Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
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Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken is a delicious and easy meal that my whole family loves! Tender chicken cooked in a sweet and sticky sauce is perfect served over rice!
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How to Make Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
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I love anything with Asian flavors and when I saw this slow cooker Honey Garlic Chicken recipe over at Just a Taste a couple of years ago, I knew I had to give it a try. Let me tell you I’m so glad I did! I have made a few different takes on this recipe over the past couple of years and this is definitely one of my favorite honey garlic chicken crock pot recipes; it gets gobbled up quickly every single time!
It’s really easy to make and uses ingredients I always have in the fridge making it a staple in our dinner rotation.
This Crock Pot honey garlic chicken recipe starts with bone in chicken breasts cooked until perfectly tender in the slow cooker. You can certainly use boneless (or even chicken thighs like I use in my Slow Cooker Bourbon Chicken recipe) if you prefer but I find the bone in gives better flavor and the meat is more tender.
If you’re not familiar with hoisin sauce, it’s often called Chinese barbecue sauce and it’s commonly added to stir fries and Asian dipping sauces. It’s a sweet and it has a salty flavor like soy sauce but it also adds a very unique punch to it! If you have never tried it, we just can’t get enough… it’s perfect to marinate grilled meats as well!
Don’t skip the fresh ginger in this recipe! Ginger adds such a nice flavor and it’s really inexpensive. I personally buy a small knob of ginger for under $1 at the grocery store and as I need it, I use a cheese grater to grate the desired amount (I don’t even peel it first). I store it on the counter for up to 3-4 weeks and if I notice it starting to get a bit older, I toss it into the freezer (and I grate it right from frozen the next time I need ginger). It’s perfect in stir fries, marinades or even add a few slices to the water when you’re cooking rice!
This dish creates lots of honey garlic sauce so it’s perfect for rice OR noodles. Most of the time we pile it up on a bed of rice and serve it with some steamed veggies (like broccoli or even sesame ginger snap peas ) on the side for an easy delicious meal. I’ve also served this over our favorite Asian noodles with stir fried veggies.
- 4 Large bone-in Chicken Breasts skin removed
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger minced
- 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
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Combine soy sauce, honey, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic, chopped onion and chili flakes.
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Place chicken breasts in slow cooker and pour sauce on top. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
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Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred, set aside.
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In a small bowl, combine 3 tablespoons of water and cornstarch. Place liquid from slow cooker into a saucepan and bring to a boil. While stirring the liquid, add cornstarch mixture a little at a time and stir until thickened. Let boil 1 minute.
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Pour sauce over shredded chicken and stir to combine.
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Serve over rice with desired toppings.
You may not need all of the cornstarch mixture depending on how much liquid your chicken produces.
(Nutriton information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.)
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Holly
Holly is a wine and cheese lover, recipe creator, shopping enthusiast and self appointed foodie. Her greatest passion is creating in the kitchen and making deliciously comforting recipes for the everyday home cook!
I’ve made this several times and it’s delicious. I normally add my own touches, change a recipe, but not for this one. I do add more vegetables, but that’s it. This is perfect and even better than what you can get out. We love it!
So glad you love this as much as we do!
This was delicious and easy to make. I had to substitute the hoisin sauce for umami paste and brown sugar, which worked fine. Ran out of time and didn’t get to thicken the sauce with cornstarch, but it was still yummy. My guests loved it!
Glad to hear it worked so well for you Shelley!
very salty. Would not make aga
Did you use low sodium soy sauce as directed in the recipe? This does help with the salt.
Have you tried making this in your instant pot? If you have please give me the times on this :D.
Thank you!!!!
I haven’t tried it but I’m sure it would work!! I would suggest using the chicken setting.
Can i use a pressure cooker for this recipe
I haven’t tried it but I’m sure it would work!! I would suggest using the chicken setting.
I made this tonight and it was a hit and I will be making it again. I have a question. T he recipe calls for an onion I would assume that is a regular onion and not green onion which is shown on the picture.
Yes Stacy, the onion is a regular onion. The green onion is garnish only. I’m so happy to hear that you love the recipe!
Excellent – we like sauce, so I doubled the sauce quantities
When should I add frozen broccoli? Toward the end im assuming
I would suggest steaming the broccoli separately as adding frozen broccoli to the slow cooker will cool it down and it can take a long time to get back up to temperature. Once cooked, toss it together before serving.
Can you use regular chicken breasts (no bone)? How would that affect the timing? Cooking rookie here!
You can use boneless chicken breasts, they may not be quite as moist. I would cook them about 3 hours on low or until they reach 165 degrees.
Help I can find rice vinegar do I have to put this in?.
I use apple cider vinegar instead
Can you freeze this if you make more
Awesome recipe–so easy and makes the house smell so good while it is cooking.
Can you use chicken thighs instead of breast?
