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    Home » Recipes » Chicken Recipes

    Slow Cooker Chicken Merlot

    Published: Jan 11, 2023 by Chef Dennis Littley

    187 shares
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    • Yummly
    4.95 from 54 votes
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    Pinterest image for Chicken Merlot

    Slow Cooker Chicken Merlot is a hearty and delicious dish that requires very little prep time. After cutting up the vegetables for this tasty chicken stew, just set the timer and let the slow cooker do the rest.

    chicken merlot on a white platter

    Using your slow cooker to make Chicken Merlot not only makes cooking this delicious dish easy, it also allows the flavors to build during the slow cooking process.

    Another favorite chicken dish is Coq au Vin. It’s not a slow cooker recipe but its amazingly delicious.

    Chicken Merlot over rice on a white plate

    Not a fan of Merlot? Use your favorite red wine to make this dish.

    Ingredients for Chicken Merlot

    ingredients to make recipe

    Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make Slow Cooker Chicken Merlot. In Chef Speak, this is called the “Mise en Place,” which translates to “Everything in its Place.”

    Not only does setting up your ingredients ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.

    Simple Ingredients

    • chicken pieces
    • onion
    • mushrooms
    • carrots
    • celery
    • cannellini beans
    • garlic cloves
    • tomato paste
    • merlot or dry red wine of your choice
    • chicken broth
    • dried basil or fresh basil
    • salt
    • black pepper

    How to prepare Merlot Sauce

    collage showing how to prepare merlot sauce
    • Add the tomato paste, red wine, chicken broth and spices to a small bowl.
    • Whisk the ingredients together until well blended.

    How to make Slow Cooker Chicken Merlot

    collage showing how to make the recipe
    • Add the chopped vegetables and cannellini beans to the slow cooker.
    • Place the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables.
    • Pour the red wine mixture over top of the chicken. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 hours or high-heat setting for 2 ½ hours.

    Remove vegetables and chicken when the cooking has completed. Cover both and keep warm while you finish the sauce.

    collage showing how to finish merlot sauce.
    • Pour all liquid from the slow cooker into a saucepan.
    • Heat the sauce over medium-high heat until it begins to boil, then reduce the heat to medium, cooking long enough to reduce the sauce by half, until the sauce is thick and clingy.
    ladle adding sauce to chicken on a white platter

    Place the mushroom mixture on top of a serving platter, topped with the chicken pieces and ladle the sauce over the chicken.

    chicken merlot on a white serving platter

    Serve the Chicken Merlot with roasted potatoes, rice, or your favorite grain. You’re going to love this slow cooker recipe.

    Recipe FAQ’s

    What can I do with leftover merlot wine?

    If you are not wine drinkers and find yourself with leftover wine, freeze the wine in an ice cube tray. When the wine has completely frozen, pop out the wine cubes and store in a ziplock bag in the freezer. The next time you need a little wine for a dish you can defrost a few of the wine cubes.

    What are the best chicken parts to cook in a slow cooker?

    When it comes down to slow cooking, dark meat is the chicken of choice. This recipes uses a whole chicken, but can be made using chicken thighs and chicken legs. Dark meat holds up better in a slow cooker. Chicken breasts will tend to dry out a bit from the extended cooking time.

    More Slow-Cooker Recipes

    • Slow Cooker Beef Brisket with Barbecue Sauce
    • Easy Slow Cooker Chinese Sticky Ribs
    • The Best Slow Cooker Guinness Beef Ribs
    • Slow Cooker Texas Pulled Pork

    Did you make this? Please RATE THE RECIPE below!

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    chicken merlot on a white platter
    Print Recipe Save Saved!
    4.95 from 54 votes

    Slow Cooker Chicken Merlot

    Looking for that perfect week night meal? Using a slow cooker to make Chicken Merlot is not only easy, but a great way to allow flavors to build gradually during the slow cooking process.
    Prep Time20 mins
    Cook Time5 hrs
    Total Time5 hrs 20 mins
    Course: Entree
    Cuisine: American, French
    Servings: 4
    Calories: 648kcal
    Author: Chef Dennis Littley

