Chicken · Slow cooker adaptation

Chicken & Sausage Cacciatore (Slow Cooker)

Backyard Chef Rick's rustic Sunday-style chicken and sausage cacciatore, browned hard then braised with peppers, onion and a tin of tomatoes. Adapted for the slow cooker so the chicken thighs go meltingly tender and the sauce thickens on its own time.

R By Richard · Adapted from Backyard Chef · Published 16 June 2026
👁 23.7k source views ❤️ 1.7k source likes
⏱Prep 25 min
🍲Slow cook 6 hr (Low) / 3 hr (High)
🍽Serves 4
This Chicken & Sausage One Pot Is Unreal... Look At That Sauce!

Source video by Backyard Chef on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.

Rick at Backyard Chef calls this his rustic Sunday-style cacciatore. Chicken thighs (bone in, skin on) brown skin-side down for five or six minutes, then the Italian sausages take a turn in the pan. The fond goes to work softening sliced onion and bell peppers, garlic in for 30 seconds, then a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tablespoon of tomato puree and chicken stock build the sauce. Chilli flakes, oregano (or Italian seasoning), a pinch of sugar and an optional splash of balsamic round it out. Originally a hob job, lid-on 30 minutes then lid-off 10. Adapted for the slow cooker: brown on the hob as Rick does, transfer the lot, then Low 5-6 hours or High 3 hours.

Slow cooker notes: Original is a hob braise (lid on 30 min, lid off 10). Adapted to Low 5-6 hours so the bone-in thighs collapse and the sausage flavours into the sauce. Keep the searing step on the hob: skin-side-down browning of the chicken and the colour on the sausages is where the depth comes from, and the slow cooker won't brown. Pour off excess fat as Rick does, but keep the fond and deglaze it with the stock when you tip the base into the slow cooker. Lid stays on for the full slow cook; if the sauce is too loose at the end, decant into a saucepan and reduce on the hob for 5-10 minutes (the lid-off step in the original).

Ingredients

Main
  • chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
  • Italian sausages, cut into chunks after browning
  • onion, sliced (not diced)
  • bell peppers (capsicum), sliced, seeds removed
  • jarred cherry peppers, sliced, seeds removed
  • garlic
  • 1 tintinned tomatoes (chopped or whole), with juice; chop if whole
  • 1 tbsptomato puree
  • chicken stock
  • 0.5 cupwhite wine (alternative to stock)
Seasoning
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • chilli flakes
  • Italian seasoning (or dried oregano with rosemary and thyme)
  • sugar
  • balsamic vinegar
To serve
  • fresh greens (parsley or basil), chopped (add late)
  • buttered crusty bread, rice, pasta or mash (add late)

Method

  1. Slice the onion and the peppers into rustic slices, not dice. Take the seeds out of the peppers if you prefer.

    ~5 min

  2. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper on both sides.

    ~1 min

  3. Heat olive oil in a wide pan or casserole over a medium-high heat. Lay the chicken thighs in skin-side down. Brown for about 5-6 minutes, turn, brown the other side, then lift the chicken out.

    ~12 min

  4. Drop the Italian sausages into the same pan and brown all over. Lift them out alongside the chicken.

    ~6 min

  5. Pour off most of the rendered fat, leaving the fond stuck to the pan. Return the pan to the heat.

    ~1 min

  6. Add the sliced onion and let it pick up the fond from the base. Add the sliced peppers and cook for a minute or two; do not overcook them, they will finish in the slow cooker.

    ~4 min

  7. Clear a space in the pan, add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Season with salt, black pepper, chilli flakes (if using) and the Italian seasoning (or dried oregano with rosemary and thyme).

    ~1 min

  8. Tip in the tinned tomatoes with their juice (chop them in the pan if whole). Stir in the tablespoon of tomato puree. Add a pinch of sugar and a splash of balsamic if using.

    ~2 min

  9. Pour in the chicken stock (or half a cup of white wine if you prefer the wine version) and bring to a simmer, scraping anything still on the base into the sauce.

    ~3 min

  10. Chop the browned sausages into bite-sized chunks. Transfer the pan contents and the sausage chunks into the slow cooker, then nestle the browned chicken thighs in skin-side up.

    ~3 min

  11. Lid on. Cook on Low for 5-6 hours or High for 3 hours, until the chicken is tender and pulling from the bone.

    ~360 min

  12. If the sauce is looser than you like at the end, decant it into a saucepan (leaving the chicken and sausage in the slow cooker on Warm) and reduce on the hob for 5-10 minutes. This is the lid-off finish from the original recipe.

    ~10 min

  13. Serve with a little chopped fresh green on top and hot buttered crusty bread, rice, pasta or mash to catch the sauce.

    ~2 min

Frequently asked

Can I skip the searing step?
Not on this one. The depth of flavour in cacciatore comes from the colour on the chicken skin and the sausages, and from the fond they leave in the pan. A slow cooker can't brown, so the hob sear is the only way to get that into the dish. Twenty minutes well spent.
Wine or stock?
The host uses chicken stock and says he doesn't want to open a bottle for half a cup. If you have wine open, half a cup of dry white in place of (or alongside) the stock works as he describes.
Do I need the jarred cherry peppers?
No. They are optional even in the original. Bell peppers alone carry the dish.
Should I add the sausage later?
The host says you can if you want. For the slow cooker version, adding them at the start lets the sausage flavour the sauce; if you'd rather keep the sausage firmer, slice and stir them in during the last hour.
Extraction notes (transparency): Backyard Chef talks the method on camera but states almost no measured quantities. Grounded numbers: 1 tin of tomatoes, 1 tbsp tomato puree, 30 minutes lid-on simmer, 10 minutes lid-off, around 5-6 minutes browning the chicken skin-side, 30 seconds on the garlic. Half a cup of white wine is mentioned only as the wine alternative to stock; the actual stock quantity is not stated. All ingredient amounts (chicken thighs, sausages, onion, peppers, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, chilli flakes, oregano, sugar, balsamic, stock) are null because the host did not state them. Servings defaulted to 4 from typical one-pot scale, not stated.