Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken
Thai Peanut Chicken made in the slow cooker features tender chicken stewed in a flavorful coconut milk and peanut sauce, served over rice or rice noodles!
For more easy Asian-inspired dinners, you might enjoy Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken, Easy Fried Rice, Instant Pot Egg Roll in a Bowl, or One-Pan Asian Beef & Rice Skillet.
Need an effortless, delicious dinner idea? This slow cooker spin on Thai Peanut Chicken turns out soooo yummy, friends. As a bonus, it's ridiculously easy to make.
What is Thai Peanut Chicken?
Chicken breasts are slow cooked in a sauce of coconut milk, peanut butter, and other goodness.
Once cooked through and fall-apart tender, the chicken is shredded and briefly returned to the sauce to soak up all of the goodness.
Then it's simply a matter of garnishing and serving over rice noodles (seen here) or white or brown rice.
If you're feeling especially virtuous, you can even use this recipe as a filling for lettuce wraps!
The flavors in this dish actually remind me a lot of a crockpot Pad Thai, except there are no eggs or tofu or fish sauce involved.
Tweak the Heat
Along those lines, though, I like my Pad Thai rather spicy. So while I kept this recipe fairly mild for the kiddos, I particularly enjoy it myself when I generously sprinkle my portion with extra crushed red pepper flakes.
If you like a little spice, there are other ways you could jazz it up as well. Sriracha, anyone?
So feel free to experiment...but only if you think you can handle the heat!
Ingredients
I bet you've already got most of these ingredients in your fridge and pantry, especially if you enjoy cooking with Asian flavors.
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts. Or you could use boneless skinless chicken thighs. Or a combination of the two. For moister chicken, you could even opt for bone-in chicken breasts or thighs (with or without the skin), then remove and discard any skin/bones before shredding. Just remember that bone-in chicken requires a longer cooking time than boneless chicken, and thighs require a longer cooking time than breasts. At the end of the day, use what you like. Slow cooker chicken recipes are pretty forgiving.
- Coconut milk. Meaning the real stuff from a can. I use full-fat coconut milk, but light coconut milk should work as well. Be sure to shake the can well before opening it. I actually like to flip the can over and use a can opener to open it from the bottom. Since the thick coconut cream settles to the bottom of the can, this makes it easier to scrape it straight off the "lid" that the can opener removed.
- Peanut butter. I prefer chunky, although creamy would be fine. And I use all-natural peanut butter, but whatever you've got will work.
- Garlic. Glorious garlic...don't skimp!
- Honey. For natural sweetness.
- Soy sauce. For Asian saltiness.
- Lime juice. A bit of acidity helps balance the fat and creaminess from the coconut milk and peanut butter.
- Rice wine vinegar. More acidity, plus extra Asian flavor. If you don't have rice wine vinegar, you may use apple cider vinegar instead.
- Crushed red pepper flakes. For a nice touch of heat. Alternatively, sriracha would work as well.
- Chopped peanuts + fresh cilantro. Optional yet highly recommended garnishes.
- Rice, rice noodles, or lettuce leaves. For serving.
How to Make Thai Peanut Chicken
As with most good crockpot recipes, this Thai Peanut Chicken is quick and simple to toss in the slow cooker ahead of dinner time. Then when it's time to eat, you're just a couple of quick steps away from getting it on the table.
- Arrange chicken pieces in the bottom of your slow cooker.
- Stir together the sauce and pour over the chicken.
- Cover and cook until cooked through and tender.
- Remove the chicken and pull into chunks. Return to the crockpot, stir into the sauce, and allow to reheat for a few minutes.
- Serve chicken with sauce over rice or rice noodles, garnishing with chopped peanuts and fresh cilantro.
Ta-daaaa! Who needs take-out? Add an optional side salad drizzled with flavor-packed Asian Salad Dressing and dinner is DONE.
A Note on Cooking Time
When I first published this Thai Peanut Chicken, a few commenters noted that when they made it, their sauce burned or their chicken dried out. I apologize to anyone who had that problem.
