Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken: a soy-free take on the bowl you miss

Teriyaki is built on soy sauce, which is off the table during elimination, so this rebuilds the same savory, faintly sweet glaze with coconut aminos instead. You whisk the sauce, pour it over the chicken, and let the slow cooker do the rest. Set-and-forget meals like this one are what carry people through the hard middle of AIP, when willpower runs thin and you need the kitchen to meet you halfway.

The chicken brings satisfying protein, and using bone broth in place of plain broth turns the sauce into quiet repair work. Bone broth is a source of glycine and collagen, both involved in gut lining repair and connective tissue, and a calmer gut barrier is part of settling an immune system that has been running hot. The fresh ginger adds warmth and supports digestion. This is real nourishment, not a cure, and the broth is a small gift to your gut.

Source the chicken from a bird raised well, and if you use bone broth, let yourself feel the gratitude in using the whole animal, the parts most people throw away, turned into medicine. Finish with green onion and serve over cauliflower rice with something green. Make the bowl beautiful, take a breath, and eat it slowly.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup coconut aminos
• 1/3 cup chicken broth (or bone broth for a richer sauce)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp fresh orange juice
• 1 tbsp arrowroot starch
• 1 tsp sea salt (reduce if sensitive to salt)
• 2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1.5 lbs chicken breast
• 3 tbsp green onion, chopped, for garnish
• cauliflower rice, to serve

The only swap for Core AIP is to omit the black pepper the source lists, since pepper is a seed-spice. Everything else is already compliant: coconut aminos stands in for soy sauce, arrowroot is the thickener (the source advises against tapioca, which goes gummy), and onion powder is a permitted ground vegetable. Use bone broth for both a richer sauce and a little gut support. One reviewer found 1 tsp salt too salty, so reduce it if you are sensitive to sodium. The source suggests serving over cauliflower rice, which keeps the meal grain-free.

Method

In a bowl, whisk together the coconut aminos, broth, orange juice, honey, arrowroot starch, sea salt, ginger, onion powder, and garlic until it forms a smooth sauce.

Place the chicken breast in the slow cooker and drizzle the melted coconut oil over the top. Pour the sauce over the chicken, coating it well.

Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, until the chicken is cooked through and reaches an internal temperature of 165 F.

Lift the chicken out and slice it, or shred it with two forks, then return it to the slow cooker and stir it through the remaining sauce. Serve topped with green onion over cauliflower rice, with steamed broccoli or roasted baby bok choy alongside.

Instant Pot variation

The Instant Pot gives you both paths. For the same hands-off result, use the slow-cook function and follow the recipe as written. When you are short on time, the source gives a faster conversion: add the chicken and sauce to the pot, seal, and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes, then quick-release. You can melt the coconut oil and warm the aromatics on saute right in the same pot first if you like. After cooking, shred the chicken in the pot and stir through the sauce; set to saute briefly to thicken if needed. The high-pressure time is carried from the source and should still be confirmed in the kitchen.

*Adapted from unboundwellness.com*

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*Provenance: source-derived (re-grounded). Ingredient list taken as factual reference from /Users/Christopher/Documents/Claude/01-Projects/ARM/aip-source-archives/unbound-wellness/slow-cooker-teriyaki-chicken.md. Method reworded in ARM's own words. Swap for Core AIP: black pepper omitted as a seed-spice; all other ingredients already AIP-compliant, with coconut aminos in place of soy sauce and arrowroot (not tapioca) as the thickener. Bone broth offered as the richer, gut-supportive option. Serving suggestion of cauliflower rice kept to stay grain-free. As a slow-cooker dish, Instant Pot is listed in cooking_methods and an Instant Pot variation gives both the slow-cook setting and the source's 15-minute high-pressure conversion with quick release, per the cooking-method standard. Quantities carried from source; salt flagged as reducible per a reviewer. Instant Pot pressure time flagged for kitchen confirmation. Health framing written fresh, hedged, and flagged. No third-party text reproduced.*