Description
Slow Cooker Peanut Chicken features tender chicken breasts cooked in a creamy peanut sauce with bell peppers, onions, and garlic. This easy Asian-inspired recipe requires minimal prep and cooks hands-free in your crockpot. The sauce is sweet, savory, and slightly spicy, made with peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, and sesame oil. Finished with fresh lime juice and cilantro, it’s perfect served over rice or noodles for a satisfying weeknight dinner.
Ingredients
Chicken & Vegetables
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1.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
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1 red bell pepper, diced
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½ large yellow onion, diced
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2 garlic cloves, chopped
Peanut Sauce
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½ cup creamy peanut butter
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½ cup chicken broth
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¼ cup soy sauce
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1 Tbsp honey
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1 tsp sesame oil
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1 tsp chili garlic paste
Finishing & Garnish
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Juice of 1 lime
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2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
Instructions
Take your chopped peppers, onions, and garlic and just throw them in the bottom of the slow cooker. Don’t arrange them. Don’t make it pretty. They’re gonna cook down into complete mush anyway and literally nobody will ever see them. This veggie layer stops the chicken from welding itself to the bottom of the pot and creating that burnt crusty situation.
Open the package of chicken breasts (why are they always so wet and slippery??) and drop them on top of the veggies. Don’t trim off the weird bits. Don’t pound them flat like they do on cooking shows. Don’t butterfly them or whatever that French technique is called. Just plop them in there.
This is the only part where you need to be awake and present for like two whole minutes. Grab your bowl—any bowl, doesn’t matter—and dump in the peanut butter, chicken broth, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, and chili paste. Now whisk it.
Pour all that beautiful sauce over your chicken and veggies. I try to distribute it evenly but honestly it’s gonna spread and seep into everything while it cooks so if you miss a spot nobody’s gonna die. Put the lid on the slow cooker.
When your timer finally goes off (and your entire house smells like you hired a personal chef instead of being a disaster person who once burned soup), take off the lid. Squeeze in that lime juice—I usually just cut it in half and squeeze it with my hand directly over the pot because I’m too lazy to dig out the citrus squeezer. Dump in the cilantro. Grab a wooden spoon or whatever and just stir everything around. The chicken will completely fall apart into perfect bite-sized shreds without any effort. Serve it over rice if you remembered to make rice, or noodles, or that quinoa you bought six months ago when you were feeling healthy.
Notes
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Let your peanut butter sit out for 15 minutes before mixing—cold peanut butter is a nightmare to blend
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If you’re meal prepping, hold off on softer veggies like zucchini until the last hour or they’ll turn to mush
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Always taste it before serving! Sometimes I need more lime, sometimes a little extra honey
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Don’t use that fancy natural peanut butter with the separated oil—it won’t emulsify right and you’ll end up with a gross oily layer
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I keep a bag of frozen pre-diced peppers and onions in my freezer for nights when I can’t even deal with chopping
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours (on LOW) or 2.5 hours (on HIGH)
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: Asian-Inspired