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Slow Cooker Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew

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A deeply warming, beautifully spiced slow cooker stew built around tender turkey thighs and sweet, earthy sweet potato in a cumin and smoked paprika broth — finished with wilted greens, fresh lime juice, and cilantro for a bowl that is simultaneously rich and bright. Naturally thick from the sweet potato, deeply flavored from long slow cooking, and nourishing in the truest sense. Serve with crusty bread, over rice, or straight from the bowl. The kind of stew that earns a permanent place in the weeknight rotation.

  • Total Time: 7 hours 50 minutes
  • Yield: 6 – 8 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale

The Turkey Base

  • 2 lbs (900g) bone-in turkey thighs
  • 2 tbsp olive oil (for browning)
  • 2½ cups (600ml) low-sodium chicken or turkey broth

The Vegetables

  • 2 large sweet potatoes (about 1.5 lbs / 680g), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 3 stalks celery, diced
  • 3 medium carrots, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 can (14.5 oz) fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste

The Spices

  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp dried thyme
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper

Added During Cooking

  • 1 can (400ml) full-fat coconut milk (optional, added last 30 minutes)

Added at the End

  • 4 cups (about 120g) baby spinach — OR — 3 cups chopped kale (last 15–25 minutes)

To Finish

  • Juice of 1–2 limes
  • Large handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

For Serving

 

  • Crusty bread, rice, couscous, or flatbread
  • Extra lime wedges
  • Greek yogurt or sour cream (optional)
  • Toasted pumpkin seeds (optional)

Instructions

  • Brown the turkey. Pat the turkey thighs dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the turkey thighs, skin side down first, for 3–4 minutes per side until deeply golden. Transfer to the slow cooker, skin side up.
  • Soften the aromatics. In the same skillet over medium heat, add the diced onion, celery, and carrots. Cook for 4–5 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute more. Transfer to the slow cooker.
  • Bloom the spices. Add all the dry spices to the hot skillet over medium heat. Toast for 60 seconds, stirring constantly. Deglaze with a splash of broth, scraping up all the browned bits. Pour into the slow cooker.
  • Build the stew. Add the sweet potato cubes, fire-roasted diced tomatoes (with their liquid), remaining broth, and bay leaves to the slow cooker. Stir everything together.
  • Cook. Set the slow cooker to LOW and cook for 7–8 hours, or HIGH for 3.5–4.5 hours, until the turkey is tender and beginning to pull away from the bone, and the sweet potato is completely soft.
  • Shred the turkey. Remove the turkey thighs from the slow cooker. Discard the skin and bones. Shred the meat into bite-sized pieces and return to the slow cooker. Stir into the stew.
  • Add coconut milk (if using). Stir in the full-fat coconut milk. Cook on HIGH for 20–30 minutes until incorporated and the stew is creamy and rich.
  • Add the greens. If using spinach, stir in now and cook for 5 minutes until just wilted. If using kale, add 20–25 minutes before serving and cook until tender.
  • Remove bay leaves and finish. Remove the bay leaves. Squeeze in the lime juice and stir in the fresh cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning generously — add more cumin, salt, lime, or cayenne as needed.
  • Serve. Ladle into deep bowls over rice or with crusty bread alongside. Top with a dollop of Greek yogurt if desired, a scatter of toasted pumpkin seeds, and extra cilantro and lime wedges.

Notes

  • Brown the turkey — the series rule. Every turkey recipe in this series benefits from browning first, and this stew is no exception. The sear on the thighs adds a depth and complexity that raw turkey cooked in liquid simply cannot achieve. The ten minutes are always worth it.
  • Sweet potato size is important. One-inch cubes hold their shape while also partially melting into the broth to thicken it naturally. Smaller pieces dissolve too quickly; larger pieces may not soften evenly.
  • The cinnamon is invisible but essential. A quarter teaspoon of cinnamon in the spice blend does not make the stew taste like cinnamon — it makes the sweet potato taste sweeter, the turkey taste richer, and the whole bowl taste more harmoniously spiced. Do not skip it.
  • Coconut milk is optional but transformative. A can of full-fat coconut milk stirred in at the end adds a creamy richness and subtle sweetness that lifts the stew into something genuinely special. Use it when you want to impress or when the day calls for something more luxurious.
  • Add greens at the very end. Spinach in a slow cooker for 7 hours becomes an unidentifiable grey mush. Five minutes before serving is all it needs. Kale needs 20–25 minutes — plan accordingly.
  • Finish with acid. Lime juice added right before serving brightens and balances the stew in the same way it does every other recipe in this series. It is the most impactful single finishing step.
  • Day two is better. The sweet potato continues to meld into the broth overnight, deepening the natural thickening and intensifying the flavor. Leftover turkey and sweet potato stew is one of the great weeknight lunches.
  • Author: Elle
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 7 hours 30 minutes (on LOW)
  • Category: Dinner, Main Dish, Soup
  • Method: Slow Cooking
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free

Find it online: https://slowcookerrecipes.us/slow-cooker-turkey-and-sweet-potato-stew/