Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
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Dump everything in the crockpot for a family-friendly meal! Best served over rice. Sweet, savory & so easy.
Featured Comment
This crockpot honey sesame chicken has saved me so many times. Even with the busiest of days, nights, and lazy weekends, this slow cooker recipe is always coming to the rescue, and has never failed me.
reasons to make slow cooker honey sesame chicken
- Set and forget. This is one of those great slow cooker recipes that you can simply dump-and-go – there’s no searing, no cooking beforehand, no nothing. Come home from a long day to the coziest (and easiest), sauciest sesame chicken with zero hands-on cooking. The hardest part is shredding the chicken!
- Short ingredient list. Chicken, onion, soy sauce, honey, ketchup, garlic, ginger, s+p – most are pantry staples. And I have definitely been guilty of skipping the onions and garnishes half the time (and it still turns out oh-so-perfect).
- Flexible recipe. Use breasts or thighs and add in as little or as many vegetables as desired (perfect for those picky eaters). Serve over rice or your favorite grains with all the juices to sop up all the saucy goodness.
- Leftovers taste even better. The leftovers make for great lettuce wraps, and the leftover chicken + juices can be frozen as needed for quick meal prep for the busy weeks ahead!
tips and tricks for success
- Use reduced sodium soy sauce. Reduced sodium has less sodium and less salt without compromising flavor.
- Use dark or white meat. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs can be used interchangeably here but thighs are much fattier (and thus more flavorful).
- Add vegetables. Mushrooms, carrots, bell peppers or snow peas can be added during the last 30 minutes of cooking time for a more heartier meal.
- Serve with your favorite grains. White rice, brown rice, fried rice, cauliflower rice, quinoa or farro are all great options.
what to serve with slow cooker honey sesame chicken
Tools For This Recipe
6-qt slow cooker
Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, chicken breasts can absolutely be used here but chicken thighs have more dark meat and a higher fat content which will yield juicier, more flavorful chicken.
You can serve this with white rice or our favorite no-fuss sheet pan fried rice!
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. Leftovers are also great as lettuce wraps!
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop until warmed through.
Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 small onion, diced
- ½ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Equipment
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine onion, soy sauce, honey, ketchup, vegetable oil, garlic, ginger and red pepper.
- Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper, to taste. Place chicken thighs into a 6-qt slow cooker. Add soy sauce mixture and gently toss to combine. Cover and cook on low heat for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
- Remove chicken thighs from the slow cooker and shred the chicken before returning to the pot with the juices. Cover and keep warm for an additional 30 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with green onions and sesame seeds, if desired.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
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I’ve made this recipe a few times. I follow it exactly as instructed and its a hit! I serve it over jasmine rice. We usually have steam broccoli or roasted carrots as a side. Found on Pinterest and forever grateful.
That’s awesome!
Very good 5 starts as usual! My 2 year old just devoured it and my hubby said it’s a keeper! All of your recipes are nothing short of amazing!!!
Aw that’s so great to hear, Alicia! Thank you!
Hi. Is 3 hours really long enough on a low setting to cook 2 pounds of chicken? I’m a total novice when it comes to this stuff, but that doesn’t sound nearly long enough to me?
Hi Ryan, that’s how we cooked it and it turned out great.
Thanks Jana. I just cut some open after the 3hr 3o mark…still a little pink for me so I’m gonna give it another hour or so to be safe.
Lol I now realized the other recipe was from this website. I love that honey sesame chicken! Good to have this option with veggies too!
I realized this was my comment which doesn’t make a lot of sense I must have meant to put it on the other recipe. The other recipe is the honey garlic chicken recipe. I like this one the most though.
You can use boneless skinless chicken breast for this recipe if you prefer them. My husband is a strange man and doesn’t like the texture of chicken thighs.
Hello my family loves all your recipes. I have a tomato intolerance – so many yummy recipes that require tomatoes sigh. Was wondering if you have a suggestion for a replacement to the ketchup for this recipe? Or in general really if a recipe calls for ketchup or tomato paste – of welcome suggestions.
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
This was absolutely delicious! I made it today on the @livestrong_com insta story and credited you 🙂
Chicken cooked in the crock pot shreds easily in a stand mixer. This recipe doesn’t have to have ANY tedious parts. (My kids love it and now that I can fast forward through chicken shredding so do I.)
I try to avoid using ketchup in recipes because it adds extra sugar and I prefer not to used processed goods. Do you think I can substitute tomato paste or pureed tomatoes for the ketchup? thanks!
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Jennifer,
Primal Kitchen makes ketchup without sugar. Here are the ingredients (from their website:) Organic Tomato Concentrate, Organic Balsamic Vinegar, Less than 2% of Salt, Organic Onion Powder, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Spices If that is still too processed, tomato paste sounds like a good substitute.
I’m making this tonight, so can’t comment yet on how it will taste with this brand of unsweetened ketchup, but I have a feeling it will be great! I’ll let you know!
I have everything but honey :(. Would molasses be ok to substitute?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Hi, 3hrs and 30 mins is not a convenient cooking for me. Unfortunately I did not ask for advice in advance and I’m about to experiment the menu right now using the same ingredients but I will use this Instant Pot instead of slow cooker. I’m hoping it will turn out right. But I don’t really know exactly how long I will for cook it with this pot. 🙁 please help.
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
How did it go in the Instant Pot? I want to try the same thing because my crock pot is too small.
Can you leave it in the crockpot for longer than 30 mins after shredding the chicken?
Yes, preferably on the WARM setting, if applicable.
I can’t get the video to play. It says it is private, but the recipe looks yummy.
I made this as a freezer meal. So all ingredients in freezer bag, pulled out another day to make. I learned something through this recipe. I don’t care for a lot of soy sauce, nor do I like ketchup and soy together. I generally never use ketchup in a recipe so that one had me wondering.
Overall I didn’t care for this, it was overly salty and just didn’t taste good. May have been the freezer to crock pot, I don’t know. Will not make again.
If I want to double the recipe, would you recommend cooking on low for six hours instead of three, or should I go somewhere in the middle?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
If I wanted to put this in a freezer bag would I just put it all in there lay flat then freeze? Or do I not need to put anything together? Sorry new to crockpot dump meals.
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Very tasty and very easy! I swapped the thighs for breasts since they were on sale. 🙂
Made this for dinner tonight. Swapped thighs for b/s chicken breasts. SO DELICIOUS!! Thanks for the recipe!
Delicious Looking!
I’m going to try this with bone-in thighs.
It is all I have on hand.
I’ll skin them first, before putting them in the slow-cooker, the just take off the bone.
Can’t wait to try them!
Would this be good with Black Sesame seeds?
Yes, absolutely!
Ok, thanks for getting back to me. I will try it and see how it goes.
Hi
. Just wondering how well this recipe freezes after cooking?
Thanks
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.