This is tender and extra saucy honey teriyaki chicken, an extremely simple and versatile dish made in the slow cooker. For serving, garnish the sweet, salty, and savory pulled chicken with scallions and crunchy sesame seeds and enjoy with rice, steamed vegetables, or serve sandwich style on a hearty roll.
Life is busy and you’re swamped trying to figure out dinner for tonight. What a familiar feeling! This honey teriyaki chicken recipe requires little effort, yet delivers so much flavor. We’re taking advantage of the slow cooker for this meal, as well as preparing a homemade honey teriyaki sauce. The whole process is fairly easy and the crockpot does most of the work.
And bonus! It’s consistently crowd-pleasing. One reader said: “I made this recipe for dinner today! It was so delicious. Can’t wait to have the leftovers tomorrow! The spice level was just right and everything cooked perfectly.”
Tell Me About Slow Cooker Honey Teriyaki Chicken
- Time: This recipe requires about 15-20 minutes of prep time which includes chopping an onion, making the quick sauce on the stove, and shredding the chicken which is a step later in the recipe. Plus, set aside a total of 4-6 hours for slow cooking.
- Preparation & Texture Go Hand-in-Hand: Once the chicken has cooked in the honey teriyaki sauce for a few hours, it locks in all that massive flavor and becomes incredibly tender. Then it’s time to remove and shred the chicken. Since it’s so tender, it shreds very quickly and easily. Place the chicken back into the slow cooker so it can soak up even more of the juicy sauce. (Shredded chicken offers more surface area for the sauce to coat!)
- Flavor: The chicken is infused with so much sweet-salty flavor from the bold and garlicky honey teriyaki sauce. Garnished with sesame seeds and scallions, this dish truly comes to life. I added onion for extra flavor, but you can leave it out if you’re not a fan.
What about leftovers? We can’t say this about many meals, but reheated honey teriyaki chicken is SO GOOD. It’s even tastier and more flavorful on day 2 or 3 after the sauce has thickened in the refrigerator– it sticks right to the chicken.
How to Make Honey Teriyaki Sauce
It’s certainly convenient to purchase a bottle of store-bought sauce, but we prefer making our own because you have total control of the ingredients and flavor. Plus, it tastes fresher and that makes a big difference in the final dish. You need cornstarch, brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and vinegar. We usually use rice wine vinegar, but apple cider vinegar works well too.
- Are you looking for a traditional Japanese-style teriyaki sauce? We’ve made and loved Nami’s homemade teriyaki sauce. It’s incredible over salmon.
Today’s honey teriyaki sauce recipe is similar to the teriyaki sauce we use for pineapple teriyaki chicken. Though we use mostly honey in this version for a slightly different flavor, we still add a little brown sugar. Why both honey and brown sugar? Depth of flavor. We found the sauce lacking when we skipped the brown sugar completely.
No Slow Cooker? No Problem.
Follow the directions in the recipe note to make this teriyaki chicken recipe on the stove.
More Easy & Dependable Dinner Recipes
- Slow Cooker Chicken Chili
- Honey Garlic Shrimp
- Lemon Salmon
- Vegetarian Pumpkin Chili
- Sweet Chili Chicken
- Lemon Thyme Chicken
- Turkey Pot Pie
Slow Cooker Honey Teriyaki Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes
- Yield: serves 4-6
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is tender and extra saucy honey teriyaki chicken, an extremely simple and versatile dish made in the slow cooker. For serving, garnish the sweet, salty, and savory pulled chicken with scallions and crunchy sesame seeds and enjoy with rice, steamed vegetables, or serve sandwich style on a hearty roll.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon (7g) cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) room temperature water
- 3 Tablespoons (50g) brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (85g) honey
- 1/2 cup (120ml) soy sauce
- 1/4 cup (60ml) vinegar (either rice wine or apple cider is great)
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 – 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger)
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1.5 – 2 lbs total)
- optional for serving: sesame seeds and chopped scallion
Instructions
- Stir the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl until combined, then pour into a medium saucepan over low-medium heat. Add the brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and ginger. Allow to simmer while whisking occasionally. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
- Place chopped onion and chicken into a 4 quart or larger slow cooker. (Here’s one I own and love!) Pour teriyaki sauce on top. Cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 5 hours.
- Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and, using 2 forks, shred into smaller pieces. Place back into the slow cooker and stir to combine. Cook for 1 more hour on low, stirring occasionally.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and scallion, if desired, and serve on top of cooked rice or quinoa or alongside steamed vegetables. Or pile onto rolls and enjoy sandwich style. Keep leftovers in a large tupperware in the refrigerator for up to a week. Reheat in the microwave.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Place cooled cooked chicken/sauce into a freezer-friendly container or large zipped-top bag and freeze up to 3-4 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or place the container/bag in the sink filled with warm water. Once thawed, cook in a large pot on medium heat for 10 minutes. Or reheat in the microwave until warmed throughout. You can also freeze this uncooked. Place everything in a freezer-friendly container or large zipped-top bag, freeze up to 3-4 months, thaw in the refrigerator, then add to the slow cooker and proceed with the recipe.
- Why Brown Sugar and Honey? Depth of flavor. We both preferred the flavor of this teriyaki sauce when both sweeteners were used.
- No Slow Cooker? No problem! Follow recipe through step 1. Set sauce aside. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onion and chicken and cook, stirring often, until the chicken is browned on both sides. Pour the teriyaki sauce on top. Turn the stove down to low heat and allow the chicken to simmer in the sauce for a few minutes before serving.
Keywords: honey teriyaki chicken
This was absolutely delicious! I tried this last weekend in my slow cooker and my only complaint was that there wasn’t more chicken (I cooked 1.34 pounds of chicken)! My husband enjoyed every bite! And the flavor got better the longer it sat. It was even better as leftovers! Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
This was fabulous! I made it for my son and his girlfriend, and they both loved it. So easy, the slow cooker does the work. I served it over jasmine rice with vegetables and a salad on the side. It’s a keeper in my house!
Forgot the garnishes, but oh my, very tasty. I like spices but not hot. This was so good. With just 2 of us, I froze 2 helpings and put the other in fridge for leftover night. Will make again. My husband gave it 5 stars too.
★★★★★
Hi! I love all your recipes! Question… do you have or are you going to have a cookbook with the entree recipes in it like for dinners/salads/pizza/sides/etc?
I’d really love to get my hands on one!
Thanks!
Hi Tiffany, thanks so much for your positive feedback! We don’t have plans for a savory cookbook at this time.
Made this tonight and it was so good! Husband loved it as well!
★★★★★
Love this recipe!
Question for freezing – is it best to still make the sauce in a pan, let it cool, then put it into the freezer safe bag with the chicken and freeze or put all the separate ingredients into the bag with the chicken and freeze then dump into the crockpot all together?
Hi Ashley, I’ve made this recipe both ways and have never noticed a difference in the final outcome/taste/texture. Either way works.
Saw this come through in your email and made it the very next night. Easy and quick to throw together in the crockpot. Served with rice and broccoli. My husband and I both loved it!
★★★★★
Hey Sally! We’ve recently discovered your blog and we are now super hooked!! We have already made 3 recipes and there were all absolutely delicious!! But we have a question regarding your Slow Cooker Honey Teriyaki Chichen…. we tend to use heather honey ( I believe it is called, you know the dark, rich and more raw type…) should we reduced the amount of honey if we use this type of honey? Or should we change anything else in order to be able to use this type of honey?
We don’t generally have regular honey at home.
Thank you
Hi Marco! So glad you are enjoying my recipes. You can either reduce the amount of honey (perhaps down to 2 Tbsp) or you can use brown sugar in its place.
Can I double this?
Sure can!
Tonight was the 4th time I’ve made this dish and every time, I tell myself I need to make it more often. Thanks for another great recipe!
★★★★★
I made this today for dinner and it was sooooo good. My fiance and I are very excited about the leftovers 🙂 With this whole coronavirus situation, we’re trying to plan our grocery runs to last us 2 weeks, and this was intended to be one of our “bulk” meals to last us through working from home! Keep these slow cooker recipes comin – we are loving them!!
★★★★★
Looks great! If I wanted to include sliced carrots or broccoli to the slow cooker, would they cook OK or would they come out overdone?
I would add those in later in the cooking process– maybe when there’s just an hour left (either on high or low).
