How to Make Crockpot Chicken Legs Like a Pro

October. The year is turning and the cooking is turning and I am turning, the way the light turns, the way the leaves turn, the way everything turns in a world that is circular and the circularity is not repetition but spiral — the same season returns but the woman in the kitchen is not the same woman who stood here last October, because last October she had not written the fourth column, had not let the book go, had not watched her daughter read an article about her in the newspaper, had not made the eight-hour ramen, had not heard the phrase "that one was angry" about a shishito pepper. The spiral moves forward even when it looks like a circle. The forward is the life.

I made hayashi rice for the first cold week — the beef stew over rice, the comfort food, the autumn anchor. The stew simmered for three hours and the apartment smelled like safety and the safety was the food and the food was the love and the love was the only response I have to the turning of the year, to the cold coming, to the leaves falling, to the world changing: cook. Cook the thing that makes the apartment smell like safety. Serve it in the chipped bowl. Eat it at the small table. Let the food hold you. Let the food be the arms. Let the food be the love.

Twenty-four thousand readers on the blog. Four magazine columns published. One book in final production. One book in draft. One daughter in third grade reading Japanese and English and making kabocha nimono by herself. One father in Sacramento with trembling hands and perfect daikon. One mother in Ashland directing plays and talking for twenty-five minutes on Sunday mornings. One grandmother dead and present in every bowl, every recipe card, every sentence I write. One woman in a kitchen in Portland, standing at the stove at five AM, making dashi, the kombu soaked overnight, the bonito flakes added at exactly the right moment, the straining through cloth, the dashi clear and golden, the morning beginning the way every morning begins: with the practice. With the soup. With the bowl held in both hands. With the woman who learned to read her grandmother's handwriting.

Hayashi rice was the anchor that week, but it’s the slow cooker I keep returning to when October arrives and the world starts its annual turning — because there is something about setting a pot in the morning and coming back to warmth that feels like the food is doing the holding for you. These crockpot chicken legs are the same logic: low heat, long time, the apartment filling with something that smells like care. My grandmother would have understood this. You start it before the day begins, and by the time you need it, it’s already there.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 5 hours | Total Time: 5 hours 10 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken legs (drumsticks, about 8 pieces)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Season the chicken. Pat chicken legs dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, combine garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, thyme, salt, and pepper. Drizzle olive oil over the chicken legs and rub the spice mixture evenly over all sides.
Prepare the crockpot. Pour chicken broth, minced garlic, and Worcestershire sauce into the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Stir briefly to combine.
Arrange the chicken. Nestle the seasoned chicken legs into the slow cooker in a single layer as much as possible. It’s fine if they overlap slightly.
Slow cook. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours, or on HIGH for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until the chicken is cooked through and tender and an instant-read thermometer reads 165°F at the thickest part.
Optional: broil for crispy skin. Transfer chicken legs to a foil-lined baking sheet. Broil on high for 3 to 4 minutes until the skin crisps and caramelizes. Watch closely — they go from golden to burnt quickly.
Rest and serve. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes. Spoon a little of the cooking juices over the top, garnish with fresh parsley, and serve over rice or with roasted vegetables.

Nutrition (per serving)

How to Make Crockpot Chicken Legs Like a Pro — The Slow Cook, The Safety, The Arms of Autumn