In my ever-present search for “something other than chicken” for dinner, I stumbled on a recipe for…… chicken. Seriously, if you ask my kids, they’ll tell you we have chicken 12 times a week. While not entirely accurate, a roast chicken is one of the easiest things to throw in the oven. The recipe I found in last month’s Cuisine from Home magazine was for Hoisin Chicken for two. It involved browning and baking chicken thighs, which looked delicious and easy. Due to the recipe and picture, it was easy, and quite tasty.
To make it work for a family of five on a week night was the question–especially if the person making it wasn’t me. With a little math and advanced prep work I was convinced it was both scalable (from 2 people to 6 people) and could easily be adjusted for the slow cooker. An additional challenge was to work with my less than perfectly stocked pantry, so I made a few adjustments and crossed my fingers.
In short, the experiment worked and all of a sudden “chicken” wasn’t “chicken.” It was delicious, easy and no one felt it was the thirteenth time that week.
Crock It! Asian Chicken Thighs
Ingredients:
1/2 cup plum sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
4 scallions, white part only
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in quarters
1 2″ piece of ginger peeled and cut into slices, but they don’t have to be really thin.
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chipotle in adobo
8 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin off
What’s Next:
In a medium-sized bowl, combine plum sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil. Mix together with a whisk.
In a small food processor, place scallions, garlic, ginger, and chipotle in adobe along with a tablespoon of the sauce with the peppers. Process until all pieces are chopped and it looks like a thick chunky paste. (You can always chop by hand if you want, but this seemed faster)
Add the garlic/ginger mixture to the bowl with the sauces in it and whisk all together.
Place chicken thighs in the base of the slow cooker. Pour sauce over chicken. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.
You may need to stir it once while cooking to make sure all the chicken gets some of the sauce.
Notes from my experience:
This was really easy to make and I would even say easy to be prepped for someone else to make. The sauce can be made ahead of time, and the chicken can be prepped ahead of time as well.
I found that removing the skin from the chicken thighs was easiest with a pair of good kitchen shears. I had all 8 done in about 10 minutes.
This was also really good with the rice noodles, adding a little variety from our usual of rice or pasta or potatoes. Another “win” for avoiding yet another night of “chicken.”
