Slow Cooker Sesame Chicken Meal Prep
47g protein per serving. 12 servings from one slow cooker. Eight minutes of work.
Three pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs cooked low and slow in a sticky-sweet sesame sauce, shredded and served over jasmine rice with broccoli, carrots, and toasted sesame seeds. The set-and-forget Sunday prep that yields 12 portion-controlled meals.
Sunday prep means you set the timer and walk out of the kitchen. Three pounds of chicken thighs, ten minutes of dump-and-go, four hours later the slow cooker hands you twelve portion-controlled meals. The slow cooker is the tool every lifter writes off until they realize it is the cheapest meal-prep multiplier in their kitchen.
Thighs over breasts is non-negotiable here. Dark meat fat content is the meal-prep cheat code. Breasts dry out by Wednesday no matter what you do. Thighs reheat juicy on day five because the fat keeps the protein lubricated. They are also $1-2 per pound cheaper, which adds up fast when you are buying three pounds at a time.
The cornstarch slurry goes in at the end. This is the move people skip. If you add cornstarch at the start, it breaks down over four hours and you get a watery sauce. Whisk it in the last 10 minutes and the sauce thickens into the sticky-sweet glaze you want clinging to every shred of chicken. 47g of protein per serving, twelve containers ready to go, and the slow cooker did the work while you trained.
Slow Cooker Sesame Chicken Meal Prep
Ingredients
- FOR THE CHICKEN
- FOR THE FINISHING SLURRY
- FOR SERVING
Instructions
- Place chicken thighs in the slow cooker. Whisk soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, and black pepper in a bowl. Pour over chicken and toss to coat.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours (or 6 hours for fall-apart shred). Do not cook on HIGH — the texture suffers and the sauce reduces too much.
- Remove chicken to a cutting board. Shred with two forks. The thighs should pull apart with no resistance.
- In a small cup, whisk cornstarch with cold water until smooth. Whisk the slurry into the slow cooker liquid. Cover and cook on HIGH for 10 minutes until the sauce is thick and glossy.
- Return shredded chicken to the slow cooker and toss in the thickened sauce until every piece is coated.
- While chicken finishes, cook jasmine rice: rinse rice, combine with water and salt, bring to a boil, reduce to low, cover, cook 15 minutes. Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes, fluff. Steam broccoli florets in a microwave-safe bowl with 2 tablespoons water, covered, for 4-5 minutes.
- Assemble 12 meal prep containers: 3/4 cup rice, 2/3 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup chicken with sauce, 2-3 tablespoons shredded carrots. Top each with sesame seeds and green onions.
- Stores in the fridge up to 5 days. Freezes 3 months in 1-cup portions of chicken-and-sauce only (rice and broccoli cook fresh in 5 minutes). Reheat covered in the microwave 90 seconds.