Honey Teriyaki Chicken (Slow Cooker or Instant Pot)
Easy Honey Teriyaki Chicken Recipe in the Slow Cooker or Instant Pot
What’s New (2025): Updated for the current WeightWatchers® Points system (track in the WW app), added FAQs, step photos, and real reader tips from hundreds of successful cooks.
Sweet, Sticky, Family-Favorite Honey Teriyaki Chicken 🍯
This Honey Teriyaki Chicken is a go-to family dinner and a reader favorite made either in the Instant Pot or the slow cooker. The sauce is naturally sweetened with honey, thickened to glossy perfection, and delicious over rice or cauliflower rice. Make it once and it’ll be part of your regular rotation!
WeightWatchers® note: WW still uses the Points® system. Because Points vary by ingredient brand and serving size, track your portion in the WW app for accuracy.
Why you’ll love Honey Teriyaki Chicken
- Two easy methods: slow cooker or Instant Pot, same saucy flavor.
- Homemade teriyaki sauce: no bottled sugar bombs—just real ingredients.
- Customizable: gluten-free friendly and easy to adjust for sweetness.
- Meal-prep ready: freezes well for future dinners.
Ingredients & supplies
Chicken: boneless, skinless breasts or thighs.
Teriyaki sauce base: low-sodium soy sauce (or tamari), honey, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar (or white vinegar), and cornstarch or arrowroot to thicken.
To serve: rice, cauliflower rice, or quinoa with green onions and sesame seeds.
Instant Pot Honey Teriyaki Chicken
- Add everything: Combine chicken and sauce ingredients (except thickener) in the Instant Pot. Seal the lid and set valve to sealing.
- Cook: Pressure cook on Manual/High 15 minutes for breasts or 10–12 for thighs. Quick release pressure.
- Thicken: Remove chicken, switch to Sauté, whisk in 1–2 Tbsp cornstarch + equal water. Simmer until glossy; return shredded chicken to coat.
- Check doneness: Internal temp 165°F. USDA safe poultry temps.
Slow cooker method
- Place chicken and sauce ingredients in a 4–6 qt cooker. Cook LOW 4–5 hrs or HIGH 2–3 hrs until tender.
- Remove chicken to shred. Transfer liquid to saucepan, whisk in thickener, and simmer a few minutes. Return chicken and toss in sauce.
Serving ideas for Honey Teriyaki Chicken
- Rice bowls with broccoli and sesame seeds
- Lettuce wraps with cucumber and carrot ribbons
- Over quinoa or noodles for quick lunches
- Freeze individual portions for grab-and-go meals
Tips & make-ahead
- Gluten-free: swap soy sauce for tamari or coconut aminos.
- Less sweet: reduce honey by 1–2 Tbsp and balance with vinegar.
- Lower sodium: use low-sodium soy and rinse canned veggies if adding.
- Freeze ahead: assemble raw chicken + sauce in bag, freeze, then dump into cooker later.
Reader Reviews & Tips ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Our readers have made this Honey Teriyaki Chicken hundreds of times—here are a few of their favorite experiences and tips!
Sarah ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“I’ve used this recipe more times than I can count. It’s my go-to for bringing meals to friends—it’s AMAZING!”
Kathy MacKenzie ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Made this last night. My husband was skeptical when he saw the Instant Pot—now he says, ‘Please do not lose this recipe!’ Total win!”
Keesha ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“My first Instant Pot meal! I doubled the recipe to freeze extra, but my family ate most of it right away because it smelled so good.”
Haley H. ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
“This has been my go-to forever! I even make big batches of the sauce and freeze it in portions to cook later—it works perfectly.”
Emily A. ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
“I used my Instant Pot stacker insert to make it a true one-pot meal—chicken in the bottom, rice in the top. Ten minutes and done!”
Heidi C. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Easy and great!”
Joan R. (Q&A)
“Where does it call for rice wine vinegar?” → It’s optional in the sauce for brightness—see vinegar swap note above!
FAQs
Can I cook chicken from frozen? Yes. Pressure cook 18–20 minutes for frozen breasts (14–16 for thighs) and quick release.
Can I freeze the sauce alone? Yes—combine and freeze in small containers. Thaw and cook with fresh chicken later.
Can I double the recipe? Absolutely. Time stays the same; the pot just takes longer to come to pressure.
Is rice wine vinegar required? It adds special, mild tang, but you can substitute apple cider or white vinegar.
Serving size for WW? About 1 cup of shredded chicken with sauce—track in the WW app for exact Points.
Final Thoughts
Fast, flavorful, and foolproof—this Honey Teriyaki Chicken proves you can eat better without overcomplicating dinner. It’s a weeknight staple for our readers (and their picky eaters!). Try it once and it’ll be yours too.
