Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken Recipe

This recipe makes a sweet and salty dinner for your family. It’s so easy and delicious.

All you need is four ingredients. Cut the chicken, stir together 3 ingredients, dump on chicken and let the crock pot do its thing.

I’m not sure where this recipe originated, but I make this recipe all the time. My crock pot runs at least 2x a week in our house, and this is always a hit.

You can add sesame seeds on top (see photo) if desired. I like to sprinkle some on the rice when we serve.

Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken Ingredients

a 20-ounce package of chicken tenderloins, cut into even pieces

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup brown sugar (see below)

1 ounce soy sauce, or about 2 Tablespoons

optional: sesame seeds for garnish

Cut the chicken into even sized pieces and place in your 4-Quart crock pot*. In a small measuring cup, stir together pineapple juice, brown sugar, and soy sauce.

Dump this mixture over the chicken. Cover, and cook on LOW for 6 hours.

Serve over rice. Spoon the pineapple-brown sugar-soy sauce juice over the chicken and rice.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. Enjoy!

Four Ingredients and a 4-Quart Crock Pot

I know, right? Four ingredients.

You’re going to love how easy this is to make. There’s no fancy or restaurant-quality technique going on here.

It’s a great weeknight recipe. Here are a couple of things to consider, though:

Use a 4-Quart Crock Pot: You’ll notice that I suggest using a 4-Quart Crock Pot in the directions. That’s because we’re talking 20 ounces of chicken here, and you’ll have plenty of juice.

If your crock pot is much larger, the sauce will lay out thin, and it could cook up a little dry. You can use a larger pot, but consider doubling the recipe, or check it after 5 hours.

Toasting Sesame Seeds: I like to sprinkle sesame seeds on top of everything lately. Toasted sesame seeds take them to another level.

Place them on a sheet pan and pop into a 250 degree oven. Leave them there for a few minutes, stirring once or twice.

Remove and sprinkle on rice and chicken when you plate.

Substitutions: You could use chicken breasts for this recipe. Just make sure to cut it up into smaller, evenly-sized chunks.

It can be done with chicken thighs, but it will make the juice a bit greasy. For the pineapple juice, I usually grab a can of pineapple chunks, drain them into a measuring cup, and save the juice to use for this recipe.

Canned pineapple juice will do, though.

Brown Sugar: I like this recipe the way it is, but if your family doesn’t care for things as sweet and prefers it to taste less like teriyaki, you can drop the amount of brown sugar to 2 Tablespoons. Light or dark will be OK.

The brown sugar and pineapple juice both make the chicken so moist and tasty. The pineapple juice also acts as a tenderizer during the long, slow cooking process.

Soy Sauce: This recipe doesn’t use any other source of salt. The soy sauce does that duty.

If you’re using low sodium, you may want to add a pinch of salt at the end.

Glaze: If you follow the directions above, you will not end up with a thickened glaze for the chicken. The juice it cooks in is fantastic though.

I love it over rice. If you’re dead-set on thickening it though, you can simmer the sauce down.

Serve with white or brown rice. We like jasmine rice for this.

Enjoy!

Cut the Chicken Bigger Than You Think

This is probably the only thing you can “get wrong” with this recipe, so keep it in mind before cutting up the chicken. If you cut the chicken smaller than 1-2 inch chunks it will shrink down quite a bit during cooking and will essentially fall apart.

At that point you’ve made slow cooker shredded chicken, which is not a bad thing at all, rather than pieces of chicken to spoon over the rice.

Gone Longer Than Six Hours? Here Is What Happens

There are two main issues that could crop up if you leave the Hawaiian Chicken cooking much longer than 6 hours on low. First, the meat will turn into shredded chicken.

Not necessarily a bad thing but not what you were looking for. Second, the meat will be cooking in that delicious Hawaiian sauce for quite some time and may dry out.

Here are two ideas for preventing this.

If your crock pot is programmable you can set it for six hours and have it go onto “keep warm” mode. This will give you some leeway for running late getting home or running late making dinner.

If your crock pot does not have a keep warm feature you can purchase a timer at a local hardware store that goes into the outlet and delays turning on the appliance for a set amount of time. This is great for planning ahead.

Plug your cooker into the timer, set your desired start time, toss in the Hawaiian Chicken before you leave for work and have dinner ready to eat when you get home.

And if you happen to leave it going and come home to Hawaiian shredded chicken, sandwich time. Throw some of the chicken on Hawaiian rolls with a little cole slaw and you’ve got Hawaiian Shredded Chicken sandwiches.