As a general rule, cooking time for boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a slow cooker is totally dependent on your model of slow cooker and how hot it runs. Older model, cooler running slow cookers take longer to cook and can go for 6 to 8 hours without burning the sauce or drying out the chicken. Newer model, hotter running slow cookers can cook chicken breasts as quickly as 3 hours. You need to be familiar with your slow cooker in order to determine the appropriate cooking time for this recipe (or any slow cooker recipe involving boneless, skinless chicken breasts).
When I first developed this recipe, I was using a 10-year old slow cooker and a 6 hour cooking time was appropriate. However, I now have a newer model slow cooker that runs hotter and cooks faster and, as a result, when I make this recipe now, I cook it for a shorter duration.
Therefore, I decreased the overall cooking time in the recipe instructions, since many people these days own modern (hotter running) slow cookers. If you still have an old, cooler running slow cooker, you may need to cook your chicken closer to 6 hours (or longer).
If you like Asian flavors, I hope you love this Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken! It's simple. Satisfying. Delicious. An easy weeknight dinner you'll definitely want to put on repeat. 😉
More Slow Cooker Dinners
- Slow Cooker Honey Balsamic Shredded Beef Sandwiches
- Slow Cooker Mexican Street Corn Chowder
- Beef Barbacoa {Slow Cooker}
- Slow Cooker Honey Lime Pulled Pork Tacos
- The BEST Easy Slow Cooker Recipes Collection
Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup canned coconut milk
- ¾ cup natural peanut butter, crunchy or creamy
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, more or less to taste
- ⅓ cup chopped peanuts, for garnish
- Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
- Rice, rice noodles, or lettuce leaves, for serving
Instructions
- Arrange chicken breasts in the bottom of a large slow cooker. In a medium bowl, stir together coconut milk, peanut butter, garlic, honey, soy sauce, lime juice, rice wine vinegar, and red pepper flakes; mix until (mostly) smooth) Pour over chicken.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 5 hours (or until chicken is cooked through and tender but not overcooked, depending on the strength of your slow cooker). Reduce slow cooker temperature to WARM. Remove chicken from slow cooker, cut into chunks, and shred. Return shredded chicken to slow cooker to allow it to absorb sauce and heat through.
- Serve chicken and sauce over cooked white or brown rice, cooked rice noodles, or stuffed inside large lettuce leaves, as wraps. Garnish with chopped peanuts, fresh cilantro, and additional red pepper flakes, if desired.
Equipment Needed
Video
Nutrition
Recipe originally published on May 14, 2015, and updated on October 13, 2019.
This just wasn’t good at all. No flavor. We tossed it and ordered pizza 🙁
This is super delicious. I start with frozen chicken so just know it works without thawing them first. I make the sauce in a blender which is super easy. Pour it over and then just forget about it. I serve it with white rice and a vegetable on the side. The whole family loves it. Thank you for the great recipe.
I really wanted to love this recipe. It has all my favorite flavors, but the actual texture of the chicken in the sauce was so mushy. I took the tip of only cooking it for 3 hours because the chicken was cooked and the sauce was starting to burn. It definitely needs more spice. I had it in a lettuce cup and my husband had it over rice & put all the garnishes on, but we couldn't get over the texture.
Hi Sylvia! So sorry to hear that your chicken got overdone. It should be tender but definitely not mushy. As I explained in the post, some slow cookers run hotter and cook faster than others, so it sounds like your chicken was done sooner than 3 hours. And as also mentioned in the post, you can definitely tweak the spice level of this recipe to your liking (using crushed red pepper flakes, sriracha, etc.). Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Samantha, I just made this recipe and can't wait for it to finish. I used half boneless chicken thighs and half boneless breasts. Any thoughts on using the thighs?
I think thighs would be great in this...hope they were! 🙂
Loved this recipe! I've been looking for a good Thai coconut chicken crockpot recipe for a while! Just a note that when I made the sauce I wanted it to have a bit more spice, so I kept adding red pepper flakes and sauce. However, once it cooked down, the spice really kicked up! I wasn't expecting that. It was perfect for me, but my first attempt ended up a bit spicy for my family. 🙂
Thanks for the good recipe, I'll definitely be making this on the regular!
