Slow Cooker Sweet & Tangy Chicken
This time of year is always super busy for me. I don’t know how y’all who have kids do it, because I don’t even have to prepare for back-to-school! It just seems like every year my schedule explodes in August & early September. I think it’s because everyone is trying to cram in as much “end of Summer” fun as they can before the weather gets cooler.
I generally do a lot of cooking on the weekends, but with all the weekend trips and visitors lately I haven’t had a ton of time to spend in the kitchen. That’s where my slow cooker comes in! It’s so nice to toss a few ingredients in a pot in the morning and then come home from work to a hot and ready meal. This particular Slow Cooker Sweet & Tangy Chicken recipe fits that scenario perfectly. There’s next to no morning prep time and when you get home the meat literally falls apart for shredding and you just have to thicken the sauce for 2-3 minutes. Serve it over some brown minute rice and steam a side of broccoli, snow peas or an Asian veggie mix and voila! Dinner is served.
In addition to being unbelievably simple, this recipe is really tasty. It’s sweet and tangy with a garlicky Asian flair. It pairs really well with rice, but you could certainly serve it over vegetables or pasta, stuff it in a baked potato or add a tortilla and some mix-ins and make it a wrap. At only 209 calories or 7 Green, 5 Blue or 5 Purple Weight Watchers SmartPoints per serving, the possibilities are endless! To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Looking for more simple slow cooker recipes? Try Meatballs & Marinara, Mexican Pulled Pork, Beef Braciole, Chicken Parmesan, Barbecue Beef, Apple Bacon BBQ Chicken, Taco Chili, Beef & Broccoli, Buffalo Chicken or Balsamic Beef.
Slow Cooker Sweet & Tangy Chicken
Ingredients
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup diet lemon-lime soda
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 lbs raw boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 2 tablespoons water
- Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Instructions
- Combine the brown sugar, cider vinegar, soda, garlic, soy sauce and black pepper and pour into your slow cooker. Lay the chicken breasts across the bottom and stir sauce to cover chicken (if chicken peeks up over sauce that’s okay). Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- Remove chicken from sauce and shred using forks (it should fall apart easily).
- Pour the sauce from the slow cooker into a small saucepan (or if you have a slow cooker with a removable pot specifically meant to be used on the stove top you can just use the same pot - this is the slow cooker I use). In a small bowl, stir together the corn starch and water. Add the corn starch mixture to the sauce and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for 2-3 minutes until sauce has thickened into a glaze. Remove from heat and let stand for another 1-2 minutes (sauce will continue to thicken while standing).
- You can either mix the chicken back into the sauce or serve the sauce poured over the chicken (as pictured). Sprinkle each serving with a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes to taste before serving.
Notes
5 per servings (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com) adapted from Six Sisters’ Stuff
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This looks delicious! Do you think it could be frozen ahead of time and thawed before putting in the slow cooker? Thanks!
Probably, but this takes so little prep time that I’m not sure why you would!
this is very good. i made it last week. i cooked some stir fry veggies and threw this chicken over it with some of the sauce. it is delicious!!!
Good to hear!
Wonder what vegetables would be good with this, either in it or on the side?
I mentioned a few in the intro, I’m thinking broccoli snow peas or an Asian veg mix!
Could there be a substitute for the diet soda?
Real lemon-lime juice?
I agree on a substitute, I don’t use soda in anything, I want to make this and might do 1/8 lemon/lime juice and 1/8 water if I don’t have a substitute! I think
Not sure, I’ve only tried it with the soda. Soda is sweet and regular lemon-lime juice is not so that sub would definitely change the flavor. You can probably omit it and add a little more soy sauce and a little water and maybe a squeeze of lime. Hope you can figure it out!
I made this yesterday and it was a hit with my family. I steamed some broccoli and tri-color pepper and onion blend and put that over my (measly .5 cup of) rice then topped with chicken and sauce. Made a super filling meal for pretty low points. Definitely going in my rotation.
