Slow Cooker Spicy Chicken Thighs

 

This recipe was inspired by a comment from a reader who suggested no sugar in a recipe I gave for ribs and to instead use the sweetness of onions and Indian spices to take its place.  To fulfill this reader's wish, I decided to look for recipes using chicken this time that I might be able to draw from and found them in two among several, namely,  Easy Slow Cooker Sriracha Honey Chicken Wings from the Slow Roasted Italian blog and Spicy Sriracha Chicken Wings by Michael Simon, one of my favorite celebrity chefs. 

 

I narrowed it down to these two sources since I want to use my sriracha sauce as the source of the heat and I also wanted to substitute honey for sugar being a healthier source for sweetness.  Michael Symon used some of the spices found in garam masala, an Indian spice, which was used in one of the wings in the menu of the Winghart Restaurant.  I added the lemon and onions which I had plenty of at hand to the rest of the ingredients.  The lemon gave it a refreshing tang and the onions did give it the sweetness which the commentator predicted they would.  Wings of course would be the meat of choice but I did not have them but instead I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs which were on sale just two days ago.  It made the dish healthier.

 

When you eat this dish, it will be like you have been taken by Aladdin via a magic carpet ride to India.  The subtle flowery taste of cardamon particularly among the spices make this an exotic but not overbearing dish.  The sauce is delicious despite the simplicity of its ingredients.  Sriracha, spices, honey and lemon.  And onions.

Slow Cooker Spicy Chicken Thighs

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp sriracha sauce (you can add more later depending on your tolerance for heat and also your guests')
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder (Note 1)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder  (Note 1)
• 1/8 tsp cardamon powder (Note 1)
• 1/8 tsp coriander powder (Note 1)
• 1/4 tsp each garlic and ginger powder
• salt to taste
• zest of one lemon or lime
• 2 tbsp juice of lemon or lime
• 1 tbsp cornstarch mix in 1 tbsp water
• 2 lbs skinless boneless chicken thighs (Note 2)
• 1 large onion sliced

Mix all the ingredients in a crock pot.  Slow cook for 8 hours at low or 4 hours at high setting.  I cooked mine for 2 hours using the slow cooker setting in an  Aroma brand slow cooker/rice cooker. 

Serve with plain rice or fried rice which I did and a side of yogurt with cucumber and garlic.

You can also broil the chicken thighs after slow cooking them and baste with the sauce if you prefer.  Straight from the crock pot is pretty awesome as is.

 

Notes:

1.  Cumin, cinnamon, cardamon and coriander are the ingredients in the McCormick brand Garam Masala spice.  You can substitute 3/4 tsp of garam masala to fulfill these four ingredients.  These four are actually my favorite components in garam masala which depending on who is preparing it can also contain other ingredients like cloves, pepper, tumeric and nutmeg. 

2.  I used chicken thighs but the two internet sources I referred to previously both used chicken wings.