Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

Name: Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 240 min
Total time: 245 min
Ingredients: 700 g Chicken breast; 8 portion Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

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A super easy slow cooker dish that the whole family will love. Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken involves very little prep (none if you use a store bought teriyaki sauce) and is a healthier alternative to a Friday night takeaway. Lean and protein packed chicken breasts and homemade teriyaki sauce is all you need for this easy and delicious slow cooker dinner.

A bowl of shredded chicken on a bed of rice.

We love any kind of meal that you can just throw everything in and leave, and this slow cooker teriyaki chicken is just that. Even with our homemade sauce, it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and then you can let the slow cooker do all of the work. This is one of those meals for a busy weeknight.

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Why should you try it?
What you will need
Step by step
Teriyaki sauce
FAQs
Extra tips
More slow cooker recipes
Recipe

Why should you try it?

An easy and delicious chicken meal
Less than 10 minutes prep time
Freezes well and great batch cooking
The whole family loves it

What you will need

Teriyaki sauce - You can use our Homemade Teriyaki Sauce as it only takes 5 minutes to make. If you use a store bought version, the nutritional values will be considerably different.
Chicken breasts - we used chicken breasts to keep this a lighter dish, however you could swap them for boneless and skinless chicken thighs. This would make this dish much juicier, however the nutritional information would vary.

Step by step

One: Make the teriyaki sauce.

Two: Put the chicken breasts into a slow cooker and cover with the teriyaki sauce. Cook on high for 4 hours.

A slow cooker bowl with four chicken breasts and teriyaki sauce.

Three: Once cooked, remove the chicken and shred into large chunks. Return the chicken to the sauce, mix well and serve.

A wooden chopping board with chopped teriyaki chicken on it.

Teriyaki sauce

This recipe uses our homemade healthy teriyaki sauce. Healthy is such a subjective word and whilst this is still fairly high in sugar and salt (which you would expect from a teriyaki sauce), it is lower than a store bought sauce. So, it is a "healthier" version. We are all about making lighter changes where we can, and making sauces from scratch is a good place to start.

Store bought sauces, like teriyaki, usually have a lot of unnecessary ingredients in it, whereas our homemade version just has the essentials, which you probably already have in your cupboards. Soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger and pineapple juice - so simple.

A spoon drizzling teriyaki sauce into a bowl.

We have used a low salt soy sauce to reduce the salt levels, and we have swapped the brown sugar or corn syrup for a little honey to give the sauce that sweetness that we know and love from a teriyaki. If you wanted to make this vegan, you could swap it for maple syrup. We only used a little honey, as we added some pineapple juice too for some extra natural sweetness.

We also packed it with more garlic and ginger that you would probably find in a store bought sauce, as they both have so many health benefits. The key with this sauce is moderation.

FAQs

Is slow cooker chicken teriyaki healthy?

If you are making our healthy teriyaki sauce to use in this, then it is a healthy dinner option. We have used a low salt soy sauce, but it does still have a high salt content, so be mindful of portion control. This is a protein packed meal though, which will help keep you fuller for longer.
This meal is also a good opportunity to add more of vegetables on the side. Steamed greens like broccoli and spinach would work well.

What vegetables can you add to slow cooker teriyaki chicken?

We love any meal that is a good opportunity to add lots of vegetables and this is one of those. You can add peppers, courgette, aubergine, broccoli, or peas. Make sure to only add the vegetables half way through cooking, as they will be too mushy if you cook them from the beginning with chicken.

Can you use chicken thighs instead?

Yes, chicken thighs can be used instead of chicken breasts, however it will change the nutritional information. It will make the dish juicier though. We recommend using boneless and skinless chicken thighs.

How to thicken teriyaki sauce?

Once the chicken is shredded, it does soak up all the liquid, so we don't find that we need to thicken it, but every slow cooker cooks differently. However, if you wanted a thicker sauce to use as a marinade, then you can add an extra tablespoon of cornflour (or a little less). Add it a little at a time, as it can change the flavour.

What to serve slow cooker teriyaki chicken with

We served ours with rice for a really simple dinner (use a bag of microwaveable rice to make it even easier). However there are lots of options when it comes to how to serve it. You could serve it on mashed potato or even a crispy baked potato. You could swap the rice for cauliflower rice for a low carb option or even put it in a brioche roll with a big pile of our Asian Slaw.
We think some sesame seeds and slices of spring onions (scallions) are a must for serving.

How to store slow cooker teriyaki chicken?

You can store this in an air tight container in the fridge for 2 days, or you can freeze it, which makes it great for batch cooking. To freeze, make sure it is completely cooled and then store in an air tight container/freezer bag and it will keep in the fridge for 3 months.

How to reheat

To reheat it after frozen, thaw it in the fridge and then you can heat it through in a frying pan for 5-8 minutes or put it in the microwave until heated through.

Can you freeze uncooked slow cooker teriyaki chicken?

If you wanted to prepare this in advance and freeze it before cooking, put the chicken and teriyaki sauce in a zip lock freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can then fully defrost it and cook following the instructions in this recipe.

How to cook it without a slow cooker?

If you don't have a slow cooker, you can still make this recipe. You can dice the chicken and fry it until it is crispy and cooked through and then stir through the homemade sauce and cook for 2 minutes.

Extra tips

We used a homemade teriyaki sauce, however you could use a good quality store bought one if you wanted to save some time.
If you find this too dry (we think the chicken is moist enough), then make some extra sauce and save it until serving and drizzle it over the chicken. Remember, the sauce is fairly salty though, so you don't want to use too much.
Try not to over shred the chicken. It's best with larger chunks, so be careful when mixing everything up as this will shred it further.

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