Buttermilk Chicken {Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker}
Delicious Buttermilk Chicken is a simple and quick weeknight family dinner that can be made in the slow cooker or Instant Pot!! Thank you to AE Dairy for sponsoring this post!
I am loving this time of year, when the days are getting just a little longer and the sun is shining just a little more. Makes me really start to crave those family dinners where we share some tasty food on the back patio while relaxing and enjoying the weather. I’m always working on ideas for super simple recipes that will reduce stress and get me out of the kitchen and on to enjoying dinner and time with my family. That’s where this buttermilk chicken comes in. By using the slow cooker (or Instant Pot!) and just a few ingredients, you will have a practically hands-off meal that still manages to be totally delicious and kid friendly. But just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s not packed with quality ingredients like the buttermilk that makes this chicken so juicy you won’t want to go back to making it any other way.
While it would be pretty hard to track every ingredient that goes into every meal, I do like to know that I’m using quality ingredients when I cook, so when I find a brand that I can trust I tend to stick with them. I love my job as a food blogger and one of the reasons is that I occasionally get the opportunity to get behind the scenes tours of where my food is coming from. I jumped at the chance to head up to Des Moines, Iowa, to learn more about AE Dairy, a brand I was already familiar with and using in many of my recipes and let’s just say, I was so impressed I couldn’t wait to get back and share what I learned with you guys.
The tour of the facility was amazing and I loved hearing about how all of the milk comes from local Iowa farmers and is of the very best quality, but I’ve got to say, my favorite part was the people. I had the opportunity to spend the day with the CEO (and granddaughter of the founder), Miriam Erickson Brown as well as the marketing director, Kim Peter and so many other members of their team. And I couldn’t have been any more impressed with their passion for creating high quality and amazing dairy products.
And I can’t lie to you guys, just about one of my very favorite parts of the tour was the fact that I got to participate in the weekly taste testing! Not only am I totally impressed that they do this every single week with so many members of their team including the CEO, but actually trying each and every product was such an amazing experience. Everything was delicious and it was so fun I made note of a few of my very favorites so that I could find them later and make sure to stock my fridge!
I could totally go on about all that I learned (and I LOVE learning new things each and every day) but I also want to make sure to share my newest recipe with you today that uses AE Buttermilk because I just know you are going to love it too! This buttermilk chicken is going to be a new go-to in our house for an easy weeknight dinner and for prep ahead meals when I need some seriously delicious, seriously easy chicken that will set the world on fire 🙂
So excited to tell you all that I will be working with AE Dairy all year to create several new recipes, so please keep your eyes open for the next one!
Buttermilk Chicken (Slow Cooker or Instant Pot}
SaveIngredients
- 3-4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 3-4 bone-in, skin-on chicken drumsticks
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- fresh herbs (I used 2 sprigs each rosemary, thyme, sage)
Instructions
- Add chicken to large freezer bag
- Whisk together buttermilk, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and pour over chicken
- Add herbs and seal bag
- Marinate at least 2 hours but preferably overnight
- Add contents of bag to slow cooker (or Instant Pot)
- Cover and cook on high in slow cooker for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 (or set pressure cooker to manual for 15 minute and do a natural pressure release)
- Optional: Line a baking sheet with foil and place chicken on baking sheet under broiler for 3-4 minute or until skin is browned and crispy
- Serve garnished with additional fresh herbs or as desired
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of AE Dairy. The opinions and text are all mine.
Hi this didn’t turn out too well. What went wrong? I had boneless chicken breasts, marinated them with buttermilk and spices , but only for about 1 1/2 hours. Poured it into the instant pot , added a little white wine, water, and chicken broth , and chopped garlic. Looked like it would be a nice creamy sauce. I put it on pressure cook in the instant pot, but when finished , the milk coagulated and separated, looked awful, so I strained it, and got a nice broth, but. it was not as flavorful as I hoped. Did the wine make it coagulate? Or was it the pressure cooking?
