You can make creamy, peanutty Thai Peanut Chicken in your slow cooker for a warming, saucy dish the whole family loves to eat. Our healthy take on a favorite comfort dish is easy and nourishing when made from real-food ingredients and an easy homemade peanut sauce. Add it all to a slow cooker, set it, and forget it until dinner time is here.
This recipe was originally posted December 30, 2017; Updated October 26, 2021.
Thai Peanut Chicken: A takeout favorite reinvented
We all have our favorite memories of ordering peanut chicken from our local Thai restaurants. Always made with chicken, peanut butter, coconut milk, and a handful of spices and ginger, this dish is always full of flavor and healthy ingredients. Peanut Chicken is a favorite Thai-inspired dish for many people because, while it has depth of flavor from several spices plus lime and peanut sauce, it isn’t particularly spicy. Instead, it’s rich, creamy, and always comforting similar to our other slow cooker chicken recipes.
Ingredients to make thai-Inspired peanut chicken
Our slow cooker version of Thai Peanut Chicken uses fresh ingredients and many things you may already have in your pantry. Here’s what you need to make it:
- Boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs
- Yellow onion – may sub a white onion
- Red bell pepper – a red bell pepper adds nice color, but you can use any color of bell pepper
- Baby spinach – use fresh spinach leaves, which will wilt into the peanut sauce at the very end of cooking
- Lime – you’ll need the juice of 1 large lime
- Canned coconut milk – use light or full-fat
- Natural creamy peanut butter
- Coconut aminos – you can substitute half the amount of gluten-free tamari, shoyu, or soy sauce
- Rice vinegar
- Toasted sesame oil
- Fish sauce and honey – these ingredients are optional, but they add great flavor and balance to the peanut sauce, so use them if you have them on hand
- Ginger – use grated fresh ginger if you have it, or you can substitute dried ground ginger
- Garlic
- Crushed red pepper flakes
how to make thai peanut chicken in the slow cooker
This dish requires that you make your own quick peanut sauce. The sauce is then poured over chicken and veggies in the slow cooker. It’s that simple!
- Place the chopped chicken pieces, diced onion, and red bell pepper in the slow cooker.
- Make the peanut sauce by whisking together the peanut sauce ingredients. You’ll use the peanut butter, coconut milk, garlic, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil, fish sauce, ginger, and red pepper flakes.
- Pour the sauce over chicken and veggies in slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 4 to 4 ½ hours or until chicken is cooked through.
- When the chicken is cooked through, stir in the spinach and lime juice. Stir and heat a few more minutes to allow the spinach to wilt into the sauce.
- Serve over rice or noodles, and top servings with desired garnishes.
Is Peanut Chicken a traditional Thai Dish?
Peanuts and peanut sauces aren’t traditionally found in Thai cooking. Instead, they originated in Malaysia and Indonesia. But somewhere along the line this was lost in culinary translation. And peanut sauce-based dishes started showing up regularly on Thai restaurant menus in America. Our version of slow cooker Thai Peanut Chicken is inspired by the saucy dishes we love from our many visits to our favorite Thai restaurants.
Adding spinach to thai peanut chicken
We love to up the nutrition and color in this favorite saucy slow cooker Thai dish by adding a generous amount of fresh spinach. Spinach is a good source of vitamin A, magnesium, potassium, and folate (aka nutrients that boost heart health and help tame inflammation). Add a bag of fresh spinach at the very end, after all the other ingredients have cooked. Then, give it a few gently stirs to let the spinach wilt gently into the dish.
How to serve thai peanut chicken
This saucy peanut chicken is good on it’s own, but it’s extra good when served over rice or noodles. We love to serve it over jasmine rice or basmati rice, pad-Thai noodles (Lotus Foods makes our favorite gluten-free organic pad-thai noodles), or even cauliflower rice for a grain-free, lower-carb option.
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Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken
Easy, saucy Thai Peanut Chicken is so delicious and so simple when made in a slow cooker. Made with tender chicken, vegetables and spinach, and a homemade peanut sauce, this dish is classic comfort and healthy, too.
Ingredients
- 1½ – 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast or thighs, cut into bite size pieces.
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 (5-ounce) carton or bag fresh baby spinach
- Juice of 1 large or 2 small limes (¼ cup)
For The Peanut Sauce
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup light or full-fat canned coconut milk
- ½ cup natural creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup coconut aminos*
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey (optional)
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)
- 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (or 1 teaspoon dried ground ginger)
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Optional garnishes: chopped peanuts, cilantro, and/or sliced green onions
Instructions
- In a slow cooker, place the chicken pieces, diced onion, and red bell pepper; season with salt and pepper, tossing to coat.
- To make the peanut sauce, in a bowl, combine the peanut sauce ingredients (garlic through red pepper flakes). Whisk to combine.
