Trim Tasty Timely Thai

Healthy Hump Day Recipe

Whoever invented the crock pot deserves a prize. It truly is a must-have kitchen item. It is, hands down, the easiest way to prepare a gourmet-style meal for you and your family. Just throw in the ingredients and go! Crock pots give you a great opportunity to experiment with new flavors, and that's exactly what I did with this recipe. I love eating at Thai restaurants but had never cooked Thai food before. The tastes are so unique and delicious. A lot of familiar ingredients are used but in different ways making this cuisine very distinct. We were having some friends over for dinner who enjoy Thai food, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give this recipe a shot. Remember my Seasonal Cilantro Salsa from last week's Healthy Hump Day Recipe? If not, click here to see how it was made (another deliciously nutritious recipe). I made that salsa knowing that I needed a cilantro salsa for my Thai recipe, but you can most definitely use a cilantro salsa that is already prepared and found (usually) in the deli section of your local grocery store. Would peanut butter be something you would think to pair with cilantro? I sure didn't, at least not until I started reading about some Thai inspired flavors. I have used peanut butter in stir fry recipes with chicken and loved the flavor that cooked peanut butter gives, so I thought, why not? Luckily those friends that we were expecting are so nice that they wouldn't tell me if it tasted awful anyway... Well, we didn't have to pretend anything because this crock pot recipe was another hit out of the park. Like any chicken made in a crock pot, it was so tender and juicy, and the cilantro salsa with the peanut butter complemented each other so perfectly in infused the chicken with that flavor. I paired the meal with some veggies and bread from my bread machine (another genius invention!). Give this one a shot tonight!

Slow Cooker Thai Chicken

Ingredients
-3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
-2 cups cilantro salsa (recipe here, or from a jar)
-6 tbsp peanut butter
-6 tbsp soy sauce
-2 tsp ginger

Directions
1. Halve the chicken breasts and place 3 on the bottom of a crock pot.
2. Pour 1 cup salsa over chicken.
3. Add a few dollops of peanut butter on top of salsa layer.
4. Pour 3 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp ginger over chicken layer.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 with another layer of ingredients.
6. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.