Slow Cooked Thai Chicken
There is a special place in my heart for Thai food, sometimes I seriously wonder if I was born in the wrong place but then I remember how good thai food is in Los Angeles. During the summer I feel like I constantly battle between wanting to cook over the stove and wanting to grill every night of the week. Where I live it regularly gets to over 100 degrees during the summer so choosing which heat source to sweat over can be difficult. Enter my slow cooker. Honestly, they don’t get the love they deserve but I have found a renewed love for them this summer because they are so easy and you don’t have to sweat over them.
Saturday morning I was rifling through the freezer trying to use up piled frozen food in there as my constant food ADD forces me to abandon wise, planned food choices. I found a pack of chicken legs. Knowing that later in the day we would be having friends over I decided that the chicken legs would be perfect because they feed a lot of people and everyone likes them. So then I tried to think about how I could make these, immediately I went to something with stewed tomatoes but that idea was quickly deserted. Thai food came to mind, something with peanuts, I know, it’s very cliche but I love peanuts, chicken, and rice. I wanted to make something with a peanut sauce but also wanted it to be quick and easy. That’s when we turned to the slow cooker, peanut butter, soy sauce, and hot salsa. I know what you’re thinking, “Salsa, are you crazy? Do you even know how to cook?” The answer is yes I am crazy and as far as cooking, that’s debatable.
I quickly pulled out a mixing bowl and put in the salsa, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, crushed coriander, and some lime. As I turned to grab a spoon to stir my craziness I glanced out the window, the pool caught my eye. It was calling my name, it was 10:30 in the morning and it was already 93 degrees outside. My scurry turned into a blur of mixing, pouring, and throwing chicken legs into the slow cooker. I stopped dead in my tracks once I put the peanut butter in and mixed it. Now this is a moment where you just need to trust me because at this point none of it looks appetizing. Do you know what wet peanut butter looks like? Maybe I’ve said too much, I’ll let your mind do the talking for me.
Once I got everything in there I set it cook and almost ran through the sliding glass door before jumping in the pool. Fast forward six hours, the pool party was a success, all remnants of snack food was indistinguishable, the chicken was ready. My friend Nicolette made her fried rice while I tasted the chicken, the meat was literally falling off the bones; the taste was epic. We plated the rice, laid a stray piece of scallion, then set the chicken down on the pillowy rice. We sprinkled cilantro and chopped peanuts over it, now it was done and ready to eat. We finished setting the remaining plates with food, gathered around the table and shared in a great meal to pinnacle an amazing Saturday. Before the meal ended we already had made plans for next weekend and began discussing what we would make.
Slow Cooked Thai Chicken
Ingredients
2 1/2 pounds of chicken legs
1 cup HOT salsa
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons crushed coriander
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
2 tablespoons cilantro
Preparation
- Put chicken into slow cooker (just in case you forgot what you’re doing with it)
- Mix salsa, peanut butter, lime juice, garlic, soy sauce, coriander, ginger; pour over chicken
- Cover; cook on high for a few hours then switch to low for the last couple of hours.
- Place chicken on plate or hand, pour sauce over chicken; sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro
- Eat one before anyone else, you cooked it, be the first to enjoy it.
