Using a homemade sauce, these family friendly teriyaki chicken legs are a crowd pleaser. Make this easy chicken recipe in your slow cooker or Instant Pot.

PIN FOR LATER
Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken Legs VIDEO:
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
There are several reasons I recommend homemade sauce vs store-bought. The main reasons are because it’s cheaper & you probably already have all the ingredients in your pantry and you have control of what you’re eating. Meaning there’s no added preservatives or other junk unless you add it in extra. It was important to me that this recipe be the trifecta: low-carb, paleo and whole30 compliant. To achieve that, I had to remove the ingredients that you would normally find in a teriyaki sauce. Mainly there’s no sweetener. No honey, no sugar. I honestly don’t think the sauce needs it however you can of course add 1 tablespoon of the sweetener that fits your lifestyle whether it be honey, maple syrup or stevia. If you’re following whole3o at the moment, you will need to omit a sweetener to stay complaint.

homemade teriyaki sauce
Using Other Cuts Of Chicken
As with a lot of my recipes, you can actually use your preferred cut of chicken here, not just chicken legs. If you use white meat you will want to lower the slow cooker cook time by an hour or so and the pressure cooker cook time by 3 minutes. White meat does not take as long to cook as dark meat.

before (slow cooker)
Other teriyaki recipes you might enjoy:
Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken Wings (Low-Carb, Paleo, Whole30)
Slow Cooker Teriyaki Pork Loin (Paleo)
Baked Pineapple Teriyaki Pork Chops
Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Korean Style Short Ribs (Low-Carb, Paleo, Whole30)

after (slow cooker)
Optional Steps
After the chicken legs are doing cooking, there are a couple things you can do. For the record, I don’t take the time to do either of these but I understand other people might want to. The chicken legs will be falling apart tender so carefully remove them from the appliance.
Thickening the sauce – This can be done directly in the slow cooker or electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot). I almost always use an slurry of arrowroot and water to thicken my sauce. You can make your slurry as thick as you want. If you’re using arrowroot flour/starch, use a 1:1 water/starch ratio. I use 2 tbsp of water mixed with 2 tbsp flour and pour it into the appliance.
Broiling – If you want your chicken legs to have crisp skin, you will need to remove the legs from the appliance and place them under your broiler.
I used a 6-quart slow cooker or Instant Pot.

PIN FOR LATER

{VIDEO} Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken Legs (Low-Carb, Paleo, Whole30)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken legs
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)
- 1 green onion, sliced (optional)
SAUCE:
- 3/4 cup coconut aminos or low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch salt & pepper
Instructions
Slow Cooker
- Add the chicken legs to the bottom of the slow cooker.
- In a small bowl, mix together sauce ingredients. Pour sauce on top of chicken legs.
- Cook HIGH 2-3 hours or LOW 4-6.
- Garnish with sesame seeds & green onions if using.
Electric Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot)
- Add the chicken legs to the bottom of the pressure cooker.
- In a small bowl, mix together sauce ingredients. Pour sauce on top of chicken legs.
- Close lid and seal vent. Select high pressure for 12 minutes. Quick release pressure when done.
- Garnish with sesame seeds & green onions if using.
This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on one of the product links, I might receive compensation. For more about my disclosure policy see here: https://fitslowcookerqueen.com/about/disclosure-policy/.


Loved these easy and tasty drumsticks and they were gobbled up by my picky 3 year old! I used the directions for the instant pot method and made them in my Ninja foodi pressure cooker. I think mine cooks a little different so I bumped up the time to 15 minutes. But the results were delicious, fall off the bone drumsticks. Definitely will be making again.
★★★★★
This recipe is easy and delicious. It will be in regular rotation!
This was super easy to pull together. The hardest part was not eating it all once the chicken was done, as I still needed to cook my rice and put my salad together. I used chicken thighs for my dish. The flavor set in all the way to the bone. So good!
★★★★★
This was so easy and so flavorful! I loved that I could throw it in the slow cooker in the morning and it was ready by dinner. I put some fresh snow peas in the slow cooker in the last 30 minutes to make it a full meal. I bet it’d be good with broccoli too! I’ll try that next time 🙂
★★★★★
Great pic- I can practically taste the teriyaki!
★★★★★