Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken has fall-apart tender chicken breasts or thighs coated in a sticky honey sauce. With only 10 minutes of prep, this is an easy weeknight dinner recipe.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Everybody needs more easy chicken recipes. This is one of the easiest and best crock pot chicken recipes with a sticky honey sauce which is the feature of this recipe.
This sticky honey chicken will become a family favorite with great Asian flavor and tender chicken breasts or thighs. And it fits most healthy diets like a low-calorie or low-fat diet . And it can be made to fit a gluten-free diet.
Super easy to make with the step-by-step photo instructions. You can use almost any size slow cooker and either chicken breasts or thighs. And make it a complete meal by adding some vegetables with rice.
Serve with rice, like Fried Rice or Baked Rice. And don't miss these other easy Chinese take-out recipes Chinese Boneless Ribs, Beef and Broccoli, General Tso Chicken, Cashew Chicken, and Chicken Stir Fry.
Adapted from Allrecipes Honey-Garlic Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs.
🐓What your will need to make this recipe
- Chicken—skinless boneless chicken breasts or thighs
- Honey garlic sauce—soy sauce, honey, garlic cloves, basil(optional), crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- Corn starch—optional for thickening
- For serving—rice, toasted sesame seeds, green onions
👨🍳How to Make Honey Garlic Chicken in a Crock Pot
- Trim and cut chicken breasts or thighs into pieces.
- Mix the honey garlic sauce.
- In a smaller crock pot, stir the chicken with the sauce until coated.
- Cook on low for 3-4 hours but check at 2 hours. Breasts are done at 165° and thighs at 180°.
- If you want a thicker sauce, add a cornstarch slurry for the last hour of cooking.
- Serve with rice and use the sauce as gravy. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
✔️Tips and Options
- Chicken tips
- Chicken skin does not cook well in a crock pot, so don't use chicken with skin.
- Bone-in chicken takes a bit longer to cook.
- Cutting the chicken breasts into a couple of pieces helps them cook faster and easier, making serving-size pieces and more surface area for the sauce to flavor.
- If using chicken thighs, use skinless, but they may be boneless or bone-in.
- The size of the thighs is thinner and smaller than the breasts, so they do not need to be cut into pieces.
- Cook chicken breasts to 165° and thighs, although safe at 165°, are tenderer at 180°+.
- You may shred the chicken near the end of cooking and mix it back into the sauce.
- Sauce tips
- You can use Tamari to replace the soy sauce if you need gluten-free. Most Tamari is gluten-free, but check the label.
- A touch of rice vinegar (some may contain gluten) or crushed red pepper flakes are good. I added red pepper as an option.
- The basil is in the model recipe, but I no longer use it, so it is optional. Some will use oregano to replace the basil.
- The recipe makes ¼ cup of the honey garlic sauce to use at serving, but some will want more, so adjust the amount of sauce to what you want. It will not affect the cooking.
↕️How to make this a "for two" or "family size" recipe
This is a very easy recipe to cut in half or double. As written, it makes four servings of about 1 cup and can be made in a 2-quart crock pot.
To adjust the recipe size in the recipe card
- Use the recipe card and change the number of servings to half or double.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
Suggested crock pot sizes
- For a half recipe—it will fit in a 1 quart, but crock pots smaller than 2 quarts are notoriously inaccurate in cooking. So use one at your own risk and watch the temperature.
- For a full-size recipe—a 2 to 4-quart crock pot works well. You can use bigger but watch the temperature closely. Cooking small recipes in large crock pots tends to overcook rapidly and may burn. Cook to an internal temperature and not by time.
- For a double recipe—use a 3-quart or larger crock pot and watch the final temperature.
❓FAQs
Yes. Any chicken will do as long as you monitor the final internal temperature. But the bone is clumsy to eat around, and the skin does not cook nicely in a crock pot.
No. There are two issues with adding frozen chicken to a cooking crock pot.
First, the internal temperature of the chicken may not rise fast enough to cook safely.
Second, there have been a few reports of ceramic crock pots breaking due to temperature differentials.
The original recipe had a ½ cup of soy sauce. That was heavy on the salt. I receive complaints and suggest only ¼ cup of low sodium soy sauce. There is still a lot of flavor in the sauce.
Serving and storage of leftovers
The simplest serving method is with the honey garlic sauce over rice or cauliflower rice with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds and some sliced green onions.
Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days or freeze in an airtight container for 3-4 months.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Trim about 1 ½ pounds of chicken. If using skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut them into serving-size pieces. You may use skinless chicken thighs if you wish.
In a medium bowl, ½ cup of ketchup, ¼ cup of soy sauce (low sodium preferred), ¼ cup of honey, four cloves crushed garlic, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional), and ½ teaspoon basil (optional) whisk together.
Spread the chicken across the bottom of a 2-quarts or larger crock pot coated with PAM cooking spray. Add the sauce and mix.
If you want a thicker sauce, in a small bowl, make a cornstarch slurry by mixing 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cool water until smooth. Add to the crock pot and mix well during the last hour of cooking.
Cook on low for 3-4 hours. Breasts should reach 165°, or thighs should be 180° minimum when done. Check the chicken temperature at about 2 hours since crock pots vary.
