Oregon Transplant: Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

Oh yes.

It's that wonderful time of year to pull out your slow cooker again! Admittedly, there are some that use their crock pot throughout the summer. It's true, the slow cooker is a great way to cook something without raising the temperature of the home. However, what usually cooks in a slow cooker?

Meats. The hubby and I don't eat a lot of meat in the summer, and if we do, it's from the grill.

Soups and stews. We rarely eat soup and never stew in the summer.

Those 3 items make up the majority of slow cooker recipes. They are all things that scream "COMFORT!!!" food. And "comfort" food almost always equates to fall and winter weather in my book.

We officially have hit fall, so last week I yanked that slow cooker out of its summer hibernation. I pulled some chicken thighs from the freezer and sat down with one of my best friends, Google.

How did people survive without the Internet? I will never know.

At any rate, after Googling "slow cooker chicken thigh recipes" for awhile, I settled on Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs.

The recipe was quite simple, requiring only a few ingredients- soy sauce, ketchup, honey, garlic, and dried basil. I ended up adapting the recipe, mainly because I thought the recipe needed less soy sauce and more garlic. I drastically reduced the cooking time, as my slow cooker cooks fast. These small thighs cooked in 4 hours rather than the recommended 6. It could because my chicken thighs were smaller, but as I said before, I think my slow cooker just cooks fast.

4 hours was perfect for moist, delectable chicken. There was plenty of flavorful sauce to drizzle over the chicken while plating. And true to most slow cooker recipes, this made my house smell like a professional kitchen.

It was hard not to drool all day.

5 ingredients for this easy sauce!

I served mine with garlic mashed potatoes (because I had garden fresh potatoes!!) and roasted Brussels sprouts. I think the chicken would also pair well with a rice pilaf, quinoa, or couscous. The chicken also shreds incredibly easily, and would be perfect for leftover sandwiches the next day. I highly recommend this uncomplicated and flavorful dish.

My goal this fall and winter is to use the slow cooker more, and to bring you guys more of those recipes. Slow cookers are one of my favorite ways to make dinner, and they are really convenient for the everyday working mom (or dad!) to get food on the table. I mean, even if you work all day, you can throw your recipe together in the morning before you leave and arrive home to a hot meal. That's hard to beat! One of my first ideas I'm going to work on is a poor man's beef stew, using a totally cheap cut of meat. I love recipes for turning those mostly unwanted pieces of meat into tender, fall-off-the-bone delicacies. We shall see what I come up with.

In the meantime, Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a great week! :)

Ingredients (serves 4):

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1/2 cup ketchup

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup honey

2 tbsp barbecue sauce (optional- I added because I decreased the amount of soy sauce)

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp dried basil

garnish- freshly minced parsley, sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Place chicken thighs in the bottom of a slow cooker.

2. In a small bowl, combine ketchup, soy sauce, honey, barbecue sauce, garlic, and dried basil. Whisk to mix. Pour sauce over the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours (if your chicken thighs are mighty big, you may want to adjust cooking time up to 6 hours).

3. Remove cover from slow cooker. Sprinkle parsley and sesame seeds over the chicken. Serve chicken immediately with mashed potatoes or rice.

Printable Recipe