Of course!
Love the sound of this recipe but a member of my family can’t eat garlic, has anyone tried it without the garlic and how do you think it would taste?!
I like this recipe. I would definitely try it out this summer. Thanks for sharing Holly.
Let me know how it works out for you Lara! We LOVED these!
This sounds amazing!! Do you have the nutritional value for this meal?
I’m sorry I am unable to provide nutritional information. You can enter your ingredients here to calculate your information.
If I don’t have time to cook it on low for 4-5 hours, can I cook it on high for an amount of time?
Yes, you can cook chicken on high for about 3-4 hours, you’ll just want to make sure your chicken is cooked through.
Could the coOK time be shortened if switched to high instead of low or no?
Yes, the cook time would be decreased if you cook this recipe on high. I would suggest 2-3 hours to ensure they are not overcooked.
Frozen or fresh chicken breast??
I use fresh but either would work.
Another hit! I made your slow cooker shredded beef recipe a couple weeks ago, which was awesome. This chicken recipe was even better! My whole family loved this once again, an it was so easy to make! I served this with rice and broccoli. Yummy!! Next on my list is the slow cooker chicken and gravy, can’t wait!
I’m so glad you loved it Kelly! :) One of our favorites too!
This sauce, and the abundance of it, you know I’m all about the sauce or the dip! It would be so good with broccoli I bet!
I agree, broccoli would be PERFECT with this!
Hi,
Looks yummy! I don’t have a slow cooker. So what other ways I can cook it? Thanks in advance
I have only made this in the slow cooker so I can’t say for sure how it would work out. Most slow cookers cook around 300-325 degrees (on high). I would suggest trying this in a covered casserole dish at about 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I would love to hear how it works out for you.
I would suggest to marinate it in the sauce for a few hours or even over night, then pour chicken with marinade in deep baking dish and baking it for 30-45 minutes on 350…just a suggestion.
I liked this recipe but would use reduced sodium soya sauce as it was a bit salty
I have made this 3 times over the last few month, and everyone in my family love it and cant get enough of it. They all look forward to me again for them.
:) So glad your family enjoyed this recipe Todd!
This looks wonderfully delicious and we love eating things like this over rice. Is there something i can use as a substitute for the honey? My mom is diabetic and definitely stays away from honey.
Thanks! =)
Because I am not diabetic I am not sure what things your Mom is able to have. Some options would include agave, rice syrup, corn syrup or even maple syrup. I haven’t tried any of them with this recipe so I’m not sure how it would taste but you might like to reduce the amount at first and adjust accordingly.
Hopefully you find something that works for you! I’d love to hear what you try and how it is!!!
I will give your suggestions to my mom. I really appreciate your help Holly! I’ve been searching for a few nice slow cooker recipes for her since she replaced her old, broken one.
I’ll be back and let you know what we used and how we liked it :D
P.S. I love your website. I discovered it through a post on Facebook and now i visit here regularly for your tips.
Aww! Thanks Chrissy! (And thanks for the feedback, I’m sure others wonder the same thing!)
I made this today for dinner tomorrow night. I doubled the sauce because I hate dry chicken ( I really didn’t need to). This recipe is amazing! It’s really nicely balanced with some sweet, and some spice. I’m going to serve it with roasted red potatoes , because I am tired of rice and mashed potatoes. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it!! <3
It looks good. If I was making it, I would cook the chicken breast in the oven and put it in your KitchenAid mixer with the beater attachment on and put the chicken breasts in the bowl, turn the speed to low and in a couple minutes you will have your shredded chicken in half the time. Then add your sauce and let it marinade for 1-2 hours just to get the flavors going and follow the rest of the instructions. #Time Saver
I love this recipe and want to make it, is their anyway to print it out.
On the top right of the recipe, there is a “Print” button. :) This will make a printable version!
If i only have the dried ginger instead of fresh how much should i use?
The flavor of fresh ginger is quite different than the flavor of dried ginger and I haven’t tried dried in this recipe. I would use about 1/2 teaspoon of dried ground ginger in this recipe. Hope this helps!
This looks wonderful!! thank you for sharing! Top 15 Foodtastic Friday!
This looks absolutely delicious. I’ve pinned it to my Chicken recipes board on Pinterest. Thank you for sharing it with us at the Hearth and Soul hop.
Hi Holly,
This is a great Slow Cooker recipe. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope you have a great weekend!
Come Back Soon,
Miz Helen
This looks wonderful. I can’t wait to try it. Pinning :) Thanks for sharing at Tuesday Talent Show.
I found your post on Flour Me With Love. I’ve been collecting slow cooker recipes as I want to start using my slow cooker more. Your recipe looks yummy! I’ve pinned it :) Thank you for sharing!
This looks delicious! Definitely need to add it to my slow cooker meals!