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This recipe for Honey Garlic Chicken is cooked in the slow cooker with just 5 minutes preparation needed. With just a few simple ingredients, you’re left with a delicious sticky, Asian-style sauce and super tender meat.

Honey Garlic Chicken Cooked in the Slow Cooker with Sticky Sauce.

A while ago I took to Instagram to ask my lovely followers what kind of recipes they’d like to see more of, and SO MANY of you said slow cooker chicken recipes for summer! 

It took some getting my head around, and then I realised it made sense… no hot and sweaty cooking over a hot stove – perfect!

And no cooking later in the day when we’ve had our fill of a hot day.

That prompted a collection of summer slow cooker recipes that were great for the warmer months and meant moving away slightly from stodgier dishes like traditional stews. 

This is where this Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken dish comes into its own.

It’s light but packed with flavour and a mouthwatering sticky Asian-style sauce. It’s perfect with a bit of rice or vegetables on the side and requires very little effort to put together. Enjoy!

Why you’ll love this Honey Garlic Chicken recipe

⭐️ Prepared in under 5 minutes

⭐️ The most delicious, sticky, tasty sauce 😍

⭐️ Great change from a takeaway

Honey Garlic Chicken thighs with rice and broccoli.

More slow cooker summer recipes…

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken Ingredients notes

  • Chicken thighs – These should be boneless and skinless
  • Garlic and ginger – I use this from the freezer, pre prepared (always after a shortcut). You can obviously prepare fresh if you’d prefer
  • Oyster sauce – This is optional as I know it’s not super common to have in your cupboards. BUT if you can get it/have some, it’s definitely worth adding as it really is the secret to super tasty Asian-style sauces
  • Honey – Runny or set is fine
  • To serve – Rice, chopped spring onions and sesame seeds

How to make Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

  1. Add everything (apart from the cornflour and serving ingredients) into the slow cooker and stir well. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 6 hours.
  2. When the chicken is tender, scoop out some liquid and mix with cornflour (corn starch in the US) to make a ‘slurry’ (see notes on this below) and pop back in to thicken the sauce.
  3. Gently shred the chicken with two forks. 
  4. When the sauce is thick enough, serve with rice chopped spring onions and sesame seeds.
Bowl of sticky asian chicken with broccoli and rice.

Substitutions

  • Chicken breast – You could use chicken breast in this recipe, but it won’t be QUITE as tender. You may also need to cook for slightly less time
  • Soy sauce – I prefer dark soy sauce for this recipe as it gives a rich, thick sauce. If you only have light soy sauce, the end result will be more pale and not quite as rich. You could also use a mix of both if you don’t want such a rich sauce

Leftovers

In the fridge You can keep this recipe in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat fully by before serving.

In the freezer This recipe freezes well. Just wait until it’s totally cold and then put into a freezer proof container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost thoroughly before reheating.

⭐️ Dump bag recipe ⭐️ This works perfectly as a ‘dump recipe’, which means you can add all the raw ingredients into a storage bag together, then freeze it and simply defrost and dump it all into a slow cooker when you’re ready!

What to serve with Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

  • Boiled rice (or from a microwave pouch if you’re saving time) OR
  • Noodles
  • Boiled or roasted green vegetables (I like broccoli with this or mange tout peas)
  • Prawn crackers
  • Extra sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce on the side

More Chinese inspired fakeaways…

FAQs

Should I brown the chicken before cooking it in the slow cooker?

If you want to get scientific, the reason we brown meat before slow cooking is because it causes a Maillard reaction. The process of frying, heating it to a hot temperature until it browns, changes the flavour compounds in the meat, basically adding a depth of flavour.

Does it add something to most slow cooked dishes? Yes. Is it vital in this dish, which is packed with other flavour? No. My opinion is that it’s much more important in red meat dishes and even then, sometimes speed and ease are more important.

How do I make a slurry?

This is a trick to thicken the sauce without ending up with floury lumps.

First you add cornflour to a small bowl, mug or jug, then use a little liquid from a dish (a spoonful or two) to mix the cornflour into a paste consistency. Add that back into the dish’s sauce.

If you just sprinkle cornflour straight into the dish, it will form lumps that are almost impossible to get rid of. I promise this step is worth the extra dirty bowl!

PLEASE NOTE that cornflour in the UK is NOT the same as it in the US! There it’s known as ‘corn starch’. Corn flour in the US is something different (the same as cornmeal in the UK), so please don’t use this.

Can you recommend a good slow cooker?

