Easy 5 Ingredient Honey Butter Crockpot Chicken
This crockpot chicken recipe is SO EASY. Sweet, buttery, fall-apart chicken with almost no prep and just 5 pantry staples in the crockpot! Ready in 4 hours, this is a dinner staple that you can add into your weeknight rotation. I didn’t measure anything (sorry about that)…but if you come back and shred the chicken and give it a taste, you can decide if you need more butter, honey, mustard, or seasoning. You can’t really mess it up.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Uses five main pantry staples you probably already have
- No measurements required – just adjust taste to your liking
- Tastes great the next day for leftovers or packed lunches
- Freezes well to bless your future self
- Kid and picky-eater approved!!
Can I make this in an Instant Pot?
I choose to make this recipe in the crockpot instead of the instant pot and here is why: the instant pot needs more liquid than a crockpot. And so for this recipe, I want the honey and the butter to really make love and have a thick sauce consistency. If I were to do this in the instant pot, I would have to add liquid, such as chicken broth, which would tone down the intensity of flavor.
This is such a great re-entry day meal after a long weekend for a couple reasons. 1) There’s zero work required at actual dinner time if I put this in the crockpot early in the day when I had the energy, versus at dinnertime when I might be a zombie. 2) I put this over rice, which is also set in the rice cooker with no energy required at dinner time, or use frozen/bagged rice. 3) It will make leftovers to eat later in the week or that I can freeze to bless my future self!
YOU WILL NEED
Measurements
- 1-2 chicken breasts
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp salt (1 tsp if you love salt like me)
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/3 stick of butter in little slices
- 1/4-1/3 c honey
- 2-3 tbs Dijon mustard
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (optional)
I just made those measurements up, for those who must have a measurement. Because for this recipe you really don’t need strict measurements. Ha!
TO MAKE
Put the diced onion in the bottom of the crockpot.
Heavily season the chicken breasts on both sides in the paprika, curry powder, salt & pepper and put it in the crock pot.
I cut my chicken breast up into smaller strips so there’s more surface area covered with the seasoning.
Add the drained chickpeas
Top with the butter (in little slices), honey, and dijon mustard.
Cook on LOW 4-6 hours (my crock pot takes 4 hours)
What to Pair With Honey Butter Crockpot Chicken
- White or brown rice — you can make your own in a rice cooker or do a bagged/frozen microwave rice of your choosing
- Another grain like couscous or quinoa
- For vegetables, try roasted green beans or roasted broccoli!
- Toppings like peanuts, chives, or sesame seeds would be a great touch for color and texture
Honey Butter Crockpot Chicken
Course: Chicken, Crockpot Meals, Gluten Free, SuppertimeDifficulty: Easy6
servings10
minutes4
hoursThis crockpot chicken recipe is SO EASY. Sweet, buttery, fall-apart chicken with almost no prep and just 5 pantry staples in the crockpot! Ready in 4 hours, this is a dinner staple that you can add into your weeknight rotation.
Ingredients
1 pound chicken breasts or thighs (3-4 pieces of chicken)
1/2 white onion, diced
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/3 stick of butter, sliced
1/4-1/3 c honey
2-3 tbs Dijon mustard
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (optional)
I just made those measurements up, for those who must have a measurement. Because for this recipe you really don’t need strict measurements. Ha!
Directions
- Put the diced onion in the bottom of the crockpot.
- Heavily season the chicken breasts on both sides in the paprika, curry powder, salt & pepper and put it in the crock pot. I cut my chicken breast up into smaller strips so there’s more surface area covered with the seasoning.
- Add the drained chickpeas
- Top with the butter (in little slices), honey, and dijon mustard
- Cook on LOW 4-6 hours (my crock pot takes 4 hours)
Notes
- Serve with rice/couscous/quinoa to soak up all the amazing honey buttery juice. This would be perfect with roasted green beans or roasted broccoli!
- Substitute chicken breasts for thighs if you prefer. I recommend around 1 lb of chicken thighs or breasts for this recipe
- If your chicken is frozen, let it fully defrost and thaw before adding to crockpot
- To use an Instant Pot instead of a Crockpot, use the slow cook setting and just add 6oz of chicken broth or pineapple juice and cook for 12-15 minutes
- To prep ahead, put the ingredients in a gallon size freezer bag and freeze laying down!
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I love this recipe & crave it often. So quick and easy to put together. I like to eat it with rice & serve with naan bread.
Crave worthy for sure! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it so much!
If I were to use an instant pot how long should I cook?
Morgan commented and said add 6oz of liquid, she used pineapple, and pressure cook 12min and slow release.
This was great! I made it in my instant pot…I used 6oz pineapple juice for the liquid with 4 single breasts, and 2 cans of garbanzo. Spiced til it felt right. Not sure how much the pineapple juice affected the intended flavor but it was super yummy! I did 12min and slow release.
Wow pineapple juice sounds incredible in this!
The written recipe calls for 1-2 chicken breasts but the photos look like maybe boneless thighs? Would this recipe work with either one (and what do you think for the amount of chicken in lbs?). Thanks, can’t wait to try it!
Either will work! I would say about 1 lb
Can you use frozen chicken breasts?
Sure I do sometimes. Though it is generally safer to let the chicken breasts thaw beforehand
This was so good. I made it in my instant pot with addition of 6oz of chicken broth and cooked for 12 minutes. My sometimes-picky-eater 6 year old said “Mom, this chicken is really good!”
Thank you for the instant pot note, this is so helpful!
Hi! Can you provide the instructions for baking?
How long in the slow cooker on high would it take?
Have made this a couple times now and this time I accidentally added ginger instead of curry! I noticed and added the curry anyway. It turned out pretty good still and I don’t even like ginger!
I wanted to try this recipe for so long and finally did this past week! I have to say that I didn’t love it at first, like it felt it was missing something. But the next day, it was SO good! I ate it for lunch all week and thoroughly enjoyed it. Something about keeping it sit for awhile enhanced the flavor and I look forward to making this for my lunches more often!
This recipe is SO good! Even my 15 month old likes it!!
Huge win from the toddler food critic!
If you’re using an instant pot rather than a slow cooker make sure you hit SLOW COOK and not PRESSURE COOK like I did 4 hours ago
I love this recipe!!! If I am freezing this as a postpartum meal, would you go ahead and cook it and freeze the finished product to reheat? Or would you combine ingredients in a freezer bag and add them to a crockpot when ready to cook?
I would put ingredients in a bag and freeze before putting in the slow cooker! Just add additional time since it will be frozen
How many people would you say this serves, if you serve with the rice and broccoli?