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This delicious and tangy orange chicken is made right in your slow cooker and is better than takeout. It’s coated in an irresistible sauce that will keep your family asking for this at least once a week!
If you love delicious homemade food that actually tastes better than takeout. You should make this into a meal and add in some sides like this Easy Fried Rice, these delicious Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and these Air Fryer Cream Cheese Wontons!
Slow Cooker Orange Chicken Recipe
Orange chicken is one of my family’s all-time favorite foods. It has just the right blend of flavors that combine tangy and sweet. And if you want to really make this the best, then you cook it in the slow cooker! This gives the chicken a change to really absorb the flavors making it taste so delicious when you are ready to eat it at dinner time! It tastes like its from a restaurant!
This crockpot orange chicken recipe is so easy and delicious, and it only takes about 15 minutes of prep time. Then you can pop it in your slow cooker and let it cook all day, and you will have an insanely delicious meal to eat at the end of the day! We love eating it with some delicious fried rice or some chow mein! It’s a recipe that will become a staple, and you will definitely want it on your regular dinner rotation!
Ingredients in Orange Chicken
This slow cooker orange chicken is simple to make. You will love the flavor combination and the orange marmalade really brings out that citrusy flavor that we all know and love! Check out the recipe card at the bottom of the post for all of the exact measurements.
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts: Cut these into cubes that are similar in size so that they cook evenly.
- Cornstarch: This helps to coat the chicken so that you end up with that deliciously crispy outside.
- Vegetable Oil: The oil is what you will cook the chicken in before placing it in the crockpot.
- Rice Wine Vinegar: This adds a tangy flavor to the sauce.
- Soy Sauce: This adds a delicious salty flavor that goes well with the other ingredients.
- Sesame Oil: Sesame oile brings in that traditional Asian flavor. If you don’t have any on hand, you can use olive oil instead. It will just have less flavor in the dish!
- Sweet Orange Marmalade: In order to get that classic orange chicken flavor, this marmalade is a must!
- Brown Sugar: This adds a sweetness to the dish and brings all of the flavors together.
- Salt and Pepper: These will enhance all of the ingredients in the orange chicken!
How to Make Slow Cooker Orange Chicken
This recipe is a breeze to make, only uses a few simple ingredients, and is insanely delicious! I love how tender the chicken is on the inside. It’s cooked to perfection with a crispy outside edge that is drenched in the sauce!
- Make Sauce: In a small bowl, mix the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, marmalade, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
- Coat and Brown the Chicken: In a ziplock bag, add the cornstarch and chicken. Shake to coat. Pour vegetable oil into the skillet and brown the sides of the covered chicken. The chicken doesn’t need to be fully cooked. It will finish cooking in the slow cooker.
- Add Chicken and Sauce to Crockpot: After the chicken is done cooking, add it to the crock pot. Then cover the chicken with the sauce mixture and give the pot a stir.
- Cook: Cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-3 hours.
Pro Tips for Slow Cooker Orange Chicken
- Extra Sauce: If you have extra sauce in your slow cooker, then you can dish that out and add it to any veggies or rice and really soak in that deliciously tangy flavor!
- Easy Clean Up: To make clean-up a cinch, go ahead and use a slow cooker liner for cooking this in. Then, you can just remove it, and your cleanup is all done!
- Garnish: Garnish your finished dish by adding some sesame seeds and chopped green onions. It gives it a professional look!
How to Store Leftovers
This slow cooker orange chicken tastes great the next day for lunch or dinner! Heat it up and make yourself a rice bowl, add it to a stir fry or eat it plain!
- In the Refrigerator: Once your chicken has cooled, then you can store any leftovers in an airtight container. Place it in your fridge, and it will last for 4-5 days.
- To Reheat: You can reheat any leftover orange chicken on your stove or in the microwave!
More Asian Chicken Recipes
If you loved this orange chicken then you have got to try a few more of my Asian chicken recipes! There are so many varieties that have delicious sauces, crispy outsides and go with yummy fried rice!
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Slow Cooker Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 3-4 boneless chicken breasts (cut into cubes)
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3/4 cup orange marmalade
- 3 Tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- pinch of pepper
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, marmalade, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
- In a ziplock bag, add the cornstarch and chicken. Shake to coat. Pour vegetable oil into the skillet and brown the sides of the covered chicken. The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it is going in the crockpot.
- After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crockpot. Then cover the chicken with the sauce mixture and give the pot a stir.
- Cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-3 hours.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Alyssa, Is it possible to fry the chicken to completion and then boil the sauce and coat it to eat instead of putting it in the slow cooker? Have you tried this? I tried this one and it is the first time in all the years I’ve used a slow cooker where the food burned and the chicken tasted rubbery. The flavors were great, just wondering if anyone else had this experience and if the recipe could be modified?
I just made this for dinner. I liked it a lot and my son liked it ok, yet he grabbed seconds. This is not a Chinese fast food style breaded orange chicken but what you would expect in a restaurant. Next time I would prob add garlic and Asian seasoning from PC. I believe her chicken looks thick crusted due to the browning process. I had a section of a couple of pieces that looked the same. I did double the recipe as I was afraid the sauce would dry up and burn. I added onion and bell pepper about half and hour before we ate. It cooked for about 3 hours total. This was my first everslow cooker Chinese dish. I will make it again. Thank you ?
P.s. I had trouble giving a star rating but I switched browsers and it worked fine.
Tried the Orange Chicken recipe. Excellent flavor. But next time I’ll be doubling the sauce. Not near enough to slow cook in my crock pot. We ended up extending the sauce with items on hand to save the dish. It almost burned in 1 1/2 hours.
I apologize that it didn’t turn out perfectly. I am glad that you know what needs to be done for the next attempt. I hope that it is even better next time. Thank you for following along with me! XOXO
Are you suppose to use orange concentrate in this recipe, because I didn’t see in listed in the above recipe. If so how much do I use. I really want to try this. Thanks for sharing
For this recipe it calls for 3/4 cup orange marmalade. Hope that helps clarify for you!! XOXO
this was really good. I used my instant pot as a slow cooker – that way i was able to brown the chicken in the same pot and save all of that flavorful fond that sticks to the bottom of the pan. It was a huge hit in our family. Thanks!
The sauce was great. Orange marmalade worked really well. But the cornstarch didn’t thicken and my chicken didn’t look like yours. 🙁
+his recipe looks PERFEC+ & mus+ +as+e PERFEC+
I didn’t have orange marmalade so I substituted no-sugar-added apricot jam. I left out the brown sugar and it was plenty sweet. I added some ginger too and way more than a “pinch” of pepper. I stir-fried some broccoli, red peppers and sugar snap peas and added them in at the end. The “breading” on the chicken all came off in my stainless steel pan so I missed out on the crispiness of the chicken. But the flavors were wonderful and my kids loved it, even the one who doesn’t like to eat chicken. Served with brown rice.
That ALL sounds delicious! I am glad that you made it your own recipe! Thanks so much for sharing! XOXO
Just finished this for dinner. We loved it! Nice and easy. My grandkids liked it as well, and they are picky. Cooked up some rice, broccoli and carrots to go along with the chicken.
Very nice. Thank you for a great dinner…:)
I made this in my Instant Pot with brown rice, and it was absolutely fantastic! Thank you for a great recipe!
I read ALL the comments before making this dish. I’m not going to comment on the ingredients as I adjusted to suit our taste. As for the methods, I found that adding the cornstarch 1 T at a time combatted any clumping. Because I brine my chicken before cooking, I dried my chicken well before the dredging step. I also chose to cook my chicken for significantly less time…2.5 hours on low and then 30 mins on high to thicken the sauce a little. With these adjustments, we really loved this meal! Will definetly be making again!
Kristen–thank you for your advice and insight. I know this helps out many of our readers! I love to read the interactions that happen between our readers and so often I learn something which is GREAT!
Thanks again!!
Hi Alyssa-
Going to try this tonite, will probably add some red and green bell pepper, and some sliced carrots. Wondering why everyone is talking about orange concentrate when the recipe clearly states orange Marmelade….. BIG Difference! And I don’t see ketchup anywhere in the original recipe either….
I probably would had tried the original recipe that had the orange concentrate and ketchup that so many people loved, but apparently the new recipe has not been reviewed. Strange that you would do that….. even stranger that only a 5 star rating is allowed. Yea… fishy smelling scam….
You indicated on February 1st, you were going to update the recipe, to indicate what “T” means? It is not updated.
Also the picture shows green onions, the recipe does not call for green onions?
The cornstarch does not bread the chicken, it ended up coming off but did help to thicken the sauce.
why do some of the earlier comments refer to orange juice concentrate and ketchup? Did the recipe ingredients change?
Yes I did change it a bit because people were commenting and saying it was too acidic. 🙂
thanks 🙂 I have the chicken in the crock pot as I type for your “better than take-out chicken fried rice”
My sauce burned in my crock pot, what did I do wrong? I put it on low and everything