Easy Slow Cooker Orange Chicken is an amazing dinner with tender chicken in better-than-takeout orange chicken sauce. A freezer-friendly meal!
From a spot-on Panda Express Copycat Orange Chicken, to 3-ingredient Orange Chicken, and Ground Orange Chicken we have you covered no matter how you want to make one of the best take-out chicken dishes ever created!
Sabrina’s Slow Cooker Orange Chicken
My easy Crockpot Orange Chicken recipe has almost no prep time and you don’t even need to bust out a wok. Instead of orange preserves, this easy recipe uses orange juice, orange zest and honey to get that authentic, thick, sweet sauce you know and love. The rest of the sauce ingredients are common pantry staples, so you might not even need a trip to the grocery store to make it.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 pounds skinless chicken thighs , cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/2 cup green onions , thinly-sliced
Instructions
- To your slow cooker add the orange juice, orange zest, sugar, honey, cornstarch, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes and whisk well.
- Add in chicken chunks and mix well.
- Cook on low for 4 hours.
- Mix water and cornstarch and add to slow cooker with green onions, stirring in gently.
- Cook on high for 30 minutes.
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
Chef’s Note
Who doesn’t love a delicious twist on easy Asian recipes like Orange Chicken? Whether you stuff it in Burritos, make it healthy with Ground Chicken, or slow cook chicken thighs in the addicting sauce, it’s always an amazing dinner the entire family will love. You’ll definitely be adding this to your go-to Crockpot Recipes for easy dinners.
Ingredients
- Orange: To give the sauce that amazing, addicting orange flavor this recipe uses a combination of orange juice and orange zest. Using fresh-squeezed juice and zest gives you a punch of bright citrus flavor!
- Sweetener: This sauce is made with a combination of sugar and honey to make it sweet and the honey helps make it thicker.
- Cornstarch: You are going to add cornstarch twice to the sauce to help give it that thick, silky smooth texture. As the sauce cooks with the chicken juices it will really thin out so that’s why you want to add the extra cornstarch slurry at the end to thicken it back up.
- Seasonings: To add more delicious Asian-inspired flavor so you get that real take-out taste, you add soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. The garlic adds a tasty aromatic flavor and the red pepper flakes give it that signature slightly spicy kick.
- Chicken Thighs: You want to use boneless chicken for this recipe because the skin and fat will be hard to skim from the sauce. It’s better to use chicken thighs because they stay juiciest in the slow cooker but you could always use chicken breast, just start checking the meat for doneness around 3 – 3 ½ hours because they tend to cook a bit quicker.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Slow Cooker: A 4-6 quart slow cooker will work best for this chicken recipe to keep the meat from crowding too much. For easy clean up, you can use slow cooker liners or spray up the sides lightly with non-stick spray.
- Juicer: Adding fresh orange juice makes this Orange Chicken recipe just taste so much better and the juicer obviously makes this easier. If you don’t have a juicer, a trick to get more juice is to roll the whole orange a few times on the counter.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes, Slow Cooker Orange Chicken is a great meal to make ahead of time especially as a freezer meal! Start by prepping the sauce in a mixing bowl. Cut chicken pieces and place in a gallon size freezer bag. Pour orange chicken sauce over chicken and seal bag. Squish a little to mix and coat chicken. Freeze the uncooked meal for up to 3 months. No need to thaw, just plop the frozen chicken sauce in your crock pot, cover, and add an extra hour to cook time.
Cooking Tips & Tricks
- Make a Crispy Coating – This recipe is made without breading so it’s much healthier than the original recipe. If you want a crispy coating like classic orange chicken, you can bread and pan fry the chicken before putting it in the crock pot. It takes about 15 extra minutes and it’s an easy way to make this Slow Cooker Orange Chicken next-level good.
- Add Veggies for a Meal – You can easily turn this main dish into a more complete healthy meal by adding veggies to the crockpot with the chicken. Try vegetables like onion, red peppers, zucchini, cabbage, kale, mushrooms, and carrots. Cut the veggies in large chunks and add leafy greens, like cabbage, 30-45 minutes before adding the cornstarch.
How to Store
- Store: Refrigerate Slow Cooker Orange Chicken in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Let it come to room temperature before storing.
- Reheat: Reheat the leftovers slowly in a covered saucepan over low so the chicken doesn’t dry out. The sauce will thin out as it heats, but if it is still too thick you can add a splash of broth or two until it’s the right consistency for you.
- Freeze: Cool Orange Chicken before storing in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and reheat on the stovetop.
How to Serve Orange Chicken
- Sides: Serve Slow Cooker Orange Chicken with classic takeout sides like White Rice, Fried Rice, or Chow Mein to soak up all the saucy sweet goodness!
- Double Batch: You can easily double the recipe for potlucks and parties, or to meal prep a tasty work lunch for the week. To make doubling the recipe easier, use the slider tool in the recipe card to adjust the serving size and it calculates the amounts for you!
- Lunch Bowls: This chicken dinner makes great, tasty, healthy lunch bowls too! Layer bowls with Brown Rice (or other healthy grain), Steamed Veggies, and the chicken plus an extra drizzle of sauce.
Frequent Questions
No, this slow cooker chicken recipe is a dump-and-go meal with no need to brown the meat beforehand. All you need to do is mix the sauce ingredients in the pot, stir in the chicken, and cook for a few hours on low. At the end, you’ll add a cornstarch mixture and cook a little longer for a thicker sauce, then it’s ready to serve.
Usually it’s best to use chicken thighs because the dark meat stays juicier when it’s cooked for a long time. You could also use boneless chicken breast, but you don’t really want to use bone-in chicken in this recipe.
You can keep this Slow Cooker Orange Chicken warm for up to 4 hours in a covered slow cooker, but the sauce will thicken as it sits so keep stirring. Don’t leave it at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
Variations
- Chicken: Instead of chicken thighs, you can use boneless chicken breasts cut into small pieces. You could also use boneless pork, thin cut steak (like flank steak), or turkey breast, but for the steak and pork you’ll want to brown it for a couple minutes beforehand.
- Sauce: Other flavors you can add to the sauce are BBQ Sauce, orange preserves, teriyaki sauce, grape jelly, onion powder, or sesame oil.
- Spicy: Kick up the heat on Slow Cooker Orange Chicken by adding more crushed red pepper or spicy ingredients like chili garlic sauce, sriracha, or Sichuan peppers.
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More Amazing Orange Chicken Recipes
Using fresh orange zest and juice sounds like it would give such a bright flavor compared to orange preserves. If I don’t have fresh oranges on hand, is there a specific type of store-bought juice you recommend that isn’t too sweet?
Pulp-free not from concentrate, with no added sugar will be your best options. Choose either Simply Orange or Tropicana Pure Premium 100% Orange Juice.