Hi Mary! I love it when people adapt recipes to be their own, and it can be so fun to experiment! :). That being said, there were several changes you made to the recipe that differ from how I wrote it, and since they were fairly significant, it might be difficult for me to pinpoint where you went wrong. The recipe called for bone-in dark meat chicken rather than boneless breasts, and it looks like you added several things like chicken broth, water, garlic and wine. My guess would be the wine, as that seems the most likely culprit but it would be hard to know for sure without testing this. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you!! I did want to let you know I removed your two star rating as I didn’t feel it was fair to rate my recipe poorly which would impact how others are able to see it, given the significant changes you made. I hope that helps and I wish you happy cooking!!
Nope. Didn’t turn out at all like the pic shows. Disappointment all around soupy and mushy.
Hi Glirua. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. I’d love to help but I need more info. Which method did you use to cook it? Did you broil it at the end?
If I don’t have enough buttermilk to cover the chicken in the crockpot, what liquid can I substitute? I have milk or water unless I want to brave the thanksgiving day traffic haha.
I’m so sorry, I was in the kitchen all day yesterday and am just now seeing this. Did you find a way to make it work? I think either would have been fine or my suggestions would have been broth.
Can this be made with heavy cream instead of buttermilk? For keto?
I haven’t tested this out so I can’t say for sure. If you try it I’d love to know how it works for you!
Hello! Marinated boneless, skinless breasts overnight and put it all in the crockpot on low the next morning. It was amazingly tender after 6 hrs. As we ended up not eating as early as I thought we would I put them in a lightly greased casserole, stirred some shredded cheddar and mozzarella in to the remaining sauce, then poured it over the chicken. I put it in a 250 deg oven until we were ready to eat. Omg absolutely delicious, thank you! We had the sauce over rice and the chicken had a light coating of sauce and cheese. It was amazing. Will definitely make this again. Thank you for sharing!
I am not sure if my wheels are not turing correctly its late…
Do you add the marinade, (i.e. buttermilk to the IP or CP)??
Yep!
The chicken is flavorless and dry. So disappointed because the pictures look good but the real thing is not.
Hi Rhonesha? Which method did you use? So odd for this to turn out dry for you! How much liquid was left after cooking?
Made this morning after marinating overnight. I did add just a teeny pinch of Sichuan Pepper (my new addiction). As previously mentioned “FALL OFF THE BONE”. I had taken a few pieces out to run under the broiler but they never made more than 6″ from the slow cooker to a plate. Just slid the skin off and gobbled.
Waiting for the rest to cool for the fridge. What can I do with all that liquid left over? Degrease and thicken? I’ll do some vegies to have with the next meal and then maybe the last cold on a salad. I did 3 thighs and 6 or 7 drumsticks. I’ll be getting 3 meals from this and I bet the last will be as good as the first.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Gwen! Isn’t it great when we can make one meal multi-purpose, too?! I don’t think there’s much you can do with the liquid here, but if you come up with something be sure to let me know!!
Almost a year ago I asked about the leftover liquid. Well, I had frozen a couple of little baggies (approx. 1 cup ea). I took out the last one yesterday and threw it in the pan I was doing some thighs and legs in. Along with some pan vegies and some leftover rice on the side – it was delish! Had half last night and the other half, this time with glass noodles for lunch today. Yummy.
Thanks so much for coming back with the update!!! So glad it worked!!
Followed this thread! Will be trying the recipe tomorrow. Husband accidentally bought buttermilk instead of regular milk for my 3 year old lol
Didn’t wanting the buttermilk to go waste!
Great read, thank you!
Love from California!
How did it turn out for you?
Can this be done with breasts? My husband doesn’t like dark meat chicken.
Yes, I would stick to bone-in chicken breasts.
So tender, if fell off the bone. Will do this many more times. Thanks!!!
Thanks David! So glad you liked it!