Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki

Published May 30, 2012. Updated March 22, 2024

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Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken is tender, saucy chicken that is perfectly cooked with almost no effort. With a little bit of prep and quickly cooking up some fluffy white rice, you’ll have a fantastic and easy weeknight meal. 

The easiest slow cooker teriyaki chicken! It’s deliciously tender and packed with flavor. A recipe the whole family can agree.

Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki

Weeknight Crockpot Meals

Slow cooker meals, aren’t they just amazing? Throw the food in, say goodbye, then several hours later say hello to dinner. It really doesn’t get much easier. I saw this photo/recipe on foodgawker.com and new I had to try it.

I think I’ve finally realized another reason I love slow cooker meals, because I always have dessert after dinner so if I’m making dessert it’s nice to have a simple dinner to throw together. Also, I can never get over how tender and flavorful the meat is that’s been slowly simmered all day in the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki

I’m a sucker for a good chicken teriyaki dish, and I love to try it at different Japanese restaurants whenever I can. This crockpot version is so easy and delicious, because the sauce has time to really soak into the chicken—which is tender and packed with protein.

If you have a rice cooker or instant pot, you can quickly whip up some fresh, fluffy rice and get this on the table in under 20 minutes (with just a little prep work to get it started in the slow cooker in the morning). It’s a perfect weeknight meal for a family, since it’s satisfying and healthy and can be served whenever the family or individual members are ready to eat.

Slow cooker Chicken Teriyaki

I might also serve this with other Asian side dishes that I love, like potstickers, egg rolls, wontons, or fried rice! Enjoy!

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5 from 2 votes

Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki

The easiest slow cooker teriyaki chicken! It's deliciously tender and packed with flavor. A recipe the whole family can agree.
Servings: 6
Prep15 minutes
Cook4 hours 20 minutes
Ready in: 4 hours 35 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Place chicken in a slow cooker, set aside. In a mixing bowl, whisk together soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, light-brown sugar, honey, orange marmalade, ginger, garlic and pepper. Pour mixture over chicken in slow cooker, cover with lid and cook on low heat 4 - 5 hours. 
  • Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred. Strain sauce from slow cooker through a fine mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. In a small mixing bowl whisk together 1 1/2 Tbsp cold water and cornstarch. Pour cornstarch mixture into liquid in saucepan and heat mixture over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to gently boil. 
  • Allow mixture to gently boil about 20 seconds until thickened. Return chicken to slow cooker and pour teriyaki sauce from saucepan over chicken. Toss mixture gently to evenly coat. Serve warm over cooked rice garnished with optional sesame seeds and serve with diced fresh pineapple if desired.
  • Recipe Source: slightly adapted from Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

Notes

*Adjust soy sauce to taste, sub unsalted chicken stock for soy sauce to reach desired level of saltiness.

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91 Comments

  • Jennie

    Out of curiosity, can I cook this faster by using high setting?? Started dinner late and was hoping to eat before 9pm :-/
    Worried the high setting will burn all the liquid…

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Jennie – that is a tough question as I’ve never done it? Sometimes it can burn the edges a bit to turn it up to High but other than that you should be fine.

  • Parko

    “You will (have) noticed if you follow the link that the recipe is nearly entirely different” then you say at the end “slightly adapted from…” Anyway, I substituted the apple cider viniger for rice wine viniger to give it more of an “Asian” taste/feel. Good job.

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Parko – yeah I know =) the recipe was loosely based off of someone else’s so I still wanted to give them credit. I’m glad you enjoyed it though =)!

  • lauren

    How essential is the Orange marmalade? I have everything but that

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Lauren – I would say you can replace it with equal amounts of sugar and I would recommend if you do happen to have an orange on hand to mix in a little bit of orange zest. If not it would be fine without. Hope you enjoy this!

  • lauren

    Do I put the slow cooker on high medium or low?? Is it good with fired rice or better with white rice? Thank you!

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Lauren – I cook this on low heat, I also like it best with plain white rice. Hope you enjoy!

  • Madelyn

    This recipe is in my crock pot as we speak!! I’m so excited to see how it turns out seeing as I LOVE teriyaki chicken!! It smells very strongly of soy sauce (I put the whole jar in) so I’m hoping this smell withers as it cooks. I am a crock pot lover so I was very excited to see this recipe! Thanks :)

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      You’re welcome Madelyn ~ thanks for your comment. I hope you enjoyed it!

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Alana – I would recommend that you bake it at a low temp (maybe 250) for several hours in an enameled cast iron pan if you don’t have a slow cooker. Hopefully that is an option for you =).

  • Teriyaki Tuesday « The Parti-Colored Fleur

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