There is something about this time of year that makes cooking in the slow cooker an essential and making slow cooker Thai style peanut “chicken” is one of the dishes that makes me excited!
If, like me you love peanut butter and the spice of chilli, you will love this recipe. I with it being vegan, I used TKC Chicken Style Pieces from Wing Yip (other Chinese supermarkets stock the too) or you could use Quorn or Soya pieces if you can’t get hold of the TKC version. I honestly do recommend you try to find it though, it really is the best thing that I have found as an alternative!
Don’t be afraid of thicker sauces in the slow cooker – I know I used to be! The instructions always stated that it needed to have water over the top of the ingredients, but with a thicker sauce you might end up with some sticky bits on the side, but all will be well. Trust me!
This slow cooker Thai style peanut “chicken” calls for a bit of work being put in at the beginning with the making of the sauce and the frying of the onions. You could just chuck the onions in, but frying them first give it a richer and better flavour, I reckon. Plus, it doesn’t take too long and you can run it up while you’re measuring out the bits for the sauce. Win!
Slow Cooker Thai Style Peanut “Chicken”
Serves: 4
Level: Easy (but a bit faffy at first!)
Ingredients:
1 packet of TKC “chicken” or your choice of alternative (defrosted if frozen)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large sweet pepper, chopped
400 g tin of coconut milk
3/4 cup of smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup low salt soy sauce
1/4 cup agave or honey
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Juice of two limes
1 tsp sesame oil
1 inch of fresh ginger, finely grated
3 cloves of garlic, finely grated
pinch of cayenne pepper
4 spring onions, finely sliced
Sweet and Spicy Chilli sauce (optional, but recommended)
Method:
Place your slow cooker on a suitable counter ready to be filled
Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan and fry the onions and peppers for about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooked and golden
Remove the onion from the pan by adding them to the slow cooker
In a large bowl, add the coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, agave/honey, vinegar, sesame oil, cayenne, garlic and ginger and whisk until the sauce is smooth and combined
Add 1/3 cup water to the sauce and whisk to combine
Place the “chicken” into the slow cooker and cover with the slow cooker dish
Cover with the sauce and stir to coat all of the pieces
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours
Before you are ready to eat, cook your rice (recipe here)
Serve the Thai style peanut “chicken” over the rice with a sprinkling of spring onions
For some extra crunch, I like to have some Thai Spiced Crackers on the side
This meal seriously packs some flavour, but if you do like your chilli I would recommend adding around 4 table spoons of sweet and spicy chilli sauce to the mix. It kind of softens the sweetness of the peanut butter by giving it that little bit of a kick. I personally really enjoyed the chilli additive – but then again, we have chilli in almost everything!
We love to get a good deal of walking in every day, these days (you can read more about that on my The Urban Wanderer blog) so having the odd day off from cooking after a day of walking is a nice thing to add to the meal plan. It is a bit weird though, when I do have the slow cooker on, I kind of miss doing the cooking in the evening. Yeah, I’m a bit of an odd one!
I hope you have some slow cooker dinners planned into your meal plan this week? If not, maybe add this for next week instead?
Have a good one and welcome to November!
Do you have a slow cooker? What is your favourite thing to cook in yours?
Share in the comments below!
- 1 packet of TKC “chicken” or your choice of alternative (defrosted if frozen)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 400 g tin of coconut milk
- 3/4 cup of smooth peanut butter
- 1/4 cup low salt soy sauce
- 1/4 cup agave or honey
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- Juice of two limes
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 inch of fresh ginger, finely grated
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely grated
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- Place your slow cooker on a suitable counter ready to be filled
- Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan and fry the onions for about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooked and golden
- Remove the onion from the pan by adding them to the slow cooker
- In a large bowl, add the coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, agave/honey, vinegar, sesame oil, cayanne, garlic and ginger and whisk until the sauce is smooth and combined
- Add 1/3 cup water to the sauce and whisk to combine
- Place the “chicken” into the slow cooker and cover with the slow cooker dish
- Cover with the sauce and stir to coat all of the pieces
- Cover and cook on low for 8 hours
- Before you are ready to eat, cook your rice (
- recipe here
- )
- Serve the Thai style peanut “chicken” over the rice with a sprinkling of spring onions
- For some extra crunch, I like to have some
- Thai Spiced Crackers
- on the side
2 comments
I would never have thought of combining chicken with peanut butter, but I suppose you can’t knock it until you try it! I usually only use the slow cooker to make my own hearty soup, with plenty of veg and bits of pasta, but I definitely need to be more adventurous like you are.
Oh wow, this looks delicious. I was thinking about getting a slow cooker but wasn’t sure how veggie friendly it would be, but this is a great idea. I bought some peanut butter the other week and I’m always on the hunt for recipe ideas for it.