Crock Pot Lemon Italian Chicken is a delicious slow cooker recipe! Let your crock pot do the work for an easy weeknight meal that your family will love!
This crock pot chicken is a great recipe for your busy weeknight dinner. The chicken, sauce, and capers create such a flavorful dish that it’ll be hard to believe that your slow cooker did all the work. We love to serve up this Crock Pot Lemon Italian Chicken with Capers with a caesar salad and garlic bread. The sides are just as easy as the main course!
CROCK POT LEMON ITALIAN CHICKEN WITH CAPERS
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It is such a great time of year to cook dinner in the crock pot. It has been super hot in Arizona lately, which makes it especially nice to keep the oven off. Lemon Italian Chicken with Capers is delicious and easy to make. It will save you time, energy, and electricity.
The combination of lemon and chicken flavors, with the added capers, is really yummy! Your family doesn’t even need to know just how easy it was to make this lemon chicken recipe!
Ingredients Needed for Crock Pot Lemon Italian Chicken
- Chicken breasts
- Butter
- Italian dressing mix
- Lemon juice
- Chicken broth
- Minced garlic
- Capers
- Pasta
You can find Italian dressing mix and capers in your local grocery store’s condiment aisle. Be sure to drain the capers before using. Capers are packed in a salty brining liquid, and draining them will keep their flavor from being overshadowed by too much salt.
How to Make Easy CrockPot Lemon Italian Chicken
- Start with your trusted crock pot. Cut your butter into slices and lay them in the bottom of your the pot. Lay the chicken breasts over the butter, and then sprinkle the chicken with the dry Italian dressing. Pour the lemon juice and chicken broth over the chicken, and then add the minced garlic.
- Cover and cook the chicken in your crockpot. Then add the capers toward the end of the cooking time. Prepare your favorite type of pasta according to its package directions and drain. Serve the Lemon Italian Chicken over your the pasta and enjoy!
How Long to Crockpot Chicken Recipe
The great thing about crock pot cooking is that you can adjust it to fit your schedule. You can cook this Lemon Italian Chicken on your crock pot’s HIGH setting for 4-5 hours, or on LOW for 6-8 hours.
How to Serve Lemon Italian Chicken with Capers
This lemon chicken dish is great served over a bed of whole-grain pasta, but you can use whatever pasta is in your pantry. You could also serve it with Roasted Asparagus or Mushroom and Sage Rice Pilaf instead of pasta.
Can I put frozen chicken in the crock pot?
You sure can! Frozen chicken will take about 6 hours on LOW to cook through. Raw chicken will take about 3 hours on LOW to cook. Just be sure your chicken has an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
More of my favorite easy chicken recipes!
- 25 Easy Crock Pot Chicken Recipes
- Chicken Piccata
- Cheesy Crock Pot Chicken and Rice
- Crock Pot Chicken Tortellini Soup
- Crock Pot Honey Sriracha Chicken
- More MAIN DISH recipes…
Tools used to make Crock Pot Lemon Italian Chicken with Capers
Crock Pot: This crock pot is so versatile. The latch strap for the lid makes it great for picking up and taking to potlucks.
Chef’s Knife: You don’t have to have fancy knives to make great meals. This chef’s knife is a staple for every home cook. Its durable blade allows for slicing through thick meats and effortlessly chopping vegetables.
*This post originally posted on 10/16/2012.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts *see note
- 1 packet Italian dressing mix
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup chicken broth
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons capers drained
- 1 pound pasta (whichever kind you like)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Slice the butter into 8 pats and spread them out on the bottom of the crock pot. Place each chicken breast on two pats of butter.
- Sprinkle the Italian dressing mix over the chicken. Pour the lemon juice and chicken broth over the chicken. Add the garlic to your crock pot.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or on LOW 6-8 hours.
- Cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente when the chicken in about 15 minutes from being done. Drain the pasta.
- Add capers to the chicken after cooking has finished.
- Plate the pasta and top with chicken, sauce, and capers from the crock pot. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Tanya says
I just made this tonight and it was a hit!! Our southern California temps are reaching to the 100s. I needed a recipe that wouldn’t heat up the house! I followed the recipe as written….mostly. I doubled the recipe except for the butter. I also used 4 thick chicken breast from Costco without cutting them in half. I cooked on low, and after 3.5 hours, the meat thermometer was already reading over 165 degrees. I quickly started the noodles, and by the time they were done, the chicken still tasted juicy and not too dried out! I wanted a slightly thicker sauce, so while the noodles were cooking, I took out the breasts (I also didn;t want them to cook too much more), and added about 1.5-2 tablespoons cornstarch with equal amount water to make a slurry. Poured it into the sauce and let it heat up. Added the chicken back in to warm them up, and it was so good!! I have a family of 5 (including 3 teenagers) and they all loved it! Thank you for this recipe! My daughter said it’s a keeper and I agree!
kyleigh wonders says
Recipe was delicious , though I will say it calls for way too much butter.
I love lemon juice so I’ll be adding more next time!
Also not enough clarification on the cook time , raw verses frozen.. I will make again but with modifications!
Jennifer says
Do you use fresh lemon juice or the bottle kind?
Melissa V says
Loved the sauce and will make again! Absolutely delicious ! However there was too much confusion on this recipe with how long to cook. I used the thick breasts and sliced in half. Cooked for a little over three hours and was dried out and overcooked. Maybe it was the breasts.. the sauce was AMAZING over pasta. So next time I will use chicken thighs instead. Much easier to keep juicy and more flavorful. But definitely a recipe I will use again with that minor change
Cheryl Jimenez says
Enjoyed the ease of this recipe for a weeknight dinner. When I make again I will use less butter and more lemon juice.
Kristi says
Hi there! I am so excited to try this and purchased all of the ingredients. Sounds delicious and manageable. Do you thing that adding a TBSP of cornstarch at the end would thicken the sauce up and would you recommend that or not?
Angie says
Could I substitute 2 tbsp of Italian Seasoning for the Good Seasons flavor pack?
Real Housemoms JK says
Hey Angie! That should work just fine!
Alexa says
Yummm Trying this recipe tomorrow! Has anyone tried using the liquid Italian Dressing not the dried stuff? Or maybe a way I can substitute with Italian seasoning? Just wondering because I have plenty of the liquid kind but I’d have to make a trip to the grocery store for the dried dressing which I’m trying to avoid lol. If no one has tried then ill be the Guinea pig 🙂
Bee says
How did it come out? I’m in the same pickle lol.
Jenny says
Way too long to cook. I checked mine at 3 1/2 hours on low and it was already overcooked.
Shaina says
I’m confused on when to add the capers? Do they go into the crock pot- it says add when chicken is done cooking… so does is only go in the crock pot for a couple minutes before you plate it?
Real Housemoms JK says
Shaina, you are correct. The capers go into the crockpot towards the end of the chicken cooking.
Vera Johnson says
Haven’t made this as yet but plan to. I’m confused by a statement about cooking time. Recipe (instruction #3 especially) says 6-8 hours on low; yet when you responded to the question about using frozen chicken, you say 3 hours on low. Which is it?
Real Housemoms JK says
Hey Vera! Frozen chicken will take about 6 hours on LOW to cook through. Raw chicken will take about 3 hours on LOW to cook. Hope this helps!
Colleen Fitzgerald says
Delicious.
Aubrey Cota says
Thank you, Colleen!
Amy Ambrosia says
This dish is delicious. I added rigatoni pasta along with roasted vine ripe tomatoes!
Aubrey Cota says
Sounds yummy! Thank you, Amy.
Lv says
Wonderful and easy. Doubled up recipe on lemon and chicken broth. Added extra garlic but not doubled. Used 1.5 little dry Italian Dressing packet.
Used 7 pieces of chicken breast cut in half. Then at the end thickened sauce with flour and chicken broth an added 1.5 jars of capers. We all really enjoyed it and two of them are very picky teens. Will be keeping this easy dinner.
Aubrey Cota says
Yay that’s awesome. So glad it worked out for you, especially being able to double the recipe!
Christian Elgethun’ says
This is similar to my chicken scallopini recipe. I may have to try this in the crock pot, but I highly suggest leaving out the Italian dressing and adding 1/3 cup good white wine, sliced button mushrooms and artichoke hearts. All three are used in scallopini and are delicious!
Daisy says
It looks delicious. You can sign me up for chicken and pasta anytime. It also made me realize I should be using capers more often in my cooking. Most of the time I use it with smoked salmon.
Beth says
This was okay, but the Italian dressing needs to be left out. Trying to combine two different flavors – Italian seasoning, and lemon & capers, (not to mention the garlic) just didn’t mix well. It would have been best to make it either Italian chicken, or lemon chicken. It wouldn’t let me rate, but I’d give it 2 1/2 stars.
Linda L Luther says
Too many flavors. Is that sorta like the Austrian Emperor telling Mozart he had “too many notes?” I totally disagree. Best piccata recipe I ever tried.
Leigh lee says
I put a few thin squares of butter on bottom,cut up 6 large potatoes (russet) added a small bag of baby carrots. Then topped with chicken, sprinkled Italian seasoning, increased the lemon juice and broth by 1/2. Added the capers towards end. This was an amazing full meal!!!!!
Shiloh Barkley says
Love chicken piccata! This would be a great way to finish that little jar of capers in the fridge! That’s a lot of butter though…hmmmm
admin says
Hi Shiloh, I love chicken piccata too! You could reduce the amount of butter and still get a great flavor with all of the other ingredients. Next time, I will use less butter too!
Linda L Luther says
I made this tonight. It’s the best (guide) to a slow cooker chicken piccata I have ever tried. I had to use thighs (bone in and skinned and de-fatted) and had to substitute some butter with olive oil because I ran out of butter (which was more than I would have normally used EVER anyway) but the chicken broth to lemon juice ratio was perfect! I added the capers and even some mushrooms (about halfway though.) Was WONDERFUL!! I had no problem with “too many flavors.” The Good seasons salad dressing mix was just, I think, what it took to make this a REAL Keeper 🙂 SO easy! So delicious! I love slow cooker recipes because I get it done early and have the rest of the day free. (I’m retired.) My husband (a gourmet cook himself, was over the moon with this one. I know this sounds like a few changes but really, its the same recipe. I did thicken it all with some flour mixed in chicken broth at the end but only because I had time–not necessary!!
Ginny says
looks so good, can’t wait to try it. Love capers and lemon juice and chicken, can’t lose recipe