- Pour the sauce over chicken and veggies in slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 4 to 4 ½ hours or until chicken is cooked through.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Remove lid and stir in the spinach leaves and lime juice. Stir and heat a few more minutes to allow the spinach to wilt into the sauce.
- If desired, serve over rice, cauliflower rice, pad Thai noodles, or any noodles. Top with desired garnishes.
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Notes
* In place of the 1/4 cup coconut aminos, you may substitute 2 tablespoons gluten-free tamari, shoyu, or soy sauce
We love to serve this dish over Jasmine Rice or Pad-Thai Noodles. For gluten-free noodles, we love Lotus Foods noodles.
Stovetop Directions: In a Dutch oven, enamel pot, or very large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil or avocado oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the chicken pieces, onion, and bell pepper until tender and cooked through, 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the peanut sauce according to Step 2 above. Pour the peanut sauce over the chicken and vegetables, stirring to coat; heat for 3-4 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add the spinach and lime juice, stir and heat until the spinach is just wilted, about 3 minutes. Serve over rice or noodles and garnish as desired.
The nutrition analysis below reflects the recipe when made with light coconut milk. The nutrition analysis per serving with full-fat coconut milk is: 380 calories, 21 g total fat (9 g sat fat), 581 mg sodium, 15 g carb (4 g fiber, 7 g sugar), 31 g protein, 65 mg chol
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size: 1/6 of recipe (1 cup)
- Calories: 340
- Fat: 17 g
- (Sat Fat: 5 g)
- Sodium: 572 mg
- Carbohydrate: 15 g
- (Fiber: 4 g
- Sugar: 7 g)
- Protein: 31 g
- Cholesterol: 65 mg
Dietary
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Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Rachel Cook of Half Acre House.
To make this whole30 compliant could we use almond butter in place of peanut butter? Or would that ruin the flavor of the dish?
Hi Jackie,
You could definitely substitute almond butter for peanut butter though it will change only the flavor of the dish (it will still be delicious, just not peanut buttery). You may find that you need to add a little more coconut aminos or ginger to give it a little more flavor. If you try it, please let us know – we’d love to share that information with other readers who may have the same question.
I made this last night with almond butter and omitted the honey to make it Whole 30 friendly. It was still delicious and had that Thai peanut taste you’re hoping for when you make this dish. I think it’s a great hearty, “fill ya up” dish, but noticed there’s a lot of calories and carbs – it’s only down fall. But other than that, Whole 30 compliant and delicious!
I have another “peanut” chicken recipe that uses Sunbutter to make it compliant, so i’m going to try that!
Sounds great! Would love to hear how it turns out for you!
Turned out great! Although I will say that it looked pretty sketchy when I first opened the crock pot because the sauce had separated. Once I stirred it though it was totally fine!
Hi Ivy,
I had the same response when I was testing the recipe for the fist time but like you said, it all comes back together just fine 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!
Can you substitute coconut oil for the seasame oil? Also, there appears to be recipe instructions missing from the beginning. I don’t see anything about mixing all of the sauce ingredients together. Am I just not seeing that part?
Hi Kelly,
You can just omit the sesame oil if you don’t have it or can’t tolerate it. It’s more for flavor than for texture, etc.
In Step 2 you mix all the sauce ingredients together then pour over the chicken. Hope that helps!
Yes, very helpful. Thank you!
This is one of our favorites….wondering now that Im an InstantPot owner- could this be done in the instant pot? And if so, what is the timing for it, and a Quick Release or Natural Release
Hi Sue,
Yes, I believe you could easily convert this to an Instant Pot recipe but selecting the ‘Poultry’ setting and using a quick release.
I was wondering the same, but curious about whether the coconut milk would burn easily. It did, unfortunately. I tried the poultry setting on my instant pot and it burned quickly into the cycle (I don’t think it had even gotten up to pressure yet). If I were to try this recipe again in an IP, I’d suggest cooking the chicken first with the onion, garlic and ginger in some water or broth, then straining/draining most of the liquid, adding the rest of the sauce ingredients, and using the sauté function for a few minutes to meld the flavors.
Can you do lite coconut milk instead of the full fat kind? Would I just add a little more?
Hi Shelby,
Unfortunately, light coconut milk would not be a great choice for this recipe as it’s very water. Adding more would only make it waterier.
My daughter made this recipe and it was delicious!
How can I make this recipe without a slow cooker?
Hi Robin,
I’m so glad you enjoyed this dish! I think the easiest way to go would be to make it on the stovetop in a skillet, modifying it as follows:
– Saute onions in a skillet over medium-high heat with a bit of oil for 4-5 minutes or until they start to soften
– Add chicken and continue to cook until chicken is almost cooked through. Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the sauce.
– Add garlic and cook 30 seconds.
– Add sauce, stir to combine and cover with a lid. Allow sauce to come to a simmer then reduce heat to maintain that low simmer, stirring occasionally.
– