There is nothing wrong with using a bottle of teriyaki sauce for teriyaki chicken. The bottled sauce saves you time and effort in the kitchen and can be tasty. But you can use a slow cooker as the shortcut and make an easy slow cooker chicken teriyaki freezer meal recipe and use the saved time for the sauce.

An easy slow cooker chicken teriyaki freezer meal recipe can give you the time to make teriyaki sauce from scratch and enjoy your meal. Teriyaki chicken is easy to make; most chicken recipes are simple.

Cooking the chicken itself is OK with teriyaki chicken. Instead, the problem comes when making the sauce. We can easily reach for a bottle of teriyaki sauce from the grocery store. That will help save you time and effort.

However, you can’t control the flavor of the teriyaki sauce when it comes in a bottle. You also still have to do the cooking part, meaning you aren’t saving much time using bottled sauce.

Luckily, there are slow cookers, which makes cooking most chicken recipes even easier. Slow cooker chicken recipes usually require you to drop the chicken into the slow cooker, add some seasoning and sauce, and turn it on.

You come home later to a slow cooker chicken dinner recipe that is ready to serve. So how can we apply that ease of cooking to a slow cooker chicken teriyaki freezer meal? Slow cookers will cook for you, meaning you just need to prep the ingredients.

A freezer meal is a meal that goes straight from the freezer to the slow cooker. We can use this to make cooking teriyaki chicken at home much easier. 

Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki Freezer Meal Recipe | Getting Started

Combining the slow cooker and freezer meal theories can help us make a teriyaki sauce from scratch. The goal is to make the job as straightforward as possible while making a dish you enjoy eating.

This recipe can use frozen chicken; just be sure to check the temp on the chicken at the end of the cooking time to ensure it is adequately prepared. Still, all you need to do is dump the chicken into the slow cooker, add the seasoning, mix the sauce, and dump that in, too, and you’re done.

Turn on the slow cooker and come back hours later to a meal that is ready to serve.

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken Ingredients

The ingredients for this dish seem extensive. However, you most likely have most of these ingredients in the pantry already. Just remember that you will be dumping this all into a slow cooker, and that’s all. The slow cooker will do the rest of the work. 

4-6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs | Chicken thighs have more flavor than chicken breasts and are often less expensive.

Seasoning Mixture | You will need a few different seasonings to get your desired flavor. You will use ¼ tsp each of salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. You will also need ½ tsp each of chicken seasoning and paprika.

1 Cup Brown Sugar | Brown sugar will give our sauce the sweetness we need for a good bite of teriyaki chicken.

½ Cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce | The tanginess we need for the sauce will come from the soy sauce. However, we are already adding salt to the chicken, so best to go with the low-sodium soy sauce.

½ Cup Ketchup | Ketchup will help bind everything together in the sauce and give it that color we love so much. Of course, you will still need some miscellaneous ingredients to complete the sauce. 

The final touches on the sauce include minced garlic, oregano, and fresh parsley. Together, these ingredients make for some fantastic teriyaki flavors. The best part is you dump the sauce ingredients in a bowl, stir them to combine, and then dump them in the slow cooker.

Directions

Spray your slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.

Place your chicken thighs at the bottom of the slow cooker and sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, chicken seasoning, and paprika.

Mix your brown sugar, low-sodium soy sauce, Ketchup, minced garlic, and oregano to combine in a bowl.

Add the sauce to your slow cooker.

Turn your slow cooker on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours.

Serve with white rice and broccoli, and sprinkle some fresh parsley.

Enjoy your slow cooker chicken teriyaki freezer meal recipe.

More Crockpot Recipes

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Clean and Healthy Crockpot Chicken Tikka Masala Recipe | Yet another recipe to use for chicken that is entirely different and delicious.

Crockpot Little Smokies with Grape Jelly and BBQ Sauce | Little smokies belong at every party, no matter the occasion.

Crockpot Turkey Chili Without Beans | Chili can benefit from a low and slow cooking method.

Healthy Slow Cooker Beef Stew | Beef stew has never been as appetizing as it is with this recipe.