Slow Cooker General Tso’s Chicken
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An easy slow cooker version of the family favorite General Tso’s chicken and it’s soooo much better than takeout!
Okay, first things first. I worked as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant for 3 years in high school and we had this chicken dish on the menu. It was called General Tsao’s Chicken. But in all of my Asian food eating experience, I always see it spelled General “Tso’s” Chicken – – – > no “a” involved in the Tso part. So my waitressing past wants me to spell it General Tsao, but for the sake of everyone else on the planet who is going to see this recipe, I am spelling it without the “a”, just so we can all be on the same page her.
In all reality, I’m still confused about how it is supposed to be spelled.
But I’ve eaten a LOT of General Tso’s chicken in my day. It’s easily in my top 5 favorite Chinese dishes. Kung Pao, a natural favorite. Tangerine Chicken, oh my gash I could eat it all day. And Cantonese Flat Noodles, with char sil. Mmmmmmmmm. Oh heaven my mouth is watering. I need Chinese food!!!!!
Okay, sorry. Got a little carried away there for a second.
Like I said, I’ve had a lot of General Tso’s chicken and this slow cooker version is one of the best I’ve ever tasted! I absolutely love that it’s made in a crockpot, so incredibly easy and extra flavorful because it gets to marinate for a while. Just 15 minutes prep before you toss this in the slow cooker and then you just let it goooooooo (yes, like Frozen. I’m a Disney buff.) A few hours later you’ve got dinner on the table the whole family will LOVE! You just can’t beat this kind of flavor and minimal prep.
What people are saying about this Slow Cooker General Tso’s Chicken
“I have made this twice and it is good. I made the following changes that, for my family’s tastes, worked nicely…So-o-o-o-o good !” – Mike
“This was a super flavorful addictive dish! I did not do it in the crock pot because my morning was super busy but I was able to whip this up while my rice cooked. I loved that is was super quick and so delicious. Where I live overseas there are not many Chinese restaurants but I crave Chinese all the time so this was a winner. I am looking forward to trying your other Chinese dishes as well! I shared this on my fb page and then it was shared multiple times by my friends.” – Grace
“What a great recipe!! I have shared this recipe with a few girl friends and the reviews are awesome.. easy, flavourful and crazy delicious..great stuff :)” – Wendy
“This was a super flavorful addictive dish! I did not do it in the crock pot because my morning was super busy but I was able to whip this up while my rice cooked. I loved that is was super quick and so delicious. Where I live overseas there are not many Chinese restaurants but I crave Chinese all the time so this was a winner. I am looking forward to trying your other Chinese dishes as well! I shared this on my fb page and then it was shared multiple times by my friends.” – Kalia
Slow Cooker General Tso’s Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts , (about 2 pounds), chopped into bite size pieces
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 cup corn starch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Sauce
- 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce , (can be found in the Asian section at most markets)
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- steamed or fried rice for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oil in a nonstick pan or skillet over medium heat. Whisk together corn starch, salt, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, and pepper.
- Add corn starch mixture and chicken pieces to a large zip lock bag. Seal and shake to coat chicken.
- Add coated chicken pieces to pan. Saute 1-2 minutes until browned. (It chicken will still be raw in the middle at this point, that’s okay)
- In a bowl combine all sauce ingredients and whisk to combine. Add half to the crockpot along with chicken pieces. Cook on low for 4 hours.
- Immediately before serving, Add remaining sauce to the crockpot and stir gently. Serve with rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe adapted from Favorite Family Recipes.
Made this tonight and it is so delicious!t
So glad you liked it Sheena! 🙂
Making this right now 🙂 I didn’t do much measuring lol so we will see how it turns out
What a great recipe!! I have shared this recipe with a few girl friends and the reviews are awesome.. easy, flavourful and crazy delicious..great stuff : )
I have to eat gluten free. I need a substitute for the hoisin sauce… because it has wheat in it…. any suggestions?
