Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken is an easy crockpot recipe and a true family favorite. We use skinless chicken thighs (although chicken breast works, too!) and slow cook them in a sticky honey garlic sauce. Serve them whole with the sauce poured over the top, or shred the meat and mix it with some of the deliciously sweet sauce. Either way, you're going to love it!

This Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken Recipe was originally published in 2013. 
Slow cooker honey garlic chicken thighs in a crockpot.

Slow cooker dinners are the best, right? Throw everything in a pot, turn it on and then go do fun stuff while your dinner cooks itself. Awesome. 

Why we love this slow cooker honey garlic chicken

  • The easy to make sauce is sweet, garlicky, and totally delicious.
  • It's refined sugar-free! Most honey garlic chicken recipes made in a crockpot call for ketchup (loaded in sugar) and often brown sugar. We skip these and add a little tomato paste for flavor and let the honey do the sweetening.
  • You won't find any fussy steps here. Pop everything into your slow cooker and turn it on. Done!
  • Two options for serving: deliciously tender chicken thighs with the sauce poured over the top or made into honey garlic shredded chicken.We recommend trying it both ways cause we can't make up our minds about which way we like best.
Honey garlic sauce being poured over chicken thighs in a crockpot.

How to make these slow cooker honey garlic chicken thighs

Are you ready for this? You might want to sit down …

  1. Put everything into your slow cooker and turn it on. 

Phew, that was tough. Joking!

Technically, I do mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl and pour them over the chicken thighs. But this is only because I have a smaller Crockpot. If yours is bigger, you'll be able to mix the sauce in the pot, add the chicken, then give it a little stir so that the chicken is coated in the sauce.

Slow cooker honey garlic chicken thighs on a white plate.

What to serve with Crockpot Honey Garlic Chicken

I love this recipe with mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower. There is lots of sauce so you can pour some over the top and pretend it's gravy. And a simple green salad with one of our favorite salad dressing recipes will round out the meal.

Another delicious option is our Roasted Winter Green Salad. It goes really well with this chicken.

If you've opted to shred the chicken, you can sandwich some between bread with a handful of arugula.

Slow cooked shredded chicken with honey garlic sauce being poured over the top.

Love honey garlic?

We do, too! Here are our favorite honey garlic recipes:

Shredded honey garlic chicken piled high on a plate.

Healthy Crockpot Chicken Recipes

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Slow cooker honey garlic chicken thighs in a crockpot.

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

  • Author: Kristen Stevens
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 4 hours 10 mins
  • Total Time: 4 hours 10 mins
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x
  • Category: Crockpot
  • Method: Slow Cooker
  • Cuisine: American

★★★★★

5 from 3 reviews
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Description

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken is an easy crockpot recipe and a true family favorite. We use skinless chicken thighs (although chicken breast works, too!) and slow cook them in a sticky honey garlic sauce. Serve them whole with the sauce poured over the top, or shred the meat and mix it with some of the deliciously sweet sauce. Either way, you're going to love it!

Scale

Ingredients

  • 8 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ¼ cup coco aminos (can sub soy sauce)
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon salt (omit if you use soy sauce)
  • 1 teaspoon molasses
  • ½ teaspoon oregano
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons tapioca starch or cornstarch
  • Sesame seeds and chives, to garnish

Instructions

  1. Place the chicken thighs in your slow cooker in a single layer.
  2. In a small bowl, mix the honey, tomato paste, coco aminos, salt, molasses, oregano, and garlic. (See notes.) Pour the sauce over the chicken. Put the lid on the slow cooker and turn it to high for 2-3 hours or low for 5-6 hours. (See notes)
  3. A half hour before you're ready to eat, whisk the tapioca starch with 2 tablespoons of cold water and pour it into the crockpot. Mix it around a little to thicken the sauce.
  4. Either serve the chicken with some sauce poured over the top or shred the chicken and mix in ½ cup of the sauce.

Notes

If you have a large slow cooker you can mix the sauce in the slow cooker then add the chicken and mix it around. We find this a little hard to do in a small slow cooker.

While you can cook this longer (8 hours on low) the chicken will be very tender and is best shredded.

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Slow cooker honey garlic chicken thighs in a crockpot with the recipe title on top of the picture.