I recently made this for my little family and it was a big hit! I love all Asian food, but sadly I don’t make very often because my husband is not a big fan. I have a philosophy about food likes and dislikes (preferences)…it’s a habit. Well, I mean it is a habit based on what you currently eat day to day, what you have been exposed to as a child, and which flavor profiles are you mentally and emotionally open to (do you like trying new things?)…these things make up our taste preferences. So, knowing this, I want my kids to grow up with a variety of taste and food experiences and preferences, I am hoping this will expand their flavor palette and open them up to more easily trying new things when they are presented.
I found this recipe on this beautiful food blog and made a few changes to the recipe…here is what I came up with 🙂 I hope you like it!
Mix all you sauce ingredients together and poor over your in-bone chicken. I used chicken thighs here, I know thighs are a slightly higher fat choice than chicken breast, but that’s ok sometimes. I removed the skin, trimmed any extra fat, and also there isn’t any other oil or fat added to this recipe. 🙂 No worries!
Cook in the crockpot all day, in my case that was about 8hours on low.
Remove the chicken and pour the sauce into a sauce pan.
Take a about 1/4cup of the sauce out and put it in a small bowl, mixing cup or do it right in the measuring cup like I did. Add 1 Tbsp cornstarch to this and make a slurry. Are you asking: “why not just add the corn starch directly to the sauce pan and stir?” Well, adding your thickening agent directly to the hot gravy or sauce will cause it to seize up upon contact with the liquid and it will be hard to make the gravy or sauce smooth with no lumps. So don’t skip this step.
Then whisk the slurry directly into the sauce and quickly incorporate.
Cook on low for about 10 min, this will allow to thicken.
In the mean time, remove the bone (should just pull right out) put the chicken back into the crock pot and shred with 2 forks. Also, steam about 2 cups of frozen broccoli.
Add broccoli to the chicken and pour in the thickened sauce.
Thoroughly mix. If this isn’t saucey enough for you, you can add few more splashes of chicken broth to moisten up. I served over rice (I was out of brown rice (gasp!), so I had to use some white rice (gasp again!) I had in my pantry. Wow, chicken thighs and white rice… this is really turning into a shocking blog post! 😉 But a girls gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!
- 3 large bone-in, skinless chicken thighs(~1.5 pounds total)
- 2Tbsp honey
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ¼ chicken broth
- 2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup diced onion
- ~1/2 tsp powder ginger (or grated fresh ginger) this can be strong so use you taste pref as a guide
- 2 cups frozen Broccoli
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- Sliced scallions, for garnish
- Sesame seeds, for garnish
- Place the chicken in crockpot
- Mix honey, soy sauce, chicken broth, hoisin sauce, garlic, onion, and ginger together in bowl. Pour over chicken (I will often do this the night before so I can just take it out of the fridge and turn on the crockpot first thing in the morning)
- Cook Chicken on low for 6-8hours or high for 4-6hour
- REmove the chicken to a plate and set to the side.
- For the sauce in sauce pan. Remove about ¼cup of sauce into a small bowl, add corn starch and make a slurry. Once this is mixed pour back into sauce and whisk to fully incorporate. Cook on low for about 10mins until it starts to thicken
- While sauce it thickening, steam 2 cups of frozen broccoli. Remove bone from the chicken (should simply pull out). Replace chicken back in the crockpot and shred chicken with 2 forks. Add steamed broccoli to chicken.
- Stir in thicken sauce into chicken and broccoli, make sure to coat thoroughly.
- Can be served over cooked rice or pasta. CAn also be eaten by itself or in a lettuce wrap.
- Enjoy!
P.s. If you are gluten free make sure you check the Hoisin sauce for wheat. If you can’t find a gluten free version at the store, here is a version you can make yourself (I haven’t tried this recipe but it looks pretty solid)
