Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken

Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken is made with just five ingredients in your slow cooker. Sticky, garlicky, sweet fall apart bacon and chicken.

Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken close up
Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken

Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken is right in line with all the bacon brown sugar goodness on the blog. It is hard to argue with these magic ingredients working well together. Let’s take a ride down memory lane together!

This may shock you because how many ways can this be done? But yes, bacon, chicken, slow cooker goodness. This feels like one of those toys you buy where you can swap out all the clothing pieces individually on the magnet doll.

And yes, salmon version coming in the new year along with a whole chicken, chicken wings and more.

Look I can’t even say I haven’t enjoyed making and eating all the versions. They are DELICIOUS!

Plus they’re so easy its amost funny. I mean this one is six ingredients if you count salt and pepper. I don’t but according to this Facebook video I posted for the chicken tenders people were pretty mad at me for not counting salt and pepper. I called shenanigans and no one thought I was funny, haha.

Some notes about this Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken:

  • Make it in the oven: Set it on a sheet pan just like you would in the slow cooker and roast at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes (you may want to use foil).
  • Like things spicy? Add in crushed red pepper or a squirt of Sriracha.
  • Do you like a deeper, more molasses kind of flavor? Try dark brown sugar.
  • Do not add any liquid! I know it can be scary to cook dry in a slow cooker, the chicken will release a lot of liquids.

Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken in pot

Tools Used in the making of these Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken:
Slow Cooker: Love this slow cooker and how programmable it is, it has been a workhorse for me… until…
My New Slow Cooker: This recipe was made in this slow cooker. For larger roasts I also brown the meat in the insert and not lose a bunch of the flavor by transferring the meat and leaving the browned bits behind. If you’re thinking of a new slow cooker, consider it if your budget is open.

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Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken is made with just five ingredients in your slow cooker. Sticky, garlicky, sweet fall apart bacon and chicken goodness.
4.89 from 17 votes
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Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken

Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken is made with just five ingredients in your slow cooker. Sticky, garlicky, sweet fall apart bacon and chicken.
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword crock pot chicken, crockpot sweet garlic chicken, slow cooker bacon brown sugar garlic chicken
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 5 minutes
Servings 5 Servings
Calories 379 kcal
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients

  • 5 chicken thighs
  • 2 tablespoons garlic , minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 10 slices bacon
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar , packed

Instructions

  1. Add the chicken, salt, pepper and garlic to the slow cooker.
  2. Mix it up then flip the chicken skin side up.
  3. Wrap each thigh in two slices of bacon.
  4. Sprinkle on the brown sugar.
  5. Cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 5-6 hours.

Recipe Notes

In case you find the chicken is not as caramelized in your slow cooker as the photos it could be your slow cooker runs a little cooler than mine. In that case put the chicken on a sheet pan and cook under a broiler for 45-90 seconds while watching it like a hawk to and removing before your garlic starts burning.

Nutrition Facts
Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken
Amount Per Serving
Calories 379 Calories from Fat 198
% Daily Value*
Fat 22g34%
Saturated Fat 7g44%
Cholesterol 136mg45%
Sodium 629mg27%
Potassium 396mg11%
Carbohydrates 16g5%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 14g16%
Protein 28g56%
Vitamin A 45IU1%
Vitamin C 1mg1%
Calcium 30mg3%
Iron 1.2mg7%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken pin

6 ingredients in this Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken. SO EASY TO MAKE!
Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken is made with just five ingredients in your slow cooker. Sticky, garlicky, sweet fall apart bacon and chicken goodness.
The easiest most delicious slow cooker chicken recipe we've made with chicken, bacon, brown sugar and garlic!

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. This smelled amazing while it was cooking! I could not wait to taste this chicken. It did not disappoint. I was expecting a teriyaki flavor, but it was more smoky goodness. It looks, smells, and tastes like a lot of effort, but it was so easy. This will be my new go-to meal.

    1. I had 4 skinless, boneless breast…i cooked mine on high 4.5 hours. Turned out fantastic! This recipe is SO easy!!!

  2. This one is a KEEPER for us! We used boneless-stainless thighs (what we had), 8 with extra bacon but everything else. I paired it with boiled potatoes + califoria mixed veg.

  3. Made this earlier this week for a group of girlfriends (while husbands were out doing man things) . . . they absolutely devoured this very simple-to-make chicken dish. And my house smelled so-o-o-o good. Served with roasted whole cauliflower, hasselback potatoes, and green salad. Great, simple meal! Thank you, Sabrina!

  4. I made this last night for dinner for the second time. This time I precooked the bacon slightly before wrapping the chicken with it. It was amazing! The first time I made it the bacon wasn’t cooked @ 30 min and I didn’t want the chicken to dry out while the bacon finished cooking! I also added Gouda cheese on top of chicken before wrapping with bacon.

  5. I bought boneless, skinless turkey breasts as I prefer white meat. Will that still work ok with this recipe?

  6. Made this tonight for dinner and it is delicious! My 2 girls ate it up. I made it on a sheet pan and use boneless chicken thighs (the hubby doesn’t care for bone in). Served with your Stick of Butter Rice (chicken flavored) and steamed broccoli. Will make again with a squirt of Sriracha!

    1. So glad you enjoyed – thank you for coming back and leaving a review. Also, love how you shared that it was a complete meal. Thank you Deborah!

  7. Going to try this, this morning. Trying with breast chicken and a couple extra bacon, so moist. I think it will work. 81 years old looking for different taste in chicken recipes. My taste buds r not so good anymore. ???.

    1. It’s always a good time to switch up tastes in chicken and other recipes! 🙂 Hope it turned out good for you!

    1. A crock pot is the same as a slow cooker 🙂 They just have a different name, Crockpot is just the brand name for a slow cooker.

  8. In regards to your Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Bites recipe, is there a dipping sauce you would recommend to serve with these?

  9. In regards to your Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders recipe, can I use thick cut bacon or do I have to use regular cut bacon? We usually only buy thick cut so that is what I have on hand. Will this work or should I buy a different kind for your recipe?

    1. I would use regular bacon so that it cooks evenly. My concern is the thick cut bacon will take longer and won’t crisp up by the time the chicken is done.

  10. Loved it!!!! I only used 1T of garlic. The house smelled amazing and the food was excellent!! My husband and dad both said it was the best chicken recipe ever!!!!

  11. My mom only likes white meat so can I toss in a couple of breasts or will they turn out dry? I will be using the slow cooker.

    1. The bacon will help keep them moist but I definitely prefer thighs for a juicier piece. Enjoy!

  12. So when you say chicken thighs, you mean the kind with bone in and skin on, not skinless etc. correct?

  13. What would you recommend serving this with?
    Rice, pasta, chips etc?
    Trying this recipe out tomorrow, will update with results 🙂

    1. You could really serve this with just about anything your family enjoys. We usually serve it with rice and some type of vegetable. I hope you enjoy it!

  14. My husband and I have a small poultry farm. I used two fresh leg quarters in this recipe and baked it in the oven. It was delicious! I will try the slow cooker next time. I served this with brown rice and a wedge salad and it made a good meal that I would definitely serve when we had guests.

  15. This looks easy and delicious. Can you put more than 5 pieces in the crockpot? Do they have to be against the floor of the pot?

    Thanks!

  16. I don’t know what I did wrong. Maybe the pieces were too small? I used five thighs, as instructed but not even at six hours on low, it is burnt. I bought five, skinless thighs. It was just a little over a pound. I’m so bummed. This is my second try with the new crock pot. Maybe the pot is too big?

  17. Not yet but going to. I am by myself now as hubby passed away in May/2018. I always buy chicken and pork and sometimes fish. I can also cook beef now whereas when hubby was alive I gave up beef for over twenty years. I will not cook a lot of beef but will have it once in awhile. I have been glancing thru your recipes and I see many I want to try. Thanks for all your hard work putting them together for all us foodies. I have to shop tomorrow so will see what I have to add to my cupboard. Nothing I hate worse when you want to try out a new recipe and your out of some of the ingredients and have to run out to store. Thanks again you will be hearing from me.

    1. Thighs tend to stay juicer in the slow cooker so that’s why I usually recommend them. If you know it might be a bit drier, go ahead and use them. The bacon will help keep them more moist than usual.

    1. I don’t think the turkey bacon will work. It’s the fat from the bacon that keeps the chicken moist. If you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks!

    2. It turns out just fine, my wife doesn’t eat pork so I made this meal with chicken breast and Turkey bacon. It’s really good.

  18. This recipe was super easy and delicious! I used skinless boneless chicken thighs and baked it at 400 degrees for 30 minutes as instructed in your notes. Came out perfect! My family loved it! Thank you for sharing all these simple but tasty recipes!

  19. I made this dish in the oven last night. It was very, very good. However, I will take your and advice and add some spice the next. I served it with fresh sugar snaps which I steamed, a baked potato

  20. Made this for dinner tonight and it was fabulous! The chicken was so moist and the bacon gives it a delicious smoked flavor. Broiling it for 2 minutes really gives it a nice crispness…worth the extra time. Thanks for sharing!

  21. 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, or 2 teaspoons? I am afraid to overgarlic the chicken! I switched over to this recipe on your suggestion since I’m using chicken breasts. I plan to wrap each breast in bacon, but am worried about the amount of garlic. Help!

  22. The thighs were nice and juicy but honestly didn’t have much in terms of flavor. I had one thigh tonight but unfortunately I’m not looking over to my left overs like most crockpot recipes.

  23. I read after the fact, you wouldn’t recommend boneless chicken breast, but I had already started cooking the boneless chicken breast in the crockpot…it still turned out really good! My boyfriend said the chicken was so good and tender, he asked if we could cook chicken like that all the time, haha.

    1. I did the same thing just now. I prepared it all, turned on the slow-cooker and then came to read the comments. I had 2 really big, juicy boneless breasts that I lightly seasoned with garlic salt, onion powder and black pepper. Then wrapped them with one strip of bacon each. In to the pot with light pepper flakes, the salt, more pepper, then the sugar on top. I’ll take a picture and let all those like us see how that would look and taste.