Hi Sally,
I made your slow cooker teriyaki Chicken and was very good !!! I have a photo and don’t know where to post it ,
★★★★★
Hi
Can I cook chicken as small pieces in the slow cooker the first time around itself instead of taking them out and shredding later on ?
Yes, that should work!
This is so delicious! I made it with thigh fillets instead and it worked great! I’d love to know your recommendations as to what to pair with it Sally.
★★★★★
I have tried and loved some of your baking dishes. It was about time to take on dinner one. This was so good! I doubled the sauce like many suggested. It was my very first Asian inspired dish I made from scratch too!! It will be put on our dinner rotation. Thanks Sally!
★★★★★
This was Amazing!! A huge hit in my family. Some like it over rice and others like it on a bun. The juice is so yummy and the chicken so tender. Since I had close to 3lbs of chicken, I doubled the juice and it was perfect. Thank you for this go-to recipe, especially when I have company.
★★★★★
Excellent….The Best I did double the sauce. All I can say is Excellent.
★★★★★
Made this last night and it instantly became my new favourite dinner in our house!!
Can I double the sauce for the recipe next time or should I make a separate sauce for pouring over the rice?
★★★★★
I’m glad it was such a hit! You can double the sauce 🙂
I made this last night but I did it without the slow cooker and it was amazing! The flavor was wonderful. I did add some Sriracha as my hubby and I like a little heat and it was so so good! I love your savory recipes as much as your baked goodies.
It was delicious! I always know I can trust your recipes and any issues are my user error 😉 One question, I did not end up with much sauce left at the end. My chicken was saucy, but no extra sauce to cover the rice. Is this typical/correct?
Hi Rebecca! The chicken soaks up a lot of the sauce. 🙂 Glad you liked it!
*****5 stars! I made this last night and it was delicious. The honey teriyaki sauce is so good. It soaks up in the chicken and has great flavor. I ate it with some brown rice and broccoli. I will definitely be making this again and I can’t wait to try the baked pineapple chicken recipe too!
This was delicious!! I was putting it off because cooking the sauce on the stove seemed like an extra effort, but definitely worth the one step! We ate it with brown rice and TJ’s stir fry veggies. Yum!
I made this today. So easy and so tasty! Looking forward to having it for my lunches at work.
I made this last night for my husband and I. It was great and I will be making this often. I always make the recipe exactly as it is written the first time, no need to change anything with this one. Definitely take the time to make the teriyaki it is worth the time.
Made this for supper today. Followed exact recipe (except I only had 500gm of chicken on hand – therefore lots of extra sauce). I also had issue with the sauce not thickening enough for my taste. So at the end took most of the sauce out and into a small pot. Mixed 1 Tbsp cornstarch with 1 Tbsp water and added it in and brought to boil. Thickened nicely then added it back into the chicken. Problem solved!
So…the verdict is that this was delicious and definitely a keeper. Hubby wants me to make it again. Liked having too much sauce…YUM!
Hey Sally,
I’m excited to try this recipe! I have a question about cooking time though. The recipe says it takes 4 hours and 15 minutes. The instructions say to cook on high for 3 hours or 5 on low. If I cook on low for five hours, I still have to cook another hour after shredding the chicken, right?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Lisa! Yes, you’re correct. Cook on high or low for the instructed times, shred the chicken, then cook for about 1 hour on low AFTER shredding the chicken.
Just made this last week. My hubby and I love asian food. With our insanely cold and snowy winter here in Minnesota…it is such a time saving and nummy meal to warm up to.
Have to say our all time fav of yours is Sweet Chili Chicken
Can’t wait to see more pics of that precious little girl of yours.
I made this last Monday and it was delicious! I served it with cauliflower rice and steamed vegetables! My only issue was that the sauce I poured into the crockpot really thinned out while cooking and became watery. I ended up making another batch of sauce and served it with dinner. Overall, it was wonderful and everyone loved it!
I have that problem with some dishes with slow cooker having a lot of condensation . I place a paper towel under the lid to prevent so much on my new crockpot. My old one did not create so much condensation is the new one .
I’ve got this in the crockpot and my kitchen smells so good! I’m putting some in the freezer along with your chicken noodle soup. I’m due with baby # 3 in 2 weeks and I have a feeling these meals are going to come in handy!! I just need to find my energy to make some cake batter chocolate chip cookies now (not sure how they’ll ever make it to the freezer though!! ).