Sticky, sweet slow cooker honey garlic chicken is a delicious dinner served over rice or noodles.
Honey garlic chicken breast uses skinless breasts or thighs slow cooked in a quick homemade honey garlic sauce!
This Honey Garlic Chicken is a Flavor Favorite Because…
- Tasty slow cooker honey garlic chicken is an easy one-pot dinner.
- Basic pantry ingredients and a little crock pot time are all it takes to make this delish dish.
- Double the sauce and use it as a glaze for pork, shrimp, and veggie dishes all week long!
Ingredient Tips and Swaps
- Chicken: Use split chicken breasts or bone-in thighs with the skin removed for this dish. You can also use boneless skinless breasts or thighs.
- Aromatics: For the best flavor, go for fresh ginger and garlic.
- Soy Sauce: Use low sodium soy sauce, or use regular or tamari and replace half the amount called for with water.
Variations
- Add vegetables like baby corn, mushrooms, water chestnuts, or pineapple chunks.
- Add sriracha or sambal to taste for a spicy-sweet glaze.
- Replace the homemade sauce with a jar of prepared honey garlic sauce (choose a thick sauce).
How to Make Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
Slow-cooker chicken recipes like this one are so easy to make.
- Whisk the sauce according to the recipe below and pour over the chicken.
- Cook until tender and shred the chicken.
- Thicken the sauce in a small saucepan with a cornstarch slurry.
- Toss with the shredded chicken and enjoy.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve this chicken over rice, cauliflower rice, or noodles
- Serve it as lettuce wraps with a variety of toppings.
- Add a side of steamed veggies like broccoli or carrots.
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
- Keep leftover slow-cooker honey garlic chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave.
- Freeze portions in zippered bags for up to 1 month and thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
More Slow Cooker Chicken Recipes
Did you love this slow cooker honey garlic chicken recipe? Leave a comment and a rating below!
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
Make this easy slow cooker honey garlic chicken and enjoy it over rice or noodles.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 pounds split chicken breasts skin removed, or 1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breasts or thighs
- ½ cup less sodium soy sauce *see note
- ⅓ cup honey
- ⅓ cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon onion powder or ½ small onion, finely diced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- sliced green onions and sesame seeds for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Combine soy sauce, honey, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, onion powder, and red pepper flakes.
- Place chicken breasts in the bottom of a slow cooker and pour the sauce over top. Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours or until the chicken reaches 165°F in the thickest part.
- Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and place it in a bowl. Use two forks to shred it, discarding the bones. Lightly cover to keep warm and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine 3 tablespoons of water and cornstarch. Transfer the liquid from the slow cooker to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. While whisking, drizzle in the cornstarch mixture a little at a time to reach the desired consistency; you may not need all of the mixture. Let boil 1 minute.
- Pour the sauce over shredded chicken and stir to coat. Garnish with green onion and sesame seeds if desired.
- Serve over rice or noodles.
Notes
Depending on how much liquid your chicken produces, you may not need all of the cornstarch mixture.
Soy Sauce Note: Use low-sodium soy sauce, or this dish will be too salty. If using regular soy sauce, replace half of the soy sauce with water.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 298 | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 97mg | Sodium: 1191mg | Potassium: 680mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 71IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 27mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Chicken, Dinner, Slow Cooker
Cuisine American, Asian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Could this be prepared as a freezer meal?
Hi Carolyn, when the chicken cools you can place in zipper-top bags and lay flat to freeze. Label with the date and they should last in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Why would you do bone in with this?
You can certainly use boneless if you prefer but I find the bone in gives better flavor and the meat is more tender.
These recipes look absolutely amazing. I qm looking for a dish to serve at Book Club. Everyone always has the coolest things to eat. This is going to knock it out of the ballpark.
Love this recipe !