More Easy Dinners You Might Like
- Chicken Bacon & Ranch Mac n’ Cheese
- Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Meatballs
- Healthy Honey Sesame Chicken (Slow Cooker)
- More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
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Honey Teriyaki Chicken Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Recipe - 5 Weight Watchers Points
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
- Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
- ½ cup low-sodium soy sauce
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ cup water
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- optional garnish: chopped green onions, sesame seeds
Instructions
Slow Cooker:
- Spray the inside of the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray, or use a slow cooker liner. Place the raw chicken breasts into the slow cooker.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, onion, minced garlic, pepper, and ginger. Pour over the chicken.
- Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 4-5 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and shreds easily. Once chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and shred.
- Whisk together the water and cornstarch. Slowly whisk it into the sauce and heat on high until the sauce begins to thicken, while continuing to stir or whisk. (You can thicken the sauce in a saucepan on the stove top at medium high heat, if that works better for you.)
- Place the shredded chicken back into the pot with the sauce and stir to coat. Serve over rice and garnish, if desired.
Instant Pot:
- Spray the inside of the Instant Pot inner pot with nonstick cooking spray. Place the raw chicken breasts into the pot.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, onion, crushed garlic, pepper, and ginger. Pour over the chicken.
- Cook on high pressure for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and shreds easily. Once chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and shred. (I usually do a quick pressure release, but natural release is ideal.)
- Whisk together the water and cornstarch. Slowly whisk it into the sauce and use the Saute setting, continuing to whisk. Cook for a few minutes while the sauce begins to boil and thicken.
- Turn off the pot. Place the shredded chicken back in with the sauce and stir to coat. Serve over rice and garnish, if desired.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe Adapted From: The Recipe Critic
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I failed to plan too!! But I have everything I need for this! Thanks! 😀
Happens pretty regularly for me these days! Haha. Hope you like the recipe!
do you use Quick Release or Natural Pressure Release after cooking for 15 min in the Pressure cooker?
You want to use NPR… or you’ll have a sticky sauce all over your Instant Pot and counter!!
You know what? I’m pretty sure I have been doing the quick release. Oops. It didn’t make too much of a mess for me. Sounds like you could do either way. 😉
This was simple and delicious. It convinced my husband that the IP was worth the purchase 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
So glad you both like it! Thank you for commenting. (I’m actually making this chicken this week for my fam and a gal that just had a baby!)
This is very good and easy! I didn’t have rice vinegar so I used Apple Cider Vinegar instead. Will definitely make it again.
Yay! Glad you enjoyed it!
So you don’t have to put any water in the instant pot?
Correct. I don’t add any additional water to the pot for this recipe. 🙂
Could you use frozen chicken breasts? Would the cook time change?
Yes, you can use frozen! It will take the pot longer to come up to pressure and you may want to add a few more minutes to the cooking time if they are pretty thick pieces of meat. If you let the pot warm up on saute setting first, that can help reduce the waiting time for it to come to pressure. 🙂
I did it with frozen. I needed about 7 extra minutes. I ended up pan frying the chicken. It came out a little chewy. I think next time I will defrost first haha
Thank for letting us know how it turned out for you going from frozen! Hope it works out better next time. 🙂
So 15 minutes isn’t too long to cook this in the Instant Pot? I usually only cook chicken (thawed) for about 6 minutes.
I always do the 15 minutes and it works well for me! Maybe part of that is because the chicken breasts I use are huge. Please let me know if you try it out with the shorter cooking time and if it works out well. Thanks! 🙂
I put 3 frozen chicken breasts in the recipe and set it for 30min. Turned out Perfect!! Thanks for this great recipe!
Wonderful! Thanks for commenting and letting us know! 🙂
30 minutes on pressure? Thawed chicken?
Katelyn used frozen chicken breasts and cooked for 30 mins on pressure and it worked out well for her! I usually do 15-20 minutes for 2 pounds of chicken breasts (whether thawed or frozen) and 25-30 when I double that amount of chicken.
Hiya, this sounds amazing! Could I ask, is there another substitute for honey? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Hi, Maro! I haven’t made this recipe with substitutions before, so I don’t know for sure. But I know sometimes people use pure maple syrup, granulated sugar, molasses, corn syrup, or agave as substitutes for honey. Let me know how it goes!
Can I make this recipe with 1 pound of chicken?
If so, do I halve all the ingredients and will that give me enough liquid for the instant pot to come to pressure? Thanks!!!
Good question. I think I would go ahead and try just halving the recipe, but I can’t guarantee it will work since I haven’t tried it myself. Please let me know how it goes! Thanks!
I’m new to the Instapot world. There’s no “high” setting. I used the meat setting for 15 minutes and it was not done. Then I did manual for an additional 10 minutes. Turned out great! Family loved it! I served it over organic rice ramen noodles. I will definitely make this again soon!
On my Instant Pot, right below the digital screen, it says low and high pressure with light indicators. So when I go to “manual” setting, one of those lights up and I’m pretty sure mine automatically starts on the high pressure setting. Anyway, glad you ended up getting it cooked through and that your family loved it too! Thanks for commenting!
What about chicken drumsticks? What kind of time would you use for that?? I’m brand new to IP!!
Hi, Trish! I haven’t cooked drumsticks in the Instant Pot before, so I can’t say from personal experience. But when I searched online I found a recipe for drumsticks in the Instant Pot and it said high pressure for 15-20 minutes, so it sounds like it is similar cooking time! 🙂
When I cook drumsticks I use the manual setting for 22 minutes, they are fall off the bone good!
Awesome! Thanks for letting us know, Susan!
I’m going to buy an instant pot today and I’m so scared to use it. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I sure do want to try this out. It’s sounds amazing! Do you make the rice in the pot too or in something else?
Sorry I didn’t see this comment earlier! I usually just make the rice in something else, but I know the Instant Pot does have rice cooking abilities, I just haven’t tried it yet!
Sorry it auto corrected my email so I’m replying again so the email is correct.
Made it in a crock pot and it was delicious
Thank you for the feedback!
I was skeptical to make this at first because I was sure with the honey and no water that this would burn, but to my surprise it didn’t!! I used frozen chicken breasts and did the 30min in my pressure cooker. It was amazing! Even the kiddos enjoyed it.
Awesome! So glad you and your kiddos liked it! Thank you for your comment and review, Erin! 🙂
Hi Melanie, can I use this recipe in a 3 quart mini? Just maybe reduce the amounts? Thanks,
I think you’re probably right – should work with reduced amounts. I haven’t tried it myself though, so I can’t be sure! Let us know how it turns out!
Do you ever post the weight watchers points on the recipes?
No, I don’t. I’m not very familiar with Weight Watchers, but maybe an online calculator like this would be helpful: https://www.calculator.net/weight-watchers-points-calculator.html
I noticed it says 555% DV for potassium?? Seems high lol where’s it all coming from?
Hi, Alexx! Yes, that potassium info does not appear to be correct. When we try to fix it, the nutrition box still isn’t showing the amount correctly. I would enter the honey teriyaki chicken recipe into My Fitness Pal or something similar if you’d like to see a more accurate potassium number. Sorry for the inconvenience!
How much is a serving?
Can I substitute something for the rice vinegar? (Just trying not to stop at store for only one item. )
I think cider vinegar would work instead, if you have that on hand. Or you could try 3 parts white wine vinegar and 1 part water. 🙂
So easy in the instant pot and flavorful! Definitely a keeper!
Yay! Glad you like it! Thank you for your comment, Amber. 🙂
This chicken turned out perfect and the flavor is really good! I did use honey instead of maple syrup.
Awesome! Thank you for your review, Connie. 🙂
Awesome recipe! I’ve made teriyaki chicken many times before, either baked or grilled. Was looking to use my instantpot. MAde this and omg my boys inhaled it and asked for seconds! I made this with quinoa and peas and an Asian salad mix. Def keeper!
Thank you, Kolohegirl! Glad to hear it was a hit at your house!
This sounds really tasty but I try to avoid soy sauce and usually sub coconut aminos. Do you think that will work with this recipe? Thanks.
I haven’t tried it personally, but yes, I think it will work!
I am a single college student and 8 servings is way too much for me… can I cut the servings in half? and will it still turn out the same? How long do you recommend cooking it for?
Depends on if you’re using a slow cooker or the Instant Pot. I haven’t halved the recipe myself, so I can’t say for sure what your results would be! For Instant Pot, I would guess that you don’t want to cut the recipe in half because it might not leave enough liquid in the pot to work well. In the slow cooker, it might work. One thing I have done a lot myself is make the full recipe, then freeze the leftovers in portion sizes that work for me. Then all you have to do is reheat the frozen chicken in a skillet and serve!
Can I use chicken thighs?? Poultry setting for 20 min??
You can totally use boneless skinless chicken thighs! Since I haven’t used them in this recipe before myself, I can’t say for sure on the timing though. I would start with 15 mins.
My family loves this meal! I cook rice and broccoli separately and everyone gobbles it up. Can you please tell me what size portion is considered one serving? I love that you have the nutritional information but it doesn’t specify the serving size.
It does depend on how many pounds of chicken you use, but I usually use close to 3 lbs and end up with about 8 cups. I figure about 1 cup would be a serving, so that’s what is listed at the top of the recipe. 🙂 Unfortunately, the nutrition info doesn’t always show up right, but it can help give a good idea!
The flavor is great but my chicken keeps getting so dry in the IP…I did 20 min on Poultry setting. Suggestions?
Hmm. Are you making it according to the recipe instructions? I do manual setting, high pressure for 20 minutes. Not sure if that is any different than the poultry setting though. I use raw, large Zaycon chicken breasts (not frozen). Does your chicken shred easily? If not, it could be that the chicken is under-cooked. I’ve made this recipe as written many, many times and haven’t had any problems with the chicken being dry, so I’m not sure what the problem would be! I can’t think of what else might be different!
What is the serving size for the nutritional information
When I use 3 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast, I end up with about 8 cups of shredded teriyaki chicken with this recipe. So if you look at the recipe I selected that it yields 8 cups and that it serves 8 and the nutrition info would be for one serving. BUT the yield will vary depending on how much chicken you use and the nutrition info may vary depending on your specific ingredients. Hope that helps!
It was ok, but I thought it was a tad salty…i added no extra salt at all….anyone else have this issue? How did you correct It? I used low sodium soy sauce???
That’s interesting since you were already using low-sodium soy sauce and none of the other ingredients usually include any salt, except maybe the rice if you served it with rice? Hmm. I haven’t had this issue before, so I’m not sure how to correct it without losing that teriyaki flavor. Thanks for giving it a try though!
Tried the recipe as is and it’s too sweet. It seems like a good base so I’ll try it again and adjust it to taste.
Maybe just a little less honey for you then. I hope you find an adaptation that you love! Thanks for giving it a try!
I wonder how long this would take in my traditional pressure cooker with 15lb weight? I’m guessing just slightly less than the instant pot.
I’m sure it would work, but not sure how to convert the recipe and what adjustments might be needed. I bet you could find a pretty good answer searching online though! Please come back and let us know what you did and how it goes!
So no cooking prior to pressure cooking? Most recipes I have followed require sauteing firs and then pressure cooking. Just want to be sure I am not overlooking a step..Thanks!
Correct. No cooking needed before the pressure cooking with this recipe. 🙂
Surprisingly tasty meal! I decided to try cooking this meal in my double stacker insert for my instant pot so it was truly a one pot meal and it turned out great! I put 3 frozen 4oz chicken breasts in the bottom pot with the teriyaki sauce and then one cup of white rice with one cup of water in the top pot with some cilantro. I also added a cup and a half of water into the actual instant pot. I was skeptical about cooking times but decided to try 10 minutes at high pressure and a 3-minute natural pressure release.
So smart to cook it all at once in there – I love that! Thank you, Emily!
What is the serving size for 5pts for WW?
I made this last night as my first Instant Pot meal. I am starting to make a bunch of meals to freeze due to traveling, but my husband and kids and I all had to try a bite because it smelled so good. Yep, looks like I will be making another batch (and doubling it every time in the future)!
Yay! Good job trying out your Instant Pot! We love this teriyaki chicken recipe – I’m actually making it today! I’m so glad that your family is liking it too. Thank you for your comment and review, Keesha.
Made this last night . Wasn’t sure my husband was going to like it because as soon as he sees the IP he thinks mush with chicken recipes . He walks in and says eww what is that I said Chicken Teriyaki just give it a try .
So I was finishing our side of broccoli and putting it together and I waited until he was finished and gave him a few minutes . I said so what did you think he said that he thought it smelled to sweet ( that was was what the eww was for) but he thought it was fantastic and said please do not lose the recipe .
Thanks for sharing ,
Kathy
Hooray! Happy for your success with the teriyaki chicken! Thank goodness for easy recipes that win the husband’s approval. 😉 Thank you for sharing and commenting, Kathy.
Easy and great!
Thank you for your comment and review, Heidi!
This has been my go-to recipe for as long as I can remember!! I do have a question though! Can I just make a big batch of sauce and freeze it into portions? And then thaw it and cook it over chicken on the stove or instant pot?
I am planning on making this delicious sounding recipe. For smaller size can’t you just put the ingredients into a smaller pot inside the IP on a grate with a cup of water in bottom of pot?
I forgot to ask…I see people inquiring about substitutes for rice wine vinegar…. Where does it call for it? What am I missing?
I’ve used this recipe more times than I could ever count. It’s my go to recipe for bringing meals to people. It’s AMAZING!
Thanks for the rating and the comment…AND Thanks for sharing the food love with others!