{VIDEO} Slow Cooker/Instant Pot French Onion Chicken (Low-Carb, Paleo, Whole30)

French onion chicken French onion soup flavors but without the cheese to make this recipe low-carb, paleo and whole30 compliant. Make this meal in your slow cooker or Instant Pot.

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Updated 2019 with Instant Pot instructions

I’ve been meaning to make this recipe for a while now. Months actually. I have no idea why I waited but I’m kind of glad that I did. I’m exactly half way through my latest whole30 and I’m starting to feel uninspired. Cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for myself and husband every day for the last 2 weeks straight has finally started to take its toll on me. Thankfully I have a notebook of recipes like this just waiting to be tweaked, tested and posted.

French Onion Flavors

I love french onion soup. LOVE it. It’s probably my favorite guilty pleasure soup. It’s not the same without the bread and cheese so I figured there was no point in trying to modify the soup to be whole 30 compliant. But I can take the flavors and use it on a protein. This recipe uses a whopping 2 full pounds of onions. If you don’t like onions, this recipe is not for you as there is no substitution. The sauce for this recipe is a simple combination of chicken broth, coconut aminos, balsamic vinegar, garlic, etc. When you add the sauce on top of the food, I know it won’t look like there is enough. Trust me, there is. You don’t need a lot of liquid with the slow cooker and when using the Instant Pot, you only need 1 cup.

before (slow cooker)

Lots of Onions

Two full pounds of sliced onions. Even I will admit, this recipe uses is a lot of onions. Don’t let that scare you. If you don’t want to use 2 lbs of onions, don’t. You can use 1 pound. It won’t change the taste too much, you’ll just have less onions. Keep in mind that the onions will shrink down significantly while they cook. An optional step to take before you add the onions to the slow cooker is to saute or even grill them first. Sauteing the onions is listed as an instruction for Instant Pot.

after (slow cooker)

Which Cut Of Chicken To Use?

As with most of my recipes, I encourage you to use your favorite cut of chicken here whether it be boneless, bone-in, skin-on, skinless, legs, thighs, wings, or breasts. My only recommendation is that you either stick to all white meat or all dark meat (unless you’re using bone-in breast). I used a combination of legs and thighs. If you use all white meat, lower the cook time by an hour or more for the slow cooker and 2 minutes if using the Instant Pot. When using the electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot), if you’re using boneless, skinless chicken you can skip the step of sauteing the meat beforehand. I tend to only do that with skin-on chicken not skinless. I used two pounds of chicken but this recipe can hold up to 3 pounds without having to adjust any measurements.

How To Get Crisp Chicken Skin

Broil. Sorry but there’s no way around it. If you want your chicken to have crispy skin after it’s done cooking, you will need to remove it from the cooker and place it in the oven under the broiler. This is the case whether you use your slow cooker or electric pressure cooker. Place your chicken on a baking sheet and put it under the broiler for 3-5 minutes or until the skin is crisp to your liking.

Slow Cooker/Instant Pot French Onion Chicken (Low-Carb, Paleo, Whole30)

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• Author: Fit SlowCooker Queen
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 3 hours
• Total Time: 3 hours 10 mins
• Yield: 4 servings 1x

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Ingredients

• 2–3 lbs chicken
• 2 lbs white onions, sliced thinly

Sauce:

• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp ghee, melted
• 1 tsp coconut aminos
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt

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Instructions

Slow Cooker

1. Add half of the onions to the bottom of the slow cooker. Add chicken on top of onions. Add remaining onions on top.
2. In a small bowl, mix together sauce ingredients. Pour sauce on top of chicken.
3. Cook HIGH 2-4 hours or LOW 4-6.

Instant Pot

1. Turn the Instant Pot to saute. Once hot, add the oil and chicken and sear, few minutes on each side until browned. Remove chicken from the pressure cooker.
2. Add onions (and more oil if needed) and cook 3-5 minutes until soft.
3. In a small bowl, mix together sauce ingredients. Pour the sauce into the pressure cooker and deglaze the bottom of the pressure cooker by scraping all the bits off with a wooden spoon.
4. Add chicken back into the Instant Pot. Mix in the onions so they’re evenly distributed.
5. Close lid and seal valve. Set high pressure and cook 10 minutes.
6. Quick release pressure.

I used a 6-quart slow cooker or Instant Pot.

To keep this meal the trifecta (low-carb, paleo, whole30), I like to serve this French onion chicken on top of mashed cauliflower and with simple salad or some sort of green vegetable.

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