doubled the recipe -it truly was the best chicken stew recipe I have ever made and/or tasted. So delicious! I reduced the wine and then at the end I added cream instead of milk. Great recipe! Thank you!
Amazing! So happy to hear that!
I’ve made this recipe in a crockpot and on the stove in my cast iron and it turns out so great every time. It’s very forgiving also so if you don’t get all the steps just right it’s great anyway. Highly recommend!
Absolutely! Glad you love this one!
So easy to prepare & so warming on a freezing winter day!
Absolutely! One of our favs for colder months 🙂
This is my first cooking review. I followed your recipe with all the seasonings but added a little extra. That’s what I do. I also added spinach, small white beans and string beans. (it needed a little green) The smell and taste was delicious without the cream mixture. I did combined the flour with the broth to make it a little thicker. I will make this again and highly recommend it.
Perfect! Those additions sound delicious 🙂
Is there a type of wine that you used or prefer?
A pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc will both work well!
I made this today, using Pinot Grigio wine. I also added some celery and used peeled russet potatoes but other than that followed the recipe. It was very good and had a little sweetness to the broth. Would certainly recommend as a good winter meal.
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed!