These slow cooker chicken tacos require only five ingredients: chicken, black beans, avocado, salsa, and corn tortillas. Delicious and easy!
Tacos are one of my favorite busy weeknight meals, since they can be so easy to make. They also play nicely with all kinds of fillings—some days I’ll do fish or shrimp tacos, some days ground beef, and some days a vegetarian black bean version.
Often I’ll dress up the leftovers from a rotisserie chicken with some salsa, add a dollop of guacamole, and call it a day. But this Slow Cooker Chicken Taco recipe is even more delicious and a total dinner life-saver.
Why Make This Recipe
- Just 5 ingredients! Most of which are pantry-friendly.
- So easy to make! Just dump a jar of salsa on raw chicken breasts in a slow cooker, and let it do its thing. When it's dinner time, shred and add your toppings!
- While tacos aren't generally considered a health food, this combination of ingredients is packed with vitamins and fiber.
- Adding salsa to the chicken breasts in the slow cooker means no overcooked, tasteless chicken and fewer calories than chicken thighs.
🥗 Ingredients
- Chicken: You can of course use boneless chicken thighs if you prefer those over breasts. I usually do as well, for flavor and texture, but the slow cooker does keep these chicken breasts moist!
- Tortillas: I prefer corn tortillas, but you could absolutely use flour tortillas. If you want gluten-free tacos, check the packaging of your corn tortillas carefully. Most corn tortillas are made with masa harina, which is a corn flour that is naturally gluten-free. However, many products made with masa harina are made and packaged in facilities where cross-contamination with wheat products can occur.
Or, make your own! My friend and wonderful food blogger, Jen at Savory Simple, has a recipe for homemade corn tortillas, which you should try—no tortilla press required. Of course, you can also serve your tacos on lettuce cups, which is a delicious and totally low-carb way to go.
- Salsa: Salsa is a personal preference—some people prefer chunky vs. smooth, or spicy vs. mild. Personally, I love the Frontera brand of salsa (not sponsored, I just love it!), especially the Jalapeño-Cilantro flavor. It’s great with this recipe, and also by itself with a bowl of tortilla chips. But choose whatever salsa you love to eat!
🥣 Instructions
This is an easy recipe that almost doesn't require a recipe card. Once you do it a few times, you'll have it memorized. First, trim any large pieces of fat off your boneless skinless chicken breasts, and place them into your slow cooker. Add ½ jar of salsa.
Turn the slow cooker on high, then cover and cook for 3 hours. If you are using an Instant Pot that just has a regular slow cook setting, you will probably need more like 4 hours.
When chicken is fully cooked, use 2 forks to shred the chicken. If you are using an Instapot, set it to sauté for 5 minutes to boil off any extra liquid in your sauce.
When you are ready to serve, drain and rinse black beans. Then cut around your avocado with a sharp knife and pull the two halves apart. Remove the pit, and make thin slices through the flesh on both sides of the avocado, then peel. Warm or toast the corn tortillas (see below). When they are warm and pliable, top each with chicken, black beans, avocado slices, and an spoonful of salsa, and serve.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
Yes, absolutely! This is a great recipe for a party. You can easily double or triple the amount of chicken, and just double or triple the salsa as well. Rinse a few cans of black beans and put in a bowl for toppings.
Fill another bowl with extra salsa. Wait until right before guests arrive to slice your avocado, since avocado will brown quickly. You can even replace the avocado with store-bought guacamole if you want to have something ready to go in the fridge when guests arrive.
Yes, absolutely. If you double or triple your batch of salsa chicken, you can freeze any leftovers. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator and then reheat in saucepan on stovetop when ready to eat.
If you find the filling is too liquid-y after you have defrosted it, just cook off some of the liquid by simmering it over medium-high heat on the stove. Any extra liquid should evaporate quickly. Then proceed with the rest of the recipe.
Yes! You could make this recipe with cubed pork or ground beef as well. You may need to adjust the cooking time however (more for pork, less for ground beef). Also, if you're looking for a faster way to make a pork filling, how about trying this recipe for Instant Pot Pork Butt? Just as delicious, but the Instant Pot makes it so much faster.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
- Equipment Options for Cooking Chicken: You can make your salsa chicken in any slow cooker or crockpot, or with the slow cook setting on your Instant Pot. In a pinch, you can add the chicken and salsa to a dutch oven and cook over low heat on the stovetop or in a 250-degree oven (covered) until chicken is tender.
- How to Take Care of Excess Liquid: Depending on the salsa you use, you may find that your chicken is too liquid-y, even after you have shredded it in the sauce. If you don’t have an Instapot, you can use a slotted spoon to scoop out your saucy chicken, leaving excess liquid behind. Or dump it all into a saucepan and cook for 5 minutes over medium-high heat to boil off the excess liquid.
- The Best Way to Prep Tortillas: You can stack them, wrap in foil, and warm in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes, toast them in a dry skillet or over a gas flame or grill, or wrap them in slightly damp paper towels and microwave for 2 minutes.
More Weeknight Recipes
If you’d loved this recipe for slow cooker chicken tacos, and are looking for more great recipes for busy weeknights, check out my round-up of 25 Last Minute Dinner Ideas. Here are some of my other favorites that feature chicken:
Can't get enough chicken tacos? Check out this Street Tacos recipe from our friend Glenda!
Or, if you're looking for some other delicious crockpot meals, try this Slow Cooker Hunters Chicken recipe or this Crock Pot Tri Tip recipe. And, have you tried soup in your slow cooker? This Slow Cooker Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup is total creamy deliciousness, and so easy to make!
If you try this recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me. And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Vanilla Bean Cuisine.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 1 16-ounce jar salsa
- 1 15.5-ounce can low-sodium black beans
- 1-2 avocados
- 8-12 corn tortillas depending on size
Instructions
- Trim off any large pieces of fat from your chicken breasts, and place them into your slow cooker.
- Add ½ jar of salsa.
- Turn the slow cooker on high and cook for 3 hours. If you are using an Instant Pot that just has a regular slow cook setting, you will probably need more like 4 hours.
- When chicken is fully cooked, use 2 forks to shred the chicken.
- If you are using the slow cook setting on your Instant Pot, set it to sauté for 5 minutes to boil off any extra water in your sauce. If you don’t have an Instapot, you can use a slotted spoon to scoop out your saucy chicken, leaving excess liquid behind, or dump it all into a saucepan and cook for 5 minutes over medium-high heat to boil off the excess liquid.
- When you are ready to serve, drain and rinse black beans.
- Then cut around your avocado with a sharp knife and pull apart the two halves. Remove the pit, and cut thin slices through the flesh on both sides of the avocado. Then peel off rind.
- Warm or toast the corn tortillas as recommended on the package. You can stack them, wrap in foil, and warm in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes, toast them in a dry skillet or over a gas flame or grill, or wrap them in slightly damp paper towels and microwave for 2 minutes.
- When the tortillas are warm and pliable, top each with chicken, black beans, avocado slices, and an spoonful of salsa, and serve.
Notes
- For a gluten-free recipe, make sure that you choose salsa and corn tortillas that are labelled gluten-free.
- To make this recipe for a crowd, just double or triple the amount of chicken breasts and salsa. Rinse a few cans of black beans and put in a bowl for toppings. Fill another bowl with extra salsa. Wait until right before guests arrive to slice your avocado, since avocado will brown quickly. You can even replace the avocado with store-bought guacamole if you want to have something ready to go in the fridge when guests arrive.
- Salsa chicken filling can be frozen for up to 3 months in an airtight container. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator and then reheat in saucepan on stovetop when ready to eat. If you find the filling is too liquid-y after you have defrosted it, just cook off some of the liquid by simmering it over medium-high heat on the stove. Any extra liquid should evaporate quickly.
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Jeff the Chef says
What gorgeous photographs! Those tacos look delicious. I love the avocado addition.
Chef Molly says
Thanks! I'll put avocados on almost anything! 🙂
Jennifer Farley says
These sound amazing!!!
Chef Molly says
Thanks! For a dead-easy recipe, these are quite delicious!
Alexandra @ It's Not Complicated Recipes says
Tacos are always a good idea, and these sound so delicious! Love that you did the chicken in the slow cooker!
Chef Molly says
Yes! It's one of my favorite ways to cook chicken, especially for tacos!