The Morphy Richards Sear & Stew Slow Cooker is my all-time favourite because you can use it for initial browning on the hob and it’s really light. 

I wrote up a whole slow cooker review though, where you might find another one to suit your needs. Have a read here.

Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.

Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).

A slow cooker pan filled with a delicious Honey Garlic Chicken sauce, with spring onions sprinkled on top.
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4.98 from 342 votes

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken {with Sticky Sauce}

By Sarah Rossi
This recipe for Honey Garlic Chicken is cooked in the slow cooker with just 5 minutes preparation needed. It cooks up a sticky, Asian-style sauce and super tender meat.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 5 minutes
Servings: 6 People

Ingredients 

  • 1 kg (4 cups) Boneless, skinless chicken thighs, See notes.
  • 4 Cloves Garlic, peeled and crushed, see notes.
  • 2 tsp Fresh ginger, See notes.
  • 8 tbsp (0.5 cups) Dark soy sauce, See notes.
  • 2 tbsp Oyster sauce, Optional. See notes.
  • 4 tbsp (0.25 cups) Honey, Runny or set is fine.
  • 4 tbsp (0.25 cups) Tomato ketchup
  • 1/2 tsp Chilli flakes, Optional.

To add at the end of cooking:

  • 1 tbsp Cornflour, See notes

To serve:

  • Rice
  • Chopped spring onions
  • Sesame seeds

Instructions 

  • Put everything APART FROM the cornflour (corn starch in the US), into the slow cooker (crock pot). Give it a good stir.
  • Put the lid on and cook on HIGH for 4 hour or LOW for at least 6 hours.
  • When the chicken is tender and falling apart, scoop out a couple of tablespoons of the liquid and mix into the cornflour in a small bowl or mug. Whisk until totally smooth and add back into the chicken mixture.
  • Gently shred the chicken with two forks and stir thoroughly so that the cornflour is distributed.
  • You may find that the sauce thickens almost instantly (depending on how long it takes you to shred the chicken). If it doesn't, just leave in the slow cooker switched onto HIGH for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
  • Serve sprinkled with chopped spring onions and sesame seeds.

Notes

Garlic and ginger: I use all of these from the freezer, pre prepared (always after a shortcut). You can obviously prepare fresh if you’d prefer.
Chicken thighs: These should be boneless and skinless. You could use chicken breast in this recipe, but it won’t be QUITE as tender. You may also need to cook for slightly less time.
Soy sauce: I prefer dark soy sauce as it gives a rich, thick, tasty sauce. If you only have light soy sauce, the end result will use be more pale and not quite as rich. You could use a mix of both if you don’t want such a rich sauce.
Oyster sauce: This is optional as I know it’s not super common to have in your cupboards. BUT if you can get it/have some, it’s definitely worth adding as it really is the secret to super tasty asian style sauces.
Cornflour: PLEASE NOTE that cornflour in the UK is NOT the same as it in the US! There it’s known as ‘corn starch’. Corn flour in the US is something different (the same as cornmeal in the UK), so please don’t use this.

Nutrition

Calories: 276kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 35gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 158mgSodium: 1584mgPotassium: 506mgFiber: 1gSugar: 14gVitamin A: 141IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 23mgIron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Family Food, Japanese
Like this? Leave a comment and rating below!Mention @myusername or tag #myhashtag!

This post was originally published on July 1, 2020 and updated later to make improvements.

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Sarah Rossi founder of TamingTwins.com and author of 'What's for Dinner?' books.

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115 Comments

  1. Loved this one, really easy to put together. I used light soy, a bit more chicken (1.3kg because that’s how big the pack was), and a dash of water.
    I’m in Australia so I just used tomato sauce instead of ketchup.
    Whole family loved it (1.5 year old and 5.5 year old too).

    Will definitely be making some dump bags for the freezer!

    Reply

  3. 5 stars
    Absolutely delicious 😋 , I added 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes and didn’t put cornflour in at the end …. instead I threw in some rice noodles (without precooking/ soaking) & added a tiny bit of boiled water to help the noodles cook through, cooked for 15 minutes on Low adding more boiling water if needed , it becomes a dry noodle dish with the noodles really soaking up the flavour – Thank you Sarah for sharing this super quick & tasty recipe

    Reply

  5. 4 stars
    Really nice. Chicken thighs tasted amazing. Did find the sauce a bit overpowering. I will change to light soy sauce and maybe just 1tblsp of oyster sauce. Did it on low for 6 hours. Chicken so tender.

    Reply