Hi Samantha is there a way to make this recipe using the Instant Pot instead of slower cooker?
Hi Ingrid! I have adapted this recipe to the Instant Pot myself, but unfortunately, I just winged it and didn't write anything down so I'm not able to share specific instructions. I'll plan on doing so in the future, however! That being said, I basically made the sauce as directed and then just followed the cooking time from a similar chicken Instant Pot recipe and it turned out great. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Ingrid,
I made this recipe for the first time today, in an instant pot, and it turned out great! To start, I cut the chicken breast into large chunks, diced a whole onion, crushed garlic, and added fresh ginger, salt and pepper, then with a bit of olive oil I sautéed the ingredients for a few minutes. (Yes, I added a few ingredients not listed in the recipe)
Then I added the sauce ingredients to the instant pot, pressure cook setting on 15 mins, sealed valve and a natural release at the end.
My whole family loved this! I didn’t get groceries in time to use slow cooker so I just cut my chicken into chunks, sautéed them until lightly browned, then poured the sauce over it and simmered for 30 mins or so. Delicious!
This recipe is absolutely delicious! I added 1 tablespoon of sriracha, 2 teaspoons of sesame oil, and I thinly sliced some red bell pepper and threw it in the sauce before pouring it on top of the chicken. I've already made it twice this month. It's definitely become a staple for me!
This was SO GOOD!! That sauce is lick-your-plate good!
I did tweak it to my family's tastes: added 1 tbs Sriracha, 1 tbs toasted sesame oil, changed the 3 tbs honey to 3 tbs brown sugar, and reduced the lime juice to 1 tbs. Next time I will add 1 tbs fish sauce because it's a staple of Thai cookery.
I also used an entire can of coconut milk, because the ratio of milk to p.b. seemed off. I had enough sauce to cover at least another 1/2 lb of chicken. I oven-roasted cauliflower, onions, and red pepper and had pasta and rice for the chicken/sauce to be served over. Again, this recipe is a winner! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Very good.
We made as is. Then as we tasted we added. A spoonful more PB and some fish sauce. Though something still seems missing, it’s Very fast and a great CP meal.
I want to try the sauce atop fried chicken strips like you would have as “peanut chicken” in the NE.
Out of chicken... would this work with a pork roast??
Hmmm...I have never tried it and have a hard time imagining these particular flavors with pork. But it might be delicious, so if you decide to give it a go, please let us know how it turns out! 🙂
Delicious! I chopped and steamed some veggies (bell pepper, carrots, broccoli, onion) and added them when I returned the pulled chicken to the slow cooker near the end. Then, I tossed in some baby spinach right before I served it. Yum — thank you!
The recipe is perfect if you add about a tablespoon of sriracha sauce. It was lacking spiciness. Other than that great recipe!
We are peanut allergy house, anyone tried with cashew or almond butter instead of peanut butter???
I haven't tried it, but please let us know how it turns out if you decide to give it a go. 🙂
Hi! This looks delish. I do not have coconut milk on hand today....could the recipe still work with chicken broth/water/another replacement?
Hi Jodie! The flavor will be slightly different without that coconut undertone that’s common to Thai cuisine, but I bet you could substitute chicken broth in this recipe and it would still turn out yummy. 🙂
Yum! We made this recipe exactly as stated and we loved it. Topped with sriracha and on top of rice noodles. Thank you!
Would I be able to sub almond milk for the coconut milk?
The coconut milk definitely contributes an undertone to the sauce, but I don't see why you couldn't substitute almond milk if you don't mind the slightly different flavor. 🙂
Have you ever made this with frozen chicken?
Hi Jenna! For food safety reasons, the USDA recommends not cooking frozen meat in a slow cooker, since the strength/temperature of slow cookers can vary and it’s possible that the meat won’t get up to a safe temperature quickly enough. This article gives a pretty good overview of the topic: https://www.today.com/food/food-myths-safe-cook-frozen-chicken-crock-pot-t123084.
Making it this weekend in my InstaPot. I just need to get cilantro. I think I’ll add green onions and bean sprouts! Can’t wait!!! Thanks.