So glad to hear your family liked it! 🙂
This is the first recipe here where I am not loving it. I don’t hate it by any means, but its a little one note….as in super sweet. In the end to make the sweet tolerable I added more soy, pepper and added salt and paprika. I think the red pepper flakes should have cooked in it to cut the sweet and no apple cider vinegar…just regular would help.
Sorry you didn’t love it – I actually cut the brown sugar from the original recipe! You could definitely continue to adapt the recipe to your tastes. I’m glad to hear everything else you’ve tried here has been a hit!
I made this last night and it was yummy! My question is – I’d like to do something fun with the leftovers, maybe one of your cupcake type things. I have the wonton wrappers, but I’m guessing these flavors won’t work as well with cheese and enchilada sauces. Do you have any suggestions on what I might try to make with the leftover chicken?
I do think you could probably wonton cupcake it! Maybe add some stir-fried veggies and rice in there? I also think leftovers would be good stuffed inside a baked potato or sweet potato. I’m glad you liked it!
I don’t use diet soda. If I use regular, in your opinion, would you reduced the amount or use the same? I’m going to make this tomorrow for sure!
I would use the same amount!
Our family really enjoyed this. Adding it to our rotation. Thanks!! 🙂
Made this tonight. Delish!
I made this last night and it was super! I added a teaspoon of Sriracha to slow cooker and then about a half teaspoon more to the sauce pan since my husband and I love spicy. Other than that, followed recipe exactly. Lots of leftovers. I had been afraid of doing chicken breast in the slow cooker (because of the risk of dry chicken) so I took it out to shred right at the 6 hour point and it was perfect. I’m going to try the Buffalo chicken in the slow cooker next!
This is GOOD!!! I’ve made it a couple times and it’s cooking right now for supper tonight!
Any idea why my sauce came out more of a light brown vs. dark brown like in your picture?
Nope! My sauce was dark. Hope you liked it though!
I made this last night and it was delicious! Great flavor! However, I portioned it up and only got 6, 1/2 cup servings. I used 2 lbs of chicken and followed the recipe to a T. I mixed the chicken back into the sauce so I’m wondering if that weighed it down and allowed more chicken to fill up the measuring cup? It’s not a big deal, I just have to enter everything in to the recipe builder on WW and adjust for 6 portions versus 8. I still love your recipes!
Hm, how weird. I haven’t heard that from anyone else yet, but sorry that happened for you. Glad you liked it!
Easy math fix on this, recipe says 8 servings at 5, that equals 40 points total. Divide that by however many servings you came up with and round up/down to the nearest point. That is how I do it, anyway!
I made this last week. I made a double batch of sauce because I thought that there wouldn’t be enough liquid for 2 lbs. of chicken. I now realize that I misread the amount of brown sugar. I thought it called for 1/4 cup. Needless to say, it came out tasting of vinegar! lol….I really want to try this again, but I’m afraid that the chicken will burn with so little liquid and I am not available to turn it now and then to check. Will this cook correctly if I make a double batch of the sauce?…I’ve made several of your recipes and love them all. I’ve gotten quite a few friends to check them out as well!! Thanks for your imput!
I made this last night and it is fantastic, sooooo good
This was so good! I was a little worried because the smell of the apple cider vinegar was pretty strong while cooking, but it turned out great. A nice tangy, sweetish, spicy asian sort of taste. Went well with steamed broccoli and brown rice. Plenty left over, too!
Does the 7pts include the brown rice pictured or just the chicken?
Is 170g sugar correct?
We made this tonight. It was wonderful! All of my picky kids loved it!! We made it with cauliflower fried rice and broccoli. It was great, thanks for the recipe!!
This sounds yummy! Has anybody made this without the diet soda or with a substitute?
Is there any way to do this without a slow cooker? I don’t have one. And it’s a half a cup of chicken in the sauce for one serving? Thank you. I love all of your recipes!
I’d love to try this in my instant pot but I’m too scared I’ll burn it – anyone ever tried it in an instant pot??