Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Drumsticks in Asian Peanut Butter Sauce

Working mostly nights and the occasional day shift means that my internal sleeping clock is super screwed up. For example, one day last week I worked during the day and then was promptly so exhausted that I fell asleep at 730pm (before Jeopardy!) But then I woke up at o'dark thirty... or somewhere around 3am. I had been asleep 8 hours, so clearly was time to be awake. Then I proceeded to go back to sleep at 8am. See? Screwed up. So when I was wide awake on my day off at 4am, I needed something to do. What do you do at 4am? TV sucks at that time... so clearly, you should start cooking. I knew I would fall asleep eventually, so I looked through a blog I love: A Year of Slow Cooking. Shockingly, I wasn't in the mood for soup and was feeling something Asian-flavored... so I looked through her recipes that were tagged "Asian." I came across Asian Peanut Butter Pork, which she claims is delicious. She hasn't lied to me yet... and I already had most of the ingredients.







Nurses, doctors, and fire/EMS personnel are well known for their shift work and their ability (or reluctant requirement...) to switch back and forth between day shift and night shift. Throw a few 24 hour shifts in there. Whatever. So the crockpot can be (and SHOULD be) a shift worker's best friend.

Now, I'm not a big fan of pork. Never have been. My mom makes a world-renowned pork tenderloin that everyone raves about and I just won't eat it. Not really sure why. But obviously I wasn't too keen on making this recipe with pork. I thought the flavors would go well with chicken and I wanted something bone-in, so I decided to try some chicken drumsticks. Made a few other minor changes... but stuck with the essentials from the original recipe.

Maybe not the prettiest, but man does it taste good!

-10 chicken drumsticks
-1 red onion
-1/2 cup soy sauce
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1 cup crunchy peanut butter
-1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
-1/3 cup water
-4 tbsp minced garlic

Cut the onion up into rings and place in the bottom of the crockpot. Put the chicken on top. Combine all the rest of the ingredients. Pour over top of the chicken. (Note: the peanut butter won't mix well with the other things... it's ok. Once it is warm and melty, it'll combine better.)

Cook on low for 8+ hours. (I think mine was in there for like 9 hours.) An hour or so before you're done, open up the crockpot and stir the liquid up. The peanut butter and other ingredients will mix right together.

Conclusion: Wow. Delicious. I gave it five stars. The chicken is so moist and succulent... it fall right off the bone. No knives needed at all. The peanut butter makes most of the flavor... kind of reminds you of a Pad Thai type of peanuty-ness. It's really good with rice noodles, which I had leftover. I'm sure it would be good with rice too. Definitely a keeper recipe. I don't think I would change a thing. Maybe a squirt of lime over top before eating. Oh and it's super filling... 2 drumsticks and I'm stuffed. Definitely a keeper recipe for your days off or for a nice 24 hour shift at the station.