Recipe: Slow Cooker Honey Teriyaki Chicken (2024)

FAQs

How do you not overcook chicken in a slow cooker? ›

Check your chicken for doneness early, especially if it is one of your first times making it. I also like to use a programmable slow cooker to deter overcooking. Cook on LOW Heat. Chicken breasts cooked on high may finish more quickly, but it is much more prone to drying out and being dough.

Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients

Authentic Japanese teriyaki sauce combines soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake to create a distinctively sharp taste, with Westernized versions incorporating honey, garlic, and ginger for added edge.

I only use honey in mine for two reasons. First, if you use mostly brown sugar and just a bit of honey, the delicious honey flavor doesn't come through. Second, because this version doesn't use corn starch, honey acts as a great thickener.

There's too much sugar in the teriyaki sauce, which would burn before the chicken is cooked through. A light marinade in soy sauce and mirin will keep the chicken from charring. The mirin does have some sugar in it but not enough to cause it to burn.

Here are a few ideas: Garlic and ginger: Add minced garlic and ginger to the sauce for an extra kick of flavor. You can sauté them in a pan with a little oil before adding to the sauce to deepen their flavors. Sesame oil: A drizzle of sesame oil will add a nutty and aromatic flavor to your teriyaki sauce.

Marinating meat provides juice flavor and a tender meat consistency (via MadamnGRecipe). In contrast, teriyaki sauce adds instant flavor gratification and has a consistency that is usually thicker than a marinade. It is used for basting or pouring over meat as it cooks.

And darn it don't you know, even teriyaki sauce can catapult your blood sugar.

While you might not know it, natural honey is actually acidic. Adding a little bit of extra baking soda will help to cancel out this extra acidity and result in a tasty treat with the right flavor.

To thicken your sauce without cornstarch, use all-purpose flour or arrowroot powder instead of the cornstarch. Follow the same method by mixing with cold water to create a slurry before whisking into the simmering sauce.

Adding cornstarch doesn't allow the sauce to caramelize and will result in a flat taste. Instead, allow the soy sauce and sugar to caramelize during cooking. As an added bonus, this will naturally thicken the sauce and transform it into a glaze.

Why did my teriyaki sauce burn? ›

The main reason teriyaki burns is that it is cooked at too high a temperature. Since teriyaki sauce has a high sugar content, it will burn quickly when cooked at very high temperatures.

Use it right from the bottle as a marinade, dipping sauce, condiment or signature sauce base.

Increase other flavors: Enhance the other flavors in the sauce to balance out the saltiness. You can add a bit more sweetness (such as honey, brown sugar, or pineapple juice), acidity (such as vinegar or citrus juice), or umami (such as soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or dashi stock) to round.

That is why tough meats become “fork tender” in the slow cooker. Chicken breasts have very little connective tissue; that means they can be cooked quickly because the long cooking time needed to soften connective tissue isn't necessary. They also have little fat, which means they can become dry if cooked too long.

We found that the only way to cook chicken (and turkey) in a slow cooker is on the low setting and for a relatively short amount of time.

There is nothing worse than overcooked, dry chicken. But I can think of a very close second. Mushy, mealy, stringy chicken, which is sometimes the result of cooking low and slow for an extended period of time.

Add a small amount of liquid to the Crock-Pot. This can be water, chicken broth, sauce, or a marinade. The liquid helps to keep the chicken moist during the slow cooking process. Cover the Crock-Pot with its lid and set it to cook on low heat.