I’m always hungry for Chinese.
we are gluten free also. We have used this recipe to make a hoisin sub and like it. We use almond butter instead of the peanut butter due to allergies and its good. There are also commercial gluten free hoisin sauces now. I buy one at Sprouts I forgot the name of, there is also this one
Hi Tiffany,
Last night my wife and I saw your recipe for General Tso’s Chicken and it looks yummy!
You also mentioned you loved Tangerine Chicken. So do we!
Do you have a recipe for slow-cook Tangerine Chicken???
Thanks in advance,
Rich & Sharon
San Jose, CA
Hi Rich and Sharon! Oh Tangerine is my favorite, I’m currently developing a recipe for it so stay tuned!
You can order gluten Free Hoisin sauce on line. I got mine from amazon.
Another couple of options if you want crispier chicken is to…
a) cook it on the stove top, separately (one pan chicken, one for the sauce). since you are browning it anyway, it would take a few extra minutes to cook the chicken fully and let the sauce thicken OR
b) right before you serve it, place the chicken bit on a flat pan and broil the chicken until crispy, serve immediately.
Just made this tonight and I didn’t have 4 hours so I used the same pan I sauteed the chicken in to cook it all the way through with the sauce (1/2 while cooking and the remaining just before serving). My family LOVED it. Thank you for the awesome recipe!
This is exactly what I plan on doing tonight. i have everything prepped but I don’t have 4 hours to wait for the slower cooker!!
Doesn’t the chicken get mushy after you cook it in the skillet and then add it to the crock pot?
Jenna, mine came out mushy. I’m not sure what I did wrong, l’m not that great of a cook. Ha! I loved this recipe, it smelled so good. Next time I may not bread my chicken, just sort of pan sear it. And maybe my crockpot was too big, because there wasn’t enough sauce and it was burning on the sides. Which could have also been the reason it was mushy.
Hi Kami, this recipe doesn’t really give you a “crispy” chicken, since it’s made in the slow cooker and all of the sauce tends to get absorbed, but another option I’ve done with this recipe is to just skip the breading and sear the chicken pieces in a hot pan on the stove. You just drizzle a little bit of oil (or cooking spray) into the pan and add the chicken after the pan gets hot. Saute them for about 30 seconds just to brown the outside, then add the chicken straight to the crockpot! 🙂 Also, the sauce can be doubled! My husband and I love love love sauce, we like to use any extra to pour over rice, so I tend to double sauces. Hope this helps! 🙂
The same exact thing happened to me. I had to wind up frying it on the stove and then adding more sauce. It was OK then just a little over cooked
Same! I don’t think I’ll bread it next time either. The sauce is delicious though 🙂
Yes mine did. It only needs to cook for 2 hours on low . Not even maybe an hour.
wondering iF theRe’s Some quantity problem here as sauce is not enough and the cornstarch seems an excessive amoUnt for this recipe maybe one cup Should be one tablespoon!
Yes it dEfinitely does and did! I would say brown the chicken in small batches to thouroughy brOwn and use 1/2 cup per three chicken breasts So it is more of a dusting than thick coating or just skip it all together for a healthier option. Hope yours turns out better than mine did.
Thanks for all the info, I don’t like mushy crockpot food and my husband HATES it and thinks they are only good for chili. I don’t want to reinforce his belief with this recipe so I will pan fry it then coat with sauce like I do for cashew chicken.
I just got home from the grocery store but now I need Chinese food. This looks amazing!
This sounds like a delicious and easy General Tsos. I’ve seen it spelled both ways, and I don’t know if there’s any difference. This is one of my boyfriends favorite dishes, and he orders it 99% of the time when we go out for Chinese. I’m sure this will be made soon!
I love GT’s chicken and cannot wait to try this. If you worked in a Chinese restaurant and claim it to to be the best…then it must be good! Pinning!
I had a question, if I double the recipe should I double my time or cook on high for four hours? Feedback please.