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 fluffy rice!
We serve this easy side dish with steamed broccoli or even fresh Stir Fry Veggies for the perfect meal!
Easy to Make & Delicious Every Time
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 crockpot 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.
Tips For Making Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
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 wrinkly, 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!
A Delectable Rice or Noodle Topping
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.
More Asian Dishes You’ll Love:
- Cashew Chicken Stir Fry – Easy and delicious!
- Asian Beef Skewers
- Easy Pepper Steak – So flavorful!
- Baked Chinese Chicken and Rice
- Beef and Broccoli – Classic!
- Easy Mongolian Beef – Reader favorite!
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 Large bone-in Chicken Breasts skin removed
- ½ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ⅓ cup honey
- ⅓ cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger minced
- ¼ teaspoon red chili flakes
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Combine soy sauce, honey, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic, chopped onion and chili flakes.
- Place chicken breasts in slow cooker and pour sauce on top. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
- Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred, set aside.
- 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.
- Pour sauce over shredded chicken and stir to combine.
- Serve over rice with desired toppings.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner
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.
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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
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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.