Serve with rice and use the sauce as gravy. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
📖 Recipe
Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds skinless chicken - breasts or thights
Honey Garlic Sauce
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup soy sauce - low sodium
- ¼ cup honey
- 2-4 cloves garlic - crushed
- ½ teaspoon basil - optional
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes - optional
Optional thickening
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 2 tablespoons water
For serving
- rice
- toasted sesame seeds
- sliced green onions
Instructions
- Trim about 1 ½ pounds of chicken. If using skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut them into serving-size pieces. You may use skinless chicken thighs if you wish.
- In a medium bowl, ½ cup of ketchup, ¼ cup of soy sauce (low sodium preferred), ¼ cup of honey, four cloves crushed garlic, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional), and ½ teaspoon basil (optional) whisk together.
- Spread the chicken across the bottom of a 2-quarts or larger crock pot coated with PAM cooking spray. Add the sauce and mix.
- If you want a thicker sauce, in a small bowl, make a cornstarch slurry by mixing 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cool water until smooth. Add to the crock pot and mix well during the last hour of cooking.
- Cook on low for 3-4 hours. Breasts should reach 165°, or thighs should be 180° minimum when done. Check the chicken temperature at about 2 hours since crock pots vary.
- Serve with rice and use the sauce as gravy. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Use low-sodium soy sauce.
- It will fit nicely in a 2 qt or bigger crock pot. If you add vegetables, you will also need to increase the crock pot size and increase the sauce.
- Cook to an internal temperature of 165° for the chicken breasts. If using thighs, you will be happier with the texture of the chicken if you cook it to 180°+.
- Thickening is optional, and you may want to increase the amount of sauce for serving.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days. Good frozen for 3-4 months.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally Published January 4, 2015. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Lindsay
This recipe bursts with flavor! My entire family LOVED it! The only substitution that I made was Braggs liquid aminos vs soy sauce. Thank you!
anna
I'm not very good with season I vs, but learning. If you don't have basil, what can be substituted instead?
DrDan
With this recipe, I would just leave it out... there is lots of other flavor.
DrDan
Ashley
Definitely use low sodium! I used regular soy sauce and it is terribly salty for my taste :/ i think im going to have to whip up something else for dinner tonight.
Ray
Just bought my first ever crock pot and this was my first ever dish! So delicious and easy, I am hooked. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!!
Mike
Great and easy! I added broccoli after everything was cooked. Over rice or was great!
DrDan
Thanks for the note
DrDan
Racquel
Really amazing recipe! Easy to make, nutritious and easy to clean up. The flavor is wonderful - unique and robust. If I change anything next time, I will half the amount of soy sauce because it was a tad salty.
DrDan
Hi Racquel
I do agree that the sodium was at the high end. I would do low sodium soy sauce in the future.
Thanks for the note and rating.
DrDan
Andrea
Can I mix everything together and let it set in the fridge overnight before tossing it all in the crockpot?
Dawn
I only have 8 and 10 low or 4 or 6 high. Was yours 4 low? If so guess, I will just do 8 n then check it at 4. Will rate when we try tonight. Thanks! Looks great. I use my crock pot often and am always looking for new stuff.
DrDan
4 hours on low is enough. So start on 8 low and check at 4 hours and pull the plug.
DrDan
Skyla Ellis
This was good but I think unused to much garlic & honey! It was too much taste and a little too sweet.
But I'm glad I tried. Thanks for the recipe!
Joe Ferriero
Hi Dr Dan, just made it for 1st time . Its great but wish the sauce was thicker. Any suggestions?
DrDan
Hi Joe, You can thicken it some with corn starch. Try 1 tablespoon corn starch in 2 tablespoons of cool water mix well then add to the liquid in the pot about 30 minutes before completing and turn up to high. When you mix it in either take the chicken out briefly to get all the liquid treated or move the chicken to the side and mix well. And don't forget to go to high for the last 30 minutes or so.
DrDan
Stephanie
Yummy!! So good!
Stephanie
I made this tonight! I put on slow for close to 8 hours and it was delicious! I only added a dash of lemon juice and a little less basil. So good!
Dandy Sandy
This recipe is delicious! I substituted 2 planks of Tempeh for the chicken. I cut Tempeh in halves then sliced lengthwise to make patties. Soooo goooood! Will make again!
Theidahopotato
This recipe has real potential, but I made it as is and my husband and I didn't love it. I think the real problem was the basil; it just added a very strange flavor. However, my two year old and ten month old loved it and chowed down. I'll make it again, omitting the basil and adding a splash of rice vinegar or a squeeze of lime. Then I'll top the adult portions with a bit of siracha!
Amy
Googled "slow cooker chicken breast" for cook time and found this recipe. I didn't expect it to be good at all. But I ate the whole thing by myself at once. (3 chicken breasts.) Whoops!
DrDan
Hi Amy,
I'm working some variations of this. I just hope they do as well.
Thanks for the note.... you ate all three????
DrDan
Michelle
I googled same thing
Michelle
I googled slow cooked chicken breast too. This was delicious. I added some Chinese and white wine as someone else suggested (in place of the basil). I needed to add cornflour to make it thicker and could have added more. Next time I'll probably remove the juice and reduce it on the stovetop. I didn't have low salt soy and noticed the saltiness but it wasn't bad. Definitely a great recipe.
DrDan
Thanks for the note. It is a good basic start. Like all recipes, they are just guidelines to get where you want to go.
DrDan
Alfin
Great stuff