    Ingredients

    • 3½ lbs whole chicken cut into pieces (or parts of your choice) skin removed
    • 1 large onion rough cut into chunks
    • 16 ounces mushrooms cut in half or quarters
    • 3 carrots peeled and rough cut
    • 5 stalks celery large slice
    • 16 ounces cannellini beans drained and rinsed
    • 4 cloves garlic peeled but left whole
    • 6 ounces tomato paste
    • 8 ounces merlot or red wine of your choice
    • 8 ounces chicken broth
    • 1 teaspoons dried basil
    • ½ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
    • ¼ teaspoon black pepper more or less to taste
    US Customary – Metric
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Add the tomato paste, red wine, chicken broth and spices to a small bowl
    • .Whisk the ingredients together until well blended.
    • Remove vegetables and chicken when the cooking has completed. Cover both and keep warm while you finish the sauce.
    • Add the chopped vegetables and cannellini beans to the slow cooker.
    • Place the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables.
    • Pour the red wine mixture over top of the chicken.
    • Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 hours or high-heat setting for 2 ½ hours.
    • Remove the vegetables and chicken from the slow cooker and cover to keep warm.
    • Pour all liquid from the slow cooker into a saucepan.
    • Heat the sauce over medium-high heat until it begins to boil, then reduce the heat to medium, cooking long enough to reduce the sauce by half, until the sauce is thick and clingy.
    • Place the mushroom mixture on top of a serving platter, topped with the chicken pieces and ladle the sauce over the chicken.
    • Serve the Chicken Merlot with roasted potatoes, rice, or your favorite grain. You’re going to love this slow cooker recipe.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 648kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 49g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 144mg | Sodium: 1296mg | Potassium: 1586mg | Fiber: 11g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 8787IU | Vitamin C: 23mg | Calcium: 170mg | Iron: 7mg
    Tried this Recipe? Pin it for Later!Mention @askChefDennis or tag #askChefDennis!

    More Chicken Recipes

    • Chicken Milanese
    • Three Bean Chicken Chili
    • Easy Honey Garlic Chicken
    • Baked BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

    About Chef Dennis

    Picture of Chef Dennis

    Chef Dennis is a semi-retired Chef, writer/blogger, photographer, recipe developer and creator of A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis aka Ask Chef Dennis®. Chef Dennis worked professionally in White Table Cloth Restaurants for 40 years and has been developing easy to make, restaurant-style recipes since 2009. The second phase of his reinvention from chef to blogger has earned him a place at the Worlds Dinner Table. Join him on his Culinary Journey enjoying his easy to make Restaurant Style recipes and travel adventures. For more details, check out his About page.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Patricia

      July 16, 2021 at 12:15 am

      5 stars
      I’m vegetarian, so I only did the sauce with veggies. It was delicious! I used mushrooms, carrots and green beans. Thank you!

      Reply
    2. Sondra Barker

      January 12, 2021 at 8:22 pm

      5 stars
      Yum! The perfect dinner recipe!

      Reply
    3. Kristina

      January 12, 2021 at 7:21 pm

      5 stars
      Love this- it’s so nice to find a slow coooker recipe that isn’t stew or soup!

      Reply
    4. Leslie

      January 12, 2021 at 3:22 pm

      5 stars
      Stunning recipe that is slow-cooked to perfection!

      Reply
    5. Marina

      January 12, 2021 at 9:29 am

      5 stars
      Love this chicken recipe! Exactly what I needed during this winter month!

      Reply
    6. Alexandra

      January 11, 2021 at 6:34 pm

      5 stars
      Such a delicious dish – full of flavour!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        March 25, 2021 at 9:01 am

        This is a fabulous recipe, but I wonder if you used only 6oz of wine and 6Oz of broth you would not have to boil down the sauce as much at the end? Would this greatly impact the flavours? Thanks!

        Reply
        • Chef Dennis Littley

          March 25, 2021 at 10:17 am

          hi Elaine

          starting with more and reducing the sauce adds extra flavor to the sauce. You can of course reduce the amounts in the beginning and skip the reduction.

    7. Akiko

      January 11, 2021 at 5:50 pm

      5 stars
      I’m glad I found this chicken recipe. I needed more slow-cooker recipes to add to my rotation and this is perfect and delicious!

      Reply
    8. Emily Woodward

      January 11, 2021 at 4:45 pm

      5 stars
      mmm, I cannot get enough of this recipe. It’s delicious. Thanks for sharing

      Reply
    9. Elizabeth

      January 11, 2021 at 3:10 pm

      5 stars
      Fabulous recipe! So delicious!

      Reply
    10. Raquel

      January 11, 2021 at 2:04 pm

      5 stars
      So much flavor and love that I can use my slow cooker or this!

      Reply
    11. Andrea

      November 18, 2020 at 8:34 pm

      This is One of the best recipes I have ever made. It was delicious
      I just fried everything a little before putting into slow cooker
      I give it 5 stars

      Reply
    12. John

      May 05, 2020 at 12:36 pm

      It would be nice to see British units (Kg ml etc) given so us in the UK can follow the recipie

      Reply
      • Chef Dennis Littley

        May 05, 2020 at 1:04 pm

        If you look under the ingredients there is an option for metric. I’m slowly updating each recipe to include the equivalents.

        Reply
    13. Joel

      January 19, 2020 at 6:10 pm

      The flavor of the sauce was superb but I felt like never got it to the right consistency even I certainly reduced it by half or more. Maybe my expectations were wrong though. I was thinking The sauce would be more thick like a gravy or pudding but mine was more Soupy. I’m a big sauce guy though so maybe I just expected it to be saucier than it was meant to be. If I make it again I may try to make extra sauce.

      Reply
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