Garlic Honey Chicken

A 5-ingredient succulent and juicy garlic honey chicken breasts in soy sauce cooked in the slow cooker for a perfect family dinner and easy weekly meal prep.

The secret to making finger-licking good honey garlic chicken is the sauce ingredients. You don’t need to overcomplicate it, simply use minced garlic, honey, and soy sauce. No other seasonings or add-ons.

While chicken cooks, it will soak all the flavors, stay moist and juicy, and cook to perfection without becoming rubbery.

The cooking time in a slow cooker is quite long, but it is a completely hands-off cooking method! The chicken turns out perfect every time and you have minimal clean-up and prep. Skip the takeout tonight, let’s make some 5-star chicken!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Easy recipe for a weeknight dinner, plus, budget-friendly.
• It is absolutely delicious and perfectly seasoned even without salt and pepper!
• Yummy sauce coats well the chicken and the garnish you will serve it with.
• Perfect addition to a Chinese-style buffet gathering you’re prepping.

Ingredients Notes

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts. I prefer to remove the skin when cooking in a slow cooker, but if you fry chicken in a skillet, you can leave the skin on – it will be covered in the sticky sauce and get crispy. Do not use frozen chicken in this recipe.
• Honey or maple syrup, or half maple syrup and half honey. The sweet part of the sauce.
• Soy sauce. Light soy sauce or regular. The salty part of the sauce. You can also use tamari instead for a gluten-free recipe.
• Minced garlic. You can use garlic powder but I would prefer fresh garlic, which gives more flavor.

Kitchen Equipment

• 5-qt crock pot
• Small bowl

How To Make Honey Garlic Chicken Breast

The recipe is super simple: we load all the ingredients into the crock pot and we cook it.

1: Load The Chicken In The Slow Cooker

1. Prep a 5-quart slow cooker (or larger) by spraying with cooking oil.
2. Add the chicken to the cooker.

2: Make The Honey Sauce

Combine the soy sauce, honey, water, and minced garlic cloves in a small bowl. Whisk well to combine and then pour the mixture over the top of the chicken. Make sure to coat the chicken well.

3: Cover & Cook

• Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours – or until the chicken is fork tender and the sauce thickens.
• Shred the chicken by pulling with 2 forks.

Serving Suggestions

Serve over white rice mashed potatoes, steamed rice and broccoli, cauliflower rice, green beans, or stir-fry veggies.

You can use any rice you like, from Jasmine rice to healthy brown rice.

You can sprinkle the cooked chicken with some sliced green onions, cilantro, parsley, or sesame seeds.

Storage

Any chicken dinner leftovers should be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.

To reheat, add a little bit of water or chicken broth, and reheat in a saucepan over medium heat or microwave.

You can also freeze garlic honey chicken for 2 months. Thaw overnight and reheat as usual.

Substitutions & Variations

• The recipe works with boneless skinless chicken thighs too. Dark meat in the thighs is really flavorful and tender. To be fair, this easy recipe will work with any protein.
• Make it spicy. Add your favorite hot sauce, hot honey, chili paste, ground ginger, crushed red pepper flakes, and cayenne pepper, or simply serve the chicken with hot sauce.
• Toasted sesame oil adds even more depth to the flavors. Onion powder or chopped onions can also be an aromatic add-on.
• Add some tang with vinegar. You can use apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, or rice vinegar.
• You can coat chicken in flour to add some crispiness and texture.

If you love this easy dinner recipe, you’re going to love these other Asian-inspired recipes too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

More Honey Garlic Recipes

Honey Garlic Sheet Pan Shrimp

Baked Honey Garlic Chicken

Slow Cooker Blueberry Honey Garlic Meatballs

Garlic and Honey Chicken Wings

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