Not bad at all.

If the sauce seems too thin, too sweet or too salty try these ideas for making it just right:

Too Thin

Most of the time there is quite a bit of sauce left over. Chicken tends to cook down quite watery so instead of a glaze it is more of a spooning type sauce.

If you are looking for a thicker consistency to spoon over the chicken stir together 1 Tbs corn starch with 2 Tbs cold water and stir that mixture into the chicken. Cook on HIGH for 15-20 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally.

Do not walk away because corn starch burns pretty readily. Remove from cooker, spoon over rice and devour.

Too Sweet

Cut back on the amount of brown sugar; 2 Tbs will do it if you think you’ll find it too sweet. Alternatively, you could add a splash of rice vinegar at serving time if needed.

Too Salty

Serve the Hawaiian Chicken on top of an ample helping of white rice and the flavor will be more balanced.

Can I add pineapple or other fruit/vegetables?

You can add chunks of fresh pineapple if you’d like. Either add them at serving time so they are warmed or add them into the crock pot for the last hour of cooking.

Keep in mind cooking them any longer than an hour will make them very soft and mushy. Sliced bell peppers, preferably red, and onions will cook up wonderfully for the last hour as well and make this dish more of a sweet-and-sour dish.

What can I do with leftover sauce?

The best part about this dish is spooning those wonderful Hawaiian Chicken juices over the rice. Use it all.

Can I make Hawaiian Chicken in an Instant Pot?

You bet! Combine all ingredients in your pressure cooker plus 1/4 cup water and cook on HIGH PRESSURE for 8 minutes.

Allow pressure to come down naturally for 5 minutes before manually releasing any remaining pressure. Serve over cooked rice immediately.

Texture is a little firmer since it is pressure cooked rather than slow cooked but it is just as flavorful and wonderful.

For a similar flavor to this dish check out my recipe for Huli Huli chicken in the pressure cooker. Just add a teaspoon of grated ginger or minced garlic to this recipe and you’ll end up with something resembling teriyaki chicken.

Serve with rice, which will drink up the extra sauce. Steamed broccoli is the best veggie to serve with this recipe, which also drinks up the extra sauce.

Frozen stir-fry veggies microwaved until thawed would be another veggie shortcut I’d totally serve alongside this recipe. Frozen edamame or snap peas, microwaved until thawed would be easy and delicious.

A cucumber salad would be nice too.

Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken FAQ

Can I use frozen chicken?

It’s not ideal. It will work, but frozen chicken will give off a lot of water to the recipe and you’ll be unable to cut it into chunks ahead of time.

I highly recommend planning ahead and letting the chicken thaw overnight in the fridge then cutting up into chunks in the morning.

Can I make this recipe in a larger slow cooker?

Absolutely. Double the recipe and use the same cook time.

Can I prepare ahead of time?

You can cut up the chicken and measure out all of the sauce ingredients into a bowl the night before. Do NOT leave the chicken soaking in pineapple juice overnight though.

It’ll get very soft.

Why didn’t my sauce thicken?

There’s nothing in this recipe that will thicken the sauce. Also, a lot of liquid comes out of the chicken.

If you like a thicker sauce, try adding some cornstarch.

On high or on low?

You can cook this on high for 3 hours, but I recommend cooking on low for 6 hours. That method results in a little more tender chicken.

Sometimes when made on high for three hours the edges of the chicken are a little dry. Cook whichever way works best for you.

Should I serve this recipe over rice?

We like to serve it over rice with extra chunks of pineapple, sesame seeds, and sliced green onions on the side and allow everyone at the dinner table to make their own bowls. Some people love chicken with pineapple, some people don’t want anything to do with fruit on top of chicken.

Allow everyone to make their own Hawaiian Chicken Bowls and nobody will be unhappy.

Leftovers, Day Two, and Whether It Freezes

Store any leftover chicken and sauce in an airtight container in the fridge. Store separately from any leftover rice as rice drinks up ALL of that yummy sauce.

When ready to eat, microwave some rice and some Hawaiian Chicken and add a splash of water or pineapple juice as needed to loosen up. Should last 3-4 days this way.

You can also freeze the sauce and chicken in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Let cool completely before placing in the freezer.

Day two: combine leftover chicken and rice, add in some frozen carrots and peas and some scrambled egg and make fried rice. Everybody loves fried rice.

More Crock Pot Dinners That Run at Our House

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Buffalo Chicken Crock Pot Sandwiches

Crockpot Ravioli Casserole

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