Artichoke and Olive Chicken Legs

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I love the combination of artichokes and olives.  The only things that makes the combination better is an easy recipe that makes it so easy to prepare, and few things are easier than a crock pot dinner. Here the join drumsticks in the crock pot for our artichoke and olive chicken legs.

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Artichoke and Olive Chicken Legs

Fresh chicken drumsticks on a bed of artichokes and olives.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword Clean Eating, Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free

Total Time 6 hours

Servings 4

Calories 472kcal

Equipment

• Crock Pot

Ingredients

• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 8 chicken legs* see notes
• 2 white onions medium, roughly chopped
• 2 cans artichoke hearts, drained and halved
• 1 1/2 cups Kalamata olives
• 1 lemon wedged
• 3 sprigs thyme

Instructions

• Combine garlic, salt, and pepper. Rub over chicken.
• Place onion, artichoke, and olives in crock pot.
• Add chicken to the crock pot. Top with lemon and thyme.
• Cook 6 to 7 hours on low, 3 on high.
• Optional: If using chicken with skin, preheat broiler and prepare broiler pan. Shortly before serving, remove chicken from crock pot and place on broiler pan. Broil for 3 to 5 minutes, until skin is crispy.
• Serve hot.

Notes

This recipe is 11 Green, Blue, or Purple WW points.

WW points are calculated using skinless chicken legs.

*I usually use drumsticks, but thighs work well too. You can use skinless or skin on meat. 

Jump to Nutritional Information

Like many other vegetables, I did not have artichokes as a kid.  I think I discovered them when I tried a spinach artichoke dip from the grocery store on a whim.  Now I wonder how could I have gone so long without them!  Spinach artichoke dip, stuffed mushrooms, in my pasta, I have really gotten to love artichokes.  While I buy most of my produce fresh, artichokes are my one exception.  These babies I usually buy in a can.  The reason?  Well, I’ve got a few.  First, the fresh artichokes in my local grocery tend to be a little hit or miss, both in quality and presence.  Second, usually I’m adding the artichokes to a dish or a crockpot recipe, and it’s just easier to toss some drained artichoke hearts into a pan or pot.  

I also love olives, and find the combination of artichoke hearts and kalamata olives irresistible!  Seriously, just typing this reminds me that I have a big jar of kalamata olives in the fridge and a few cans of artichoke hearts in the pantry and they would go wonderfully with some garlic and tomatoes over a bed of linguine.  But that’s for tomorrow, let me get back to our chicken legs! This is a super tasty recipe with flavor off the charts!  And it’s in the crock pot, so there’s almost no work to do!  Let’s get to it!  Break out that crock pot and give it a quick round of cooking spray.  This isn’t really necessary, but I found the pot does clean up a little easier with a sprits of cooking spray. 

 Let’s get that chicken ready.  Usually I use drumsticks, but you can use chicken thighs, or even chicken breasts if you want.  If using chicken breast, I would recommend boneless skinless breast, mostly due to the size of the pieces of meat, but if you want bone-in or skin on breast and have a crockpot to hold them, go for it.  Just make sure the meat is fully cooked, that is 165 degrees, before eating – the larger pieces might take longer.

If using dark meat, you can use skinless or skin on pieces.  Personally, I like the skin on version.  There’s an extra step you’ll want to take if you are not using skinless cuts, but I’ll get to that later. In the meantime, prepare your chicken by rubbing and sprinkling your garlic powder, salt, and pepper over it. 

Prepare your vegetables.  Chop your onion.  I usually slice my olives too – I want a taste of olive in every bite!  Drain and halve or quartered your artichoke hearts.  Place the vegetables in the crock pot and give it a quick stir to combine.

 Add the chicken on top of the vegetables.  Place the lemon wedges in and around the chicken and top with thyme.  Cook on low for six to seven hours, or three hours on high. If you are using chicken with skin on, you’ll find that skin is a little, well, soggy, after being in the crock pot for six hours.  So we’re going to fix that! 

 Shortly before the meal is done, turn your oven’s broiler on.  When the meal is done cooking and the broiler is hot, remove the lemons and thyme from the pot.  Place the chicken on a broiler pan or sheet pan.  Place the pan under the broiler for two to three minutes.  Keep a careful eye in the chicken.  We’re not cooking it, we just want to crisp up the skin, but under a hot broiler, it can go from soft to crispy to burnt very quickly.  Once the chicken skin has crisped up, remove the chicken from oven.

 Serve chicken over bed of artichokes and olives.  What a party for your taste buds!  Here, I wanted a little carbs to go with my meal, so I added a side of mashed potatoes.  Or was it mashed cauliflower.  My husband can’t tell the difference, so I guess it doesn’t matter.  

Hey, did you see that plate the raw chicken was sitting on?  I didn’t put the drumsticks in the fridge early enough the day before to thaw them.  No problem with my lightening fast thaw plate.  You can find that and other great tools in our kitchen store.  

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