Description
This Crockpot Honey Garlic Chicken is an easy and healthy choice for a weeknight dinner or meal prep because tender chicken slowly cooks in a quick honey garlic sauce. The simple ingredient list creates the best balance of sweet and savory flavor while the slow cooker handles most of the work. Serve it over rice with vegetables for practical dinner ideas or bring a warm batch to a holiday gathering or potluck or casual party when you need a reliable crowd pleaser.
Ingredients
- 4 thighs or about 1 1/2 pounds Boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1/3 cup Honey
- 1/3 cup Low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup Ketchup
- 5 cloves minced Garlic
- 1 teaspoon grated Fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon Rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons Cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons Cold water
- 3 cups Cooked white rice
- 2 thinly sliced Green onions
- 2 teaspoons Sesame seeds
Instructions
- Combine the honey and soy sauce and ketchup and minced garlic and ginger and rice vinegar and sesame oil until the separate liquids become one smooth reddish brown sauce. Small bits of garlic and ginger should remain visible throughout the mixture while faint streaks of honey disappear into the darker liquid.
- Place exactly four raw chicken thighs in the slow cooker and pour the mixed honey garlic sauce over and around them until their tops are partially coated. Keep the thighs casually spaced with slight overlap so reddish brown sauce remains visible in uneven pools around the pale chicken.
- Cook the four chicken thighs until they change from pale pink to opaque golden brown and become tender enough to separate easily at their irregular edges. The sauce should bubble around the shifted pieces and become darker while the chicken releases juices that make the liquid thinner before thickening.
- Lift the four cooked thighs from the sauce and stir in the cornstarch blended with cold water before returning the chicken in a looser arrangement. The bubbling liquid should transform into a thick glossy glaze that clings unevenly to the chicken and leaves slow moving trails between the pieces.
- Place one cooked chicken thigh over three quarters cup of fluffy white rice and spoon thick honey garlic sauce over the top so a little runs into the rice. Finish with unevenly scattered green onion slices and sesame seeds while keeping the caramelized edges and non-uniform glaze visible.
Notes
Pro Tips:
- Use chicken thighs of similar size so all four pieces finish cooking together while remaining juicy and tender.
- Choose low sodium soy sauce because the liquid reduces during cooking and regular soy sauce can become too salty.
- Thicken the sauce only after the chicken is cooked so the cornstarch does not settle or create a pasty texture.
- For deeper flavor let the coated chicken rest in the refrigerator for thirty minutes before starting the slow cooker.
Storage: Let the Crockpot Honey Garlic Chicken cool before transferring it into a shallow airtight container. Store the chicken with enough sauce to keep every piece moist during refrigeration. Refrigerate leftovers for up to four days. Keep the cooked rice in a separate container so it does not absorb all of the sauce and become overly soft. Reheat the chicken gently with a spoonful of water in a covered pan or microwave safe dish. Heat until steaming and stir the sauce around the chicken halfway through reheating. For longer storage freeze the cooled chicken and sauce for up to three months. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and prepare fresh rice when ready to serve.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Asian American