Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

21 Comments

5 from 3 votes
6 Servings
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 6 hours
Total Time 7 hours
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Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken recipe is tender, juicy chicken with a sweet and savory sauce made with orange juice, garlic, honey and soy sauce.

This recipe is similar to one of the most popular Dinner Recipes on our site, Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken. This version adds some extra sweet, citrus flavor with the orange juice, and prepares an entire chicken instead of just chicken thighs.

Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken in crock pot

SLOW COOKER HONEY ORANGE GARLIC CHICKEN

Orange and Honey Garlic Chicken is the perfect make-ahead dinner. Just prep your ingredients in the crock pot in the morning, then let them cook as you go about your day. You’ll come home to an amazing kid-friendly dinner ready to serve!

It’s the perfect dinner for the next time you want something you can set and forget. Cook up some Sautéed Green Beans and white rice for an easy side, and enjoy the perfect slow cooker chicken dinner!

This is sure to become your go-to slow cooker recipe for the most flavorful and juicy chicken. This skin-on, bone-in whole chicken is easily cooked in a crock pot with sauce. The orange, honey, and garlic flavors all come together perfectly and soak into the chicken.

To make sure the chicken comes out as tender as possible put it breast side down in the crockpot. It may look strange, but it helps to keep the breast meat moist. Since the breast is easier to dry out it’s important to keep it down in the crockpot, where it won’t dry out and will remain succulent, and helps insure it doesn’t overcook.

To get all the delicious flavor out of this recipe it’s important to give the chicken time to marinate before putting it in the slow cooker. For the best results, add all your ingredients to a large freezer-bag and let it marinate for the full night in the fridge. If you forgot to set up your ingredients last night, make sure to at least let the chicken marinate for an hour before cooking it in the slow cooker.

MORE EASY SLOW COOKER CHICKEN DINNERS

MAKE-AHEAD SLOW COOKER HONEY ORANGE GARLIC CHICKEN

Crock Pot Honey Garlic chicken is also a great recipe to prep further in advance. Just put all the ingredients in a freezer bag like you usually would. Instead of leaving the chicken to marinate in the fridge, store it in the freezer until the next time you’re ready for a slow cooker dinner.

Let the Chicken defrost for a full 24 hours before prepping it in the crockpot. Once it’s thawed you can cook it in the crockpot as usual, and enjoy!

Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken recipe is tender, juicy chicken with a sweet and savory sauce made with orange juice, garlic, honey and soy sauce.

HOW TO THICKEN THE ORANGE AND HONEY GARLIC CHICKEN SAUCE

  1.  Once you’ve cooked the whole chicken in your slow cooker, remove the remaining liquid from the crock pot and put it in a pan.
  2. Mix together 1 tablespoon water and 2 teaspoons cornstarch to make a slurry.
  3. Add the slurry to your sauce pan.
  4. Bring to a boil and continue to stir until the sauce has thickened.
  5. Serve over Slow Cooker Honey Garlic and Orange Chicken.

Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken in crock pot before cooking

VARIATIONS ON SLOW COOKER HONEY ORANGE GARLIC CHICKEN

  • Chicken Thighs: You can prepare the same recipe using chicken thighs. Still allow the chicken to marinate in the sauce for extra flavor. Cook 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in a crock pot on low for 6-7 hours, or high for 3-4. 
  • Skinless Chicken Breasts: Chicken breast cooks faster than chicken thighs or a whole chicken would. First allow the chicken breast to marinate as usual. Then pour all the ingredients into your crockpot. Decrease the cooking time to 3-4 hours on low for 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
  • Add-ins: There are lots of flavor variations you can try in your Slow Cooker Chicken recipe. Try whisking in some ketchup, hoisin, or teriyaki sauce into your honey garlic sauce. You can even add some spice with red pepper flakes.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH SLOW COOKER HONEY ORANGE GARLIC CHICKEN

HOW TO STORE SLOW COOKER HONEY ORANGE GARLIC CHICKEN

  • Serve: Don’t leave Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken at room temperature for more than 2 hours. If you want to keep it out longer, keep your chicken in the crock pot on low so it stays warm.
  • Store: Let the chicken cool before storing it. To make storing easier cut the chicken into smaller pieces and keep it in a ziplock bag or other airtight container. It will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 days.
  • Freeze: To freeze the chicken, store it in an airtight container and keep it for up to 6 months. Let it defrost overnight in the fridge before reheating it.

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Dinner, then Dessert

Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken

Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken recipe is tender, juicy chicken with a sweet and savory sauce made with orange juice, garlic, honey and soy sauce.
Yield 6 Servings
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 6 hours
Total Time 7 hours
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken in crock pot
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Ingredients
 

  • 1 whole chicken 4-5 pounds , fully defrosted
  • 6 cloves garlic , minced
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon water

Instructions

  • Add all the ingredients to a large ziplock bag or in a large bowl and marinate overnight (or a minimum of 1 hour).
  • Using Heavy Duty Foil, cut two 18 inch pieces.
  • Roll each piece the long way, loosely, so the tube of foil was as long as possible, then curve it like an oven heating coil, like a flattened S.
  • Place the chicken on top of the foil, breast side down, and add any remaining marinade over the chicken.
  • Cook on low for 6 hours.
  • Remove chicken from the slow cooker gently.
  • Add leftover liquid to a saucepan.
  • Mix cornstarch and water until well combined then pour into saucepan and bring to a boil until glaze is thickened, stirring well.
  • Pour glaze over chicken to serve.

Nutrition

Calories: 333kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 95mg | Sodium: 444mg | Potassium: 299mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 198IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 1mg
Keyword: Slow Cooker Honey Orange Garlic Chicken

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About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  3. Hi Sabrina! I am trying this recipe tonight. To clarify, do I use fresh squeezed orange juice or bottled orange juice? Thank you!

    Reply

  4. Hi there, I was wondering if you can make this in the oven? I was thinking maybe covered slow & kinda low then a quick broil for a little crispness. What do you think? Ty

    Reply

  6. Sabrina,
    I would love to make the Slow cooker honey garlic chicken but want to use boneless,skinless
    Chicken breast Can I and how long should I cook it for? Thank you for all your great recipes it’s greatly appreciated!!

    Reply

    1. Hello Betsy, thank you for your comment. I’m sure you can use boneless, skinless chicken breast. However, I’m not sure how long it will take to cook to get the same result.

      Reply

  7. My family enjoyed this recipe. It was very tasty and juicy! I served it last night with mashed potatoes and it was a perfect combo! Thank you and please keep on sharing awesome recipes like this!

    Reply

  10. Hi, Sabrina! I love your recipes! Yours is the only recipe blog I subscribe to!

    You should know, however, that this Honey Orange Chicken recipe IS NOT GLUTEN FREE, even though it says so in your 4th paragraph.

    Most soy sauce that we can buy in the United States has wheat as an ingredient which makes it NOT gluten-free. But I substituted about 1/2 cup Tamari Sauce (milder than soy with no wheat) and it worked GREAT! I added more tamari than soy because the tamari is milder

    Reply

  11. I sautee the chicken for 4 hrs, it could have used more time. I ran late so I cooked the chicken on high for 3.5 hrs for a 4 lbs chicken, it was well cooked. For the gravy, I added more OJ, soy sauce and honey to add more flavor. Next time I will sautee the chicken overnight.

    Reply

  12. Hi, I was just wondering if you need to do the “foil” thing even with just the chicken thighs or breasts?

    Reply

    1. If you’re not worried about getting the skin crispy, you don’t need to worry about the foil. You could always pop them under the broiler at the end too. Enjoy!

      Reply