This Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken recipe is sweet, spicy, and easy to make! Serve it over rice or noodles for an easy weeknight meal.
Making crockpot honey sesame chicken is a hands-off way to prepare dinner for your family! To finish off the meal, add some instant or ready-made rice, cream cheese wontons, and a salad.
How To Make Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
Step One: Chicken
I chose boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but you can also use chicken thighs. Cut the chicken into 1 to 1 1/2-inch cubes and place them in a bowl.
Sprinkle the chicken with black pepper, garlic powder, and kosher salt. Stir to coat. Then, sprinkle it with cornstarch and stir to coat. Transfer the coated chicken to a crockpot. A slow cooker liner can make cleanup easier.
Step Two: Honey Sesame Chicken Sauce
In a small bowl, whisk together honey, light soy sauce, brown sugar, hoisin sauce, sriracha sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and minced garlic. Pour the sauce mixture over the chicken and stir to coat.
Step Three: Crockpot
Cover and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours until it reaches 165˚F. Start checking the temperature of the chicken after 3 hours. Or you can cook it on high for 1 1/2 to 2 hours and start checking the temperature after 1 1/2 hours.
Step Four: Garnish
Sprinkle the slow cooker honey sesame chicken with sesame seeds and green onions. Serve it over rice or noodles.
Tips For Making Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
- You can choose chicken breasts or thighs for this recipe. I’ve tried both, and the chicken thighs are dark meat and have more fat. This will help keep the chicken moist if that has been an issue for you.
- Get to know your crockpot or slow cooker. Each brand and price point can vary significantly. Check the temperature of the chicken after 3 hours when cooking it on low or after 1 1/2 hours when cooking it on high.
- For extra sauce, increase the sauce ingredients before adding them to the slow cooker.
Make Ahead and Storage
- Make Ahead: To prep crockpot sesame chicken ahead of time, cube and season the chicken. Place it in an airtight storage bag in the fridge overnight. Add the cornstarch the next day. Whisk the sauce ingredients in an airtight container and store them in the fridge overnight. Then, prepare the recipe as directed.
- Storage: Store the cooled leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days or in the freezer for up to four weeks.
More Crockpot Recipes
- Slow Cooker Chicken Alfredo Tortellini
- Slow Cooker French Dip
- Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Meatballs
- Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs
- 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- ¾ cup honey
- ½ cup light soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce more or less as desired
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 3 cloves garlic, minced about 1 ½ teaspoons
- 2 tablespoon sliced green onions
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Put the cubed chicken in a large bowl. Sprinkle with black pepper, garlic powder, and kosher salt and stir until evenly seasoned. Sprinkle with the cornstarch and stir to coat. Transfer the chicken to a greased or lined slow cooker.
- In a small bowl, mix together honey, light soy sauce, brown sugar, hoisin sauce, sriracha sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and minced garlic. Pour the sauce mixture over the chicken and stir to coat.
- Cook on low for 3-4 hours. Start checking the temperature of the chicken after 3 hours and cook until the chicken reaches 165˚F. Or cook it on high for 1 1/2-2 hours and start temping the chicken after 1 1/2 hours.
- Garnish with sliced green onions and sesame seeds. Serve over rice or noodles.
Robert says
Very tasty and several of our guest loved the Honey Sesame Chicken on a bed of rice. The next time we will reduce the amount of honey from 1 cup to 1/2 cup. It was too sweet for me!
Cedar says
I enjoyed this recipe, though admittedly, I misread the instructions and used only .500 kg instead of a full 1kg+ for this recipe. So I was a bit lost in the sauce when this was done… Next time will be different!! Since I don’t like pepper flakes, I opted for cayenne pepper instead which gave it some good heat. I also don’t like mincing onions so I used onion powder instead, worked out nicely I just eyeballed it but I’m sure the typical 2 tbsp of onion powder would work just fine? Maybe a bit less than that…? This recipe also doesn’t really specify what type of bbq sauce is asked for but I bought some brown sugar bbq sauce at the market while I was there and I also kinda used 1/2 cup of it instead of 1/4 cup. I love bbq sauce though so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Still, a good recipe and I think I’m going to try it again… With the proper amount of chicken this time!
Tonia says
I’m delighted to hear that you enjoyed it!
Cedar says
I’ll have to look through the rest of your recipes! I really liked this one and I’m sure it’s one I’ll lean on for a while. Thanks for the recipe!
Lindsay K says
I know this recipe has been on Pinterest for a while but I tried it today and it was a recipe fail for me. Is it normal for a crock pot to have a setting for 2 hours on low? Would 2 hours on low actually completely cook the chicken? Maybe I read that wrong. Tried to cook mine on the shortest low setting… Turned out over cooked and extremely dry. It’s looks like people have had a lot of luck with this recipe. I’m a little surprised by that. Didn’t really care for the flavor. Ingredients were not cheap and it was kind of a lot of work for a crockpot recipe.
Gail says
This recipe grabbed me, because I wanted to make something really easy tonight. I was feeling super lazy. I threw the boneless, skinless chicken into the pot frozen. Since I live alone, I used about a pound of chicken and half the sauce. I recently purchased a rice cooker at Costco, and it has a slow cooker feature. I cooked the chicken on high for 2 hours, and it was definitely done. I removed the chicken and cut it up. While I was doing that, I put 4 cups of carrots and broccoli and half an onion in the pot (in the sauce) on high. The veggies were done after about 20 minutes. How easy does it get? I stirred everything together and served it over rice. This was an acceptable meal, but it is missing something. I have a similar recipe that I make with chicken wing drumettes, and it is cooked on the stove top. The other recipe is much better for some reason. It is called Asian Glazed Drumsticks. I think that recipe is better, because the chicken is cooked on the bone. I think bone marrow helps to thicken the sauce. Still, if I was feeling lazy again some day, and if I had everything on hand to make this, I would make it again.
Jodi says
This turned out great! I had to use half the honey, as that is all I had, and 4 lb. of chicken for our large family, but there was enough glaze to coat everything and plenty to spare. The rest of the recipe I followed exactly and we loved it! Well, I didn’t cut the chicken thighs, so we ended up with shredded chicken, which was just fine. We will make this again!
Shannon says
I just made this and HOLY COW I am never doing Chinese take out again. I didn’t use as much honey as prescribed, but upped the red pepper flakes, and added some chopped carrots, peppers and onions to the pot toward the end. This made for a really soupy liquid that I reduced in a saucepan to a BOMB glaze, which took longer than expected but I never did it before. I think it would’ve been fine without adding corn starch, as well (I ended up adding masa – was what I had on hand and didn’t affect the taste).
I’m pumped to try different types of sauces and meats now :).
Thank you!
Tonia says
Woohoo! Sounds perfect! ~Tonia