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Crock Pot General Tso Chicken

Crock Pot General Tso Chicken has a little more of a kick than sweet and sour chicken, and better flavor. A great chicken recipe for the crock pot!

Crock Pot General Tso Chicken in a white bowl garnished with green onion

Crock Pot General Tso Chicken

I love this Crock Pot General Tso chicken. More times than not, General Tso chicken is what I will order at Chinese restaurants. It has a little more of a kick than sweet and sour chicken and I like the flavor better. Before this recipe I would always make our original recipe for General Tso but ever since I came up with this crock pot version, I haven’t gone back to the old one (the old one is equally delicious… this way is just a little easier). I came up with this crock-pot version the other day when I didn’t have a lot of time in the late-afternoon to prepare dinner… so I made this during my kids’ naptime. This pairs great with our restaurant-style fried rice recipe!

If you say “Tso”

Sometimes the most difficult part of ordering food in an ethnic restaurant is pronouncing the names without sounding like an idiot. There are a lot of differing thoughts on the pronunciation of this favorite Chinese food dish in America. According to SpoonUniversity.com, it is perfectly acceptable to pronounce it “so” — just omit the “T.” But according to my husband, Jared’s, experience working in a Chinese restaurant, it is more correctly pronounced “chow.” Either way, you are going to want to be eating this amazing Crock Pot General Tso Chicken while you think about saying the recipe name.

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If you like the ease of crock pot cooking, or the flavor of Chinese food, check out some of these recipes below:

How to make Crock Pot General Tso Chicken

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Crock Pot General Tso Chicken

Prep Time:
15 mins
Cook Time:
3 hrs
Total Time:
3 hrs 15 mins
 
Crock Pot General Tso Chicken has a little more of a kick than sweet and sour chicken, and better flavor. A great chicken recipe for the crock pot!
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Crock Pot General Tso Chicken
Servings: 6
Author: Erica
INGREDIENTS (with Amazon Links)
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Combine flour, salt, and pepper in resealable food storage bag. Add chicken. Shake to coat with flour mixture.
  2. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Brown chicken about 2 minutes on each side (it doesn't need to be cooked all the way through at this point). Set aside.
  3. In the Crock Pot, whisk sugar, soy sauce, pineapple juice, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and cayenne until well combined.
  4. Add chicken to crock pot and cook on low for 3-4 hours. If you would like your sauce thicker add water/cornstarch mixture about 30 minutes before serving. Stir it in SLOWLY, folding it into the chicken. You won't want your breading to be scraped off of your chicken pieces so be gentle!
  5. Garnish with green onion and serve.

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Reader Interactions

39 Comments

  2. Just made this today… it’s till cooking, but I tasted the ‘broth’ and WOW. This is going to be soooo good! I’m going to pair it with some quinoa and steamed string beans!

    thanks, oh I shared your recipe/website on my facebook page. 🙂

    reply to comment

    • I would say it serves 6-8.. if you are doing other dishes along with it you should be fine with 8. If you are worried about it, just add another pound of chicken.

      reply to comment

  10. Hello. I liked the recipe we had it last night very tasty chicken we had it with tex-mex rice mixture with some broccoli and carrots I put soya sauce over the broccoli. thank-you for the recipe George whipps

    reply to comment

    • We don’t have it on hand, I know there are places online like at livestrong.com that you can put in a recipe and it will tell you the nutritional info. Hope this helps!

      reply to comment

  17. I’m in the process of making this, but it looks more brown than red?! I made 4lbs of chicken so I added more of the ingredients.. Wondering if I didn’t put enough of something? It’s still cooking and I haven’t put in the cornstarch water mixture?!

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  18. Oh. Em. Gee. Finally had the time to make this and it is the best General Tso’s Chicken I have had in over a decade! I am so loving it!

    Most recipes I adjust or tweak ahead of time and then have more ideas of how to make them better afterward too. This recipe I made almost exactly (only used dried ginger powder instead of fresh) and I do NOT plan on doing anything different the next time. I have been craving General chicken for a while, but haven’t found any local restaurant that has a great recipe. I’ll never order out for Chinese again!

    Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe.

    reply to comment

  20. For chicken recipes, i usually just dump uncooked thawed chicken into the crock pot. Less time and less cleanup! 🙂 For these Chinese recipes, is it really necessary to brown the chicken in the skillet first?

    reply to comment

    • You do what works best for you! If you find it easier and to your taste, feel free to adapt these recipes any way you want to. We are happy to give you a start. 🙂

      reply to comment

  21. Could someone tell me what kind of pineapple juice you used? Should this be the kind from the juice isle or should I use the juice from canned pineapples, which the label shows has “no added sugar?” My grocery store does not carry a sugar-free pineapple juice. Thanks for any advice.

    reply to comment

  22. My husband doesn’t like chicken breast, l used boneless skinless chicken thighs didn’t bread them or brown just dumped,set and forget. Until time to add slurry. Was GREAT!!!!!

    reply to comment

    • I apologise for responding late! The chicken was AMAZING and was very delightful! (The instructions are VERY true when it says to stir carefully) The sauce turned out great and I even paired it with white rice

      reply to comment

  24. I am making this now and the sauce is very thick and I the chicken and sauce is burning on the sides of the crockpot. I’m only 2 hours in, any thoughts on why this would have happened?

    reply to comment

    • Hmmm… I am not sure. I do know that every Crock Pot can be different. Some have different “hot spots”. It sounds like yours might cook a little on the hot side. You definitely don’t want the chicken to be overcooked and dry. Maybe next time check the chicken after an hour. If you have a meat thermometer, you can check it to see if the internal temperature is showing it is done. I would say reduce it to “warm” as soon as you see that the chicken is done. Hope this helps!

      reply to comment

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