Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken is the perfect weeknight meal with just five ingredients. Full of flavor and easy to make with pantry ingredients and almost no prep!
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken is the perfect weeknight meal that will be waiting for you when you get home and can be prepared even if you’re in a rush in the morning! You can also add the ingredients to a freezer bag and save it for later making this a perfect make ahead meal.
When I was pregnant with out first child I went through a crazy phase where I decided the entire deep freeze needed to be filled with enough meals to get us through the first six months of life with a baby. Enter slow cooker meals.
The slow cooker seemed like the perfect cooking tool to get us through the rough times. This Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken became a staple in our house.
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken made with just the small amount of each ingredient listed leaves you with just enough liquid so the tops of the chicken can brown instead of becoming soggy and grey and the liquid left over (once you skim the oil off the top that the chicken has rendered off) is the perfect amount to spoon on top of your chicken.
There is no need to pull out the cornstarch here, there’s no soupy water to thicken. Just a delicious meal you can make even fancier with the addition of some parsley or sesame seeds to give the chicken a bit of color.
For Making Ahead: If you plan to assemble and freeze the ingredients, you just add them to a freezer back and freeze flat for more even defrosting. When you are ready to cook, take the bag from the freezer and let it defrost for 24 hours in your fridge first. Then cook according to the directions in the recipe card.
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken uses pantry ingredients you have in your cupboard at this very moment (except the chicken, but I mean…). Ketchup? Soy Sauce? Honey? Garlic?
It doesn’t even take very much to make the Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken delicious. I am a huge fan of cooking in your slow cooker with small amounts of liquid. Too often a recipe will call for significant amounts of added liquids and you end up with completely watery soup.
If you’re looking for more slow cooker meals that leave out all the excess liquid, here is a great list:
- Crispy and Juicy Slow Cooker Chicken
- Slow Cooker Bacon Garlic Pork Loin
- Crispy Cracklin’ Pork Shoulder
- Crispy Slow Cooker Turkey Breast
- Crispy Slow Cooker Turkey Thighs
- Crispy Slow Cooker Corned Beef
Tools Used In This Recipe:
Slow Cooker: Love this slow cooker and how programmable it is, it has been a workhorse for me… until…
My New Slow Cooker: This recipe was made in this slow cooker. For larger roasts I also brown the meat in the insert and not lose a bunch of the flavor by transferring the meat and leaving the browned bits behind. If you’re thinking of a new slow cooker, consider it if your budget is open.
Lite Soy Sauce: I am an admitted lover of salt but I don’t even own non-lite soy sauce. This is the one you want in your kitchen and if you use regular soy sauce expect that your result will be saltier.
Freezer Bags: Other brands may be more popular, but I have never had a bag burst/leak with this brand. I have however with Ziploc.
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons lite soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 6 chicken thighs , bone in skin on
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients together in the slow cooker until well mixed.
Lay the chicken skin side up in a single layer and cook on low for 6-7 hours.
If your chicken isn't browned on the top you can put it on a foil lined cookie sheet under a broiler for 2-3 minutes.
Recipe Video
Than this be made on the stove. I don’t have a crock pot or slow cooker.
I would bake 350 for 30-35 minutes or 375 for 25-30 minutes. It should come out delicious!
Could I do this with ginger instead of garlic I can’t have garlic right now and love this recipe….
I’ve not tested it so if you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks!
Hello I made this tonight. It smelled really good while cooking but I think the time was to long. The sauce taste burned and the chicken really had no flavor under the skin. It was blah. I used everything you said for the sauce. I used thighs with skin and bone. So I think the time was to long maybe 4 hours would have been better. I had it on low. And maybe some salt
Whenever I see an easy recipe I like, it usually one of yours. Keep them coming.
You got it!
Can I double this recipe with equally good results? Would I need to increase cooking time?
You don’t want to overcrowd the slow cooker. My suggestion is to use 2 slow cookers to ensure it all cooks correctly.
Anyone know what this correlates in WW points?
I’ve made this twice already and really wanted to make it for dinner tonight but all I have on hand is frozen chicken breast or tenderloins… what do you suggest I do when using these rather than thighs?
I love this recipe btw ??
I’m so glad you love the recipe. I would use chicken breast but you’ll want to make sure that it’s completely thawed before adding it into the slow cooker. Enjoy!
Delicious! I did not have lite soy sauce, unfortunately, so I added a bit more of the honey for sweetness to counterbalance the salt. Also had a packet of plum sauce left from a previous takeout dinner, so I threw that in there as well.
I’m thinking some thinly sliced/ribboned fresh scallions with sesame seeds on top as a garnish might be nice. I’ll try that next time. This recipe is so good in its original form, but you can experiment with a few things to take it up a notch. This recipe will be a mainstay in my menu rotation — I stock up on chicken thighs when they are on sale and am always looking for easy and delicious ways to prepare them.
Serve with rice and a salad or green vegetable. YUM