Delish. Used 7 skinless bone-in thighs and the liquid was more than enough. Thickened the sauce directly in the crockpot after removing the chicken while i made the rice and zucc. So good. Thank you!
made this on a moment of weakness. but boy was I wrong ( It turned into something we loved )
It was savory, juicy and I became a great cook.
This recipe does not taste good at all. Followed recipe to a t – it was bland and not worth the effort.
My family loves this recipe!!
So looking forward to trying this as we eat a lot of chicken, and love honey and especially garlic. However, we work 8 hour days, and I usually turn to my crockpot for recipes that can cook for 8 hours on low. I tend to use large, boneless chicken breasts and am wondering if I put them in frozen if I can cook it for longer since they are large and have it not be overcooked by time I get home. Do you have any recommendations for extending the cook times as I am seeing so many other commenters are looking for ways to reduce the cook time. Thank you.
I haven’t cooked this with chicken from frozen so I can’t say for sure. Let us know how it goes if you try it.
perhaps if you do the recipe on the weekend when you are going to be home most of the day it would be more convenient to try then?
I cooked this recipe today and served it for our dinner with rice. I cooked it to exactly how the recipe said to do. It was nice however I found the hoisin sauce took over the dish resulting in it not tasting as I had hoped…. like honey and garlic. It was salty but I do like salt . I will cook this again but next time I will leave out the hoisin sauce and chilli flakes.
Sooo easy to make and my husband LOVED it just as much as I did. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe !
Love this recipe! I made a few changes based on what I had… Used regular soy sauce instead of low sodium, and a couple shakes of ground ginger instead of fresh, and omitted pepper flakes. Was definitely not bland! It will be staple in my house for sure.
Loved making this. So easy and very tasty. My family said it was full of flavour. Empty plates all around. I used chicken breast and that’s the only part of a chicken I like.
What is the pounds used for a one times batch? 4 breast—2 pounds??
The chicken breasts I used are about 7-8 oz each so 2lbs would be perfect.
I made this, and was surprised how bland it seemed.
I used much more than 5 cloves of garlic, because we love garlic in our house!
I added a few extra tablespoons of honey and hoisin sauce. An entire teaspoon of the red chili flakes. An entire tablespoon of sesame oil (that one was by accident, actually).
Basically, I added a little bit extra of most of the flavorful ingredients, and we still found it fairly bland. Ended up adding a bunch of siracha after it was cooked.
No complaints, we still thought it was good. Just sharing my experience!
Thanks for sharing Jennifer! Glad you still enjoyed it.
Yes! I normally don’t post but it was VERY bland which was surprising. I’ve been looking for crock pot recipes and the picture was so enticing. But it had NO flavor. Had to add a ton of spices including garlic, onion, pepper and red pepper flakes to give it some kick.
Do you have to use bone-in chicken? Could I do this with boneless chicken thighs?
Hi Jessica, You can certainly use boneless (or even chicken thighs like we use in our Slow Cooker Bourbon Chicken recipe) if you prefer but we find the bone-in gives better flavor and the meat is more tender.
I would like the daily recipes sent to my email provided
Definitely Adrienne! To receive our newsletters, you can sign up here or scroll down to the bottom of the post and you will see a green signup box.
I made this yesterday and my whole family loved it! So easy to make!
Yay! So happy to hear that Shannon! I love when I find recipes the whole family loves.
If I double the recipe, do. I have to cook it longer in the crockpot?
As long as your crock pot is large enough to accomodate, I believe the cooking time will remain the same Maggie!
Hi Holly
Can I make Honey Garlic Chicken on the stove and how long should I cook it for?
I haven’t tried this on the stove so I can’t say for sure. Let us know how it goes if you make it!
I have done this on the stove. I bbq thighs and then shred. make up the sauce and combine in sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then simmer until you reduce to desired thickness. I add other veggie like broccoli, carrots and water chestnuts. I also like peanuts in it. Mix with chicken and simmer until veggies are crisp. Serve with rice or over rice.
Thanks for sharing Gary! That sounds delicious.