  24. Alot of your recipes have Kosher salt where I’m from Australia, melbourne. I don’t believe this will b easy enough to find ? Or I have a feeling it will b super expensive ? Is there something I could use instead ? Would normal salt do ? Please what should I use.

    Thanks heaps for the help & the mouthwatering recipe

    1. I prefer Kosher salt because it’s much easier to pick up between my fingers and thus gives me tighter control over seasoning. I also like that it doesn’t have some of the additives that table salt includes. If you’re unable to find it, go ahead and substitute for table salt.

  25. so this looks delicious and I’m getting ready to put it in the Crock-Pot, do you think that fresh green beans in with the chicken would work and taste good and when would I put them in?

    1. Because bacon will help to keep the breasts moist, I think it should be fine. I prefer thighs because of the deeper flavor.

  26. Have to stop at the store on my way home tonight..going to put this all in the slow cooker in the am and dinner is done!

    What about doing this in an insta-pot?

    And I adore how your use of wrapping things in bacon… one can never have to much butter or bacon!

    1. I haven’t tested it using an IP so I’m not comfortable giving a recommendation. You might be able to find a recipe online using one that has similar ingredients and follow that.

      BTW, totally agree about the butter and bacon! Mmmmm!

  27. I’m making this tonight with yams/sweet potatoes. Also, I use Tony Chachere’s & brown sugar on salmon to get that heat with the sweet.

  28. This didn’t really work as I expected. The sauce was very thin and not sticky at all, I used thighs instead of breasts but still cooked for the same time. The family said it was too sweet and a bit weird! I’ll try again and add some chilli and thicken the sauce with cornflour before serving. 

      1. Oh no! It sounds like there was too much moisture released from the chicken. Some brands pump more saline in chicken than others and it releases and affects the ability for the sauce to thicken and bacon to crisp up.

  29. I have not made but the flavors all together sound wonderful. Think it would be a wonderful dish to serve guests

  30. My crockpot is a stove top, oven, slow cooker. It is great because I can use stove top and brown my meat then turn on slow cooker or oven

    1. I usually don’t recommend boneless skinless chicken in a slow cooker because it can tend to dry out. If you’re ok knowing that going in, you can definitely give it a try.

      1. I’ve done this recipe using boneless skinless chicken breast. Only adjustment I would make to do this method is to add butter with it in the crockpot- it doesn’t dry out. Also, with the butter and the juices from the chicken, you can make a pretty tasty gravy. All you need besides that is flour and a little bit of water! Did this and it was a big hit!

  31. I generally tend to use frozen chicken for almost all of my crockpot recipes. Do you use thawed or frozen thighs? Or does it matter.

  32. I made this in the crockpot and would not recommend that method to cook the chicken. Put it in for the recommended 8-9 hours on low and it was WAY TOO LONG!  Chicken was very dry.  Flavors were good and would recommend the cooking of the chicken in the oven so you can check the temperature of the chicken as it gets to the end of the cooking time.  Also, the bacon did not crisp up in the crock pot so I ended up putting it under the broiler for about a minute.

    1. I’m so sorry the timing didn’t work out for you. I can assure you that this recipe has been tested over and over with no issues. The only thing I can think of is that maybe your slow cooker runs a bit hotter. I hope you decide to try it again and just adjust the time for your slow cooker.

  33. It’s snowing with freezing rain mixed in … perfect day for a crock pot meal, so I’m trying this One! I’ll let you know how it turns out.

    1. I hope you enjoyed it! That kind of weather is perfect for the slow cooker! Snuggle up in a blanket and let it do the work!

  34. Gosh , this looks so good! Can’t wait to try it out. I know that you have said several times…… just put it all in the crock pot. But it looks like you have browned the tops of the thighs with the bacon prior to the cooking in the crock pot ?

    1. Nope, I didn’t for this recipe. Sometimes I definitely do brown chicken before hand but these went in completely raw. You can of course brown them at the end of the meal if you find they aren’t as pretty at the end of the cooking time (some slow cookers keep in moisture more than others, run hotter/colder than others, etc) you can pop them onto a cookie sheet for 5 minutes in a 400 degree oven. I have the pork loin version in the slow cooker too and some people need the oven to crisp it while others say it looks just like the picture when they open the slow cooker. I find more people tend to have better success when using the aluminum insert slow cookers like the one linked above or the one All-Clad sells that I have as well. But regardless of which one you use, finishing in the oven if you find it hasn’t browned as you’d like is a pretty quick task. Hope the recipe turns out well for you!

    1. I usually don’t recommend boneless-skinless chicken in the slow cooker because it tends to dry out a bit. The bacon will help but the fat from the skin is really what keeps it moist. If you know that might happen going in, you could definitely try it and let us know or even use a boneless skin-on thigh instead.

  35. Love that this can be made in the slow cooker, and as easily in the oven! The flavors sound amazing, and it looks beautiful!