Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs

I’m kinda done with RedMeatMonday®. It’s November and I want to TRY to eat a bit better. So, I’m going for ComfortFoodMonday© for a bit.

So tonight I give you a crock pot meal…Garlic Chicken Thighs. Sure, not quite a healthy departure from a slab of beef, but…hey, I’m trying.

So I shopped at noon after our dog walk so that I could have this in the crock pot by 1 pm. I bought 2 packs of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, with 4 in each.

These went straight into the crock. On top of this went one rough chopped onion. This was seasoned with 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp of salt, 1 TBSP of fresh ground black pepper.

Also, I put in a new ingredient I’ve wanted to introduce into my kitchen. Flat Iron Pepper Flakes. This is a combination of Habanero, Jalapeno, Arbol and Ghost Pepper flakes. The idea here is to up my game from just my normal Red Pepper Flakes. I used about a TBSP of these.

This all gets tossed in the crock to coat well, then the thighs are positioned to be skin-up.

The magic sauce for this is:
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup sweet chili sauce
3 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs dijon mustard

Mix this up and pour on top of the chicken. I tossed on a handful of garlic cloves as well, because…why not.

Put the crock on HIGH and cook for about 5 to 6 hours. About 4 hours in, mix up 1 TBSP of water with 1 TBSP of corn starch and stir in. This gives the juices more body. I also remove some fat at this point with a ladle before doing the corn starch slurry thing.

I served mine with saffron rice and peas.

The goal of this, other than having a great meal, is to have leftovers that will provide chicken for a California Burrito, as well as a Taco lunch through the course of the week.