Slow Cooker Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken

4.56 from 43 votes

Slow Cooker Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken

With just a few ingredients, dinner doesn’t get easier (or tastier) than this Slow Cooker Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken. Skip the take out tonight!

Prep Time15

Cook Time4

Total Time4 15

Course: Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: American, Asian

Total Cost: $8.13 recipe / $1.63 serving

Servings:

Ingredients

1 20 oz. can pineapple chunks in juice $1.59
1/4 cup soy sauce $0.24
2 Tbsp brown sugar $0.08
2 cloves garlic, minced $0.16
1 tsp grated fresh ginger $0.10
5 skinless chicken thighs* $4.87
1.5 Tbsp cornstarch $0.04
2 green onions, sliced $0.17
5 cups cooked rice, for serving (optional) $0.88

Instructions

Separate the juice from the pineapple chunks. You should have approximately 3/4 cup juice. The juice will go into the sauce and the pineapple chunks will be added later. Refrigerate the pineapple chunks until they're needed.
To make the pineapple teriyaki sauce, stir together the pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, and grated ginger. If you have a little less than 3/4 cup pineapple juice, you can add a bit of water to bring it up to 3/4 cup.
Place the chicken thighs in the slow cooker and pour the pineapple teriyaki sauce over top. Close the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours. Flip the chicken 3/4 of the way through cooking to make sure all the meat is exposed to the marinade.
After cooking, carefully lift the chicken out of the slow cooker (it will be fall-apart tender). In a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch with 2 Tbsp water, then whisk it into the remaining liquid in the slow cooker. Replace the lid and let it simmer for 5 minutes on high, or until thickened.
Once the sauce is thickened, add the pineapple chunks and stir to combine. Finally, add the cooked chicken back to the pot and coat with sauce. Sprinkle sliced green onions over top, and serve over a bed of rice.

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Notes

*You can use bone in or boneless chicken thighs for this recipe. The chicken will be extremely tender after cooking, so you can either leave the pieces whole, or shred it into the sauce (remove the bones if using bone-in chicken). I left my chicken pieces whole for easy portioning.

Nutrition