Mar 15

Mar 15 Slow Cooker Coconut Basil Chicken

Chicken, Dinner, Paleo, Slow Cooker, Whole30

I know I am not the only person that has super busy days but doesn't want to resort to the "drive-through nasty" to feed my people. Enter the slow cooker, seriously, whoever invented that sucker is my hero, moms everywhere rejoice in it's magical abilities. Here is a delicious way to use your slow cooker to create an Asian-inspired chicken that you can serve along with some veggies and rice or cauliflower rice.

This is a slow cooker dump dinner, super easy and takes minutes to prep and freeze. Everything goes into a freezer bag, you mix it up (great for the kids), and then freeze it flat. Then when you are ready for the chicken; thaw it overnight in the fridge, then just pop it into the slow cooker in the morning. You can go about your day and come home to your house smelling like a coconut candle and tender, flavorful chicken.

I have done many a slow cooker dump dinner and I have found that it is better to just make the protein in the slow cooker and make the sides fresh. Unless it is a soup, the other components of your meal get mushy and blend into one flavor. If you just do the meat part, then you can make freshness a part of your dinner. I mean, have you seen a slow cookered broccoli floret? SAD... But you can get a steamer bag of little trees and have beautiful bright green a part of your plate. Making some rice or caulirice is minimal effort and is perfect.

This is defintely a family pleaser. It has a little spice but is still mild enough for little palates. My kids will try any chicken thankfully, so I just had to scrape off the chunks in the sauce for them (weirdos). I don't know about your kids, but mine are crazy about white rice, shoveling it into their mouths with their hands - animals. My husband also loved this after an extremely long day at work, the perfect comforting dinner. So if you make it, people will eat it!

Slow Cooker Coconut Basil Chicken

Inspired by A to Z Family Tree

2 1/2 pounds chicken breasts, about 3
1 can coconut milk, full fat preferred
1/3 cup green onions, chopped
2 Tablespoons torn basil
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
2 Tablespoons coconut aminos or soy sauce
1/2 Tablespoon Fish Sauce, Red Boat is compliant
1 1/2 Tablespoon ketchup, Tessemae's is compliant
1/2 Tablespoon BBQ Sauce, Tessemae's is compliant
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

- Place the chicken at the bottom of a gallon sized freezer bag, set the bag in a bowl to help it stand up. Add all the other ingredients to the bag, seal, and mix.

- Either freeze (make sure to label) or dump into the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or HIGH for 3-4 hours. If you froze it, thaw the bag overnight in the fridge, dump and cook the same way.

- Serve with your favorite green veggie; broccoli, snap peas, or green beans and rice or cauliflower rice.

Here is the whole team assembled, excluding pepper flakes, I forgot that little buddy...

I like to label my bag with the name and how to cook it for the slow cooker because who wants to go searching for a recipe when you are doing a convenience meal?!And obvi I switchen the name up since I didn't make it spicy, I didn't want to hear abo… — I like to label my bag with the name and how to cook it for the slow cooker because who wants to go searching for a recipe when you are doing a convenience meal?!
And obvi I switchen the name up since I didn't make it spicy, I didn't want to hear about "itchy tongues" from my kids. That is literally what they call it. But if you are free from spice concerns, add some more SPI-SAY!

May the dumping of ingredients commence! I love these kind of dinners because even the prep is easy. I went in a random order of ingredients, just whatever was closest to my hand at that moment.