Delicious and tender crock pot chicken fajitas have all those great fajita flavors but none of the work—an easy recipe for an excellent Mexican dinner. Let the crock pot do the work and skip any marinading or sauteing.
Introduction
All you will need is some raw chicken, bell peppers, and pantry ingredients for an easy slow cooker dinner dish for busy weeknights.
I always search for good recipes and extra points for Mexican, crockpot, or chicken. I have a triple-winner here.
Inspired by a chicken fajita recipe from Allrecipe.com that is originally from Reynolds foil—trying to get you to use their crockpot liners. I skipped the liner and made a few other changes.
With only four main ingredients plus a few spices, even the most inexperienced home cook can handle it. Everybody will want the recipe, and the family will love it.
Serve on tortillas, in burrito bowls, or on salads. Goes well for low-fat, keto, or low-carb diets.
👨🍳How to make this recipe
- Trim 1 ½ to 2 pounds of raw chicken into chunks if using shredded chicken or sliced thin.
- Prep 2-3 bell peppers and slice a large onion.
- To a smaller crock pot, add salsa and mix in the spices.
- Push the trimmed chicken into the salsa mixture and coat.
- Add the bell pepper and onion.
- Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours until chicken reaches 165°.
- If shredding chicken, remove the chunks, shred, and then place back into the crock pot for 20 minutes.
- Serve with tortillas and toppings of your choice.
🐓Ingredients
Chicken
Skinless boneless chicken breasts are a good choice, but you can substitute skinless thighs or even chicken tenders. To have shredded chicken, trim the chicken into a couple of chunks and remove the chicken to shred near the end of cooking.
If you want chicken slices, cut the chicken cross-grain and only about ¼ to ⅜ inch thick. If the breast is thick, filet them first. Finally, trim the length across the grain to keep them about 1 inch or a little longer.
You can use precooked chicken, cut up, or shredded. Use 3 to 4 cups and put it in the crockpot, and mix well at about 75% into cooking.
Salsa
Salsa adds a lot of great taste most other similar recipes lack. You can also use diced tomatoes with green chilies (RoTel), or for a blander taste, use diced tomatoes.
Bell Peppers
Use 2 to 3 bell peppers—I like to use various colors. Two is enough for this recipe but only use one if cut in half. If you want more vegetables, use three peppers.
Spices
For that classic Tex-Mex taste, add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder.
You can use a premade fajita or taco seasoning, but most of them are primarily fillers and will not add much taste.
To adjust the "heat" of the fajitas, you can change up the salsa or add a little cayenne pepper.
❓FAQs
This recipe fits nicely in a 3 ½ quart crockpot. You can use a bigger crockpot if you want. If you are making a double recipe, use a 6-quart or larger crockpot.
Use finishing ingredients, like corn or flour tortillas, cheese, lime juice, cilantro, and sour cream.
Common sided-dishes are guacamole, sliced avocado, pico de Gallo, salsa, refried beans, Mexican rice, or black beans.
Leftovers are excellent warmed up or served on a green salad.
When you start cooking this recipe, it will look like it needs added liquid like chicken broth. But moisture is released from the chicken and the bell peppers leading to excess liquid at the end of cooking.
Remove the chicken and vegetables from the crock pot with a slotted spoon and allow any liquid to drain back into the crock pot. When all the solids are removed, discard the liquid.
Good refrigerated in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Reheat in the microwave, stovetop, or oven.
Good in the freezer for 2-3 months, but thaw overnight in a refrigerator before reheating.
📖Chicken Fajita Recipes
Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
Grilled Chicken Fajitas in 30 Minutes
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Use the raw chicken you want—skinless boneless chicken breasts, thighs, or chicken tenders.
Trim 1 ½ to 2 pounds of skinless boneless chicken breasts. You can just cut them into a few chunks of shredding later in the recipe. Or, if using strips of chicken, cut the chicken cross-grain and only about ¼ to ⅜ inch thick.
Chop 2-3 bell peppers color of your choice—slice 1 large onion into thin rings.
Add ¾ cup salsa to a smaller crockpot. Mix in 4 teaspoons of chili powder. Add 1 teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and cumin. Mix well and spread over the bottom evenly.
Add chicken to the salsa, coat the chicken, and then top with all the veggies.
Cook on high for 2 ½ - 3 hours or low heat for 4 - 6 hours. It is done when the chicken is 165°, and the vegetables are tender.
If you want shredded chicken, pull out the chunks of chicken and shred. Mix back into the crock pot and cook for another 15 minutes or more.
Remove from crockpot with a slotted spoon and serve with tortillas and toppings of choice.
📝Recipe
Easy Crockpot Chicken Fajitas
Ingredients
- 1 ½ to 2 pounds Chicken - breasts, tenders, or thighs
- ¾ cup salsa
- 2-3 bell peppers - color of your choice
- 1 onion - large sliced thin
- 4 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- tortillas and toppings for serving
Instructions
- Trim 1 ½ to 2 pounds of skinless boneless chicken breasts. You can just cut them into a few chunks of shredding later in the recipe. Or, if using strips of chicken, cut the chicken cross-grain and only about ¼ to ⅜ inch thick.
- Chop 2-3 bell peppers color of your choice—slice 1 large onion into thin rings.
- Add ¾ cup salsa to a smaller crockpot. Mix in 4 teaspoons of chili powder. Add 1 teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and cumin. Mix well and spread over the bottom evenly.
- Add chicken to the salsa, coat the chicken, and then top with all the veggies.
- Cook on high for 2 ½ - 3 hours or low heat for 4 - 6 hours. It is done when the chicken is 165°, and the vegetables are tender.
- If you want shredded chicken, pull out the chunks of chicken and shred. Mix back into the crock pot and cook for another 15 minutes or more.
- Remove from crockpot with a slotted spoon and serve with tortillas and toppings of choice.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- You can use the chicken you like. Skinless boneless chicken breast or chicken tenders are mostly used. You can use thighs but will need to cook a bit longer to about 180°.
- You can use precooked chicken, cut up, or shredded. Use 3 to 4 cups and put it in the crockpot and mix well at about 75% into cooking.
- This fits nicely in a 3 ½ quart crockpot but can be cooked in a larger crockpot. If doing a double batch, use a 6-quart or larger.
- Cooking time varies due to crockpot variations. Cook on high for 2 ½ - 3 hours or low heat 4 - 6 hours. It is done when the chicken is 165° and the vegetables are tender.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days. Reheat in a microwave.
- Good frozen sealed well for 2-3 months.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
© 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.
Editor's Note: Originally Published July 30, 2016. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Nancy
very good
Laurie
I made this a few days ago and we loved it. It was tasty, not too spicy and simple to prepare. The only problem with it is the favorable smell went thru the house! We had some leftover to freeze which made us very happy!
Thank you!
marcy youker
love your recipes, I usually cut them down for 2, thanks, keep up the good work!
Johnny
How wide do you slice your chicken strips? Yours look pretty wide in the photo. Also, yours look a lot longer than 1" in the photo. Is the idea to cut them into eatable strips before cooking like you would if you were making fajitas in a skillet, or do you cut the chicken up a bit after it has cooked? By the way, I love your Easy Chicken Fajitas, but I just wanted to try them in the crockpot. Thanks.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Johnny,
Welcome to the blog. I break up the chicken some after cooking with a spoon. My wife likes what she calls "chunky shred". But cut them up a bit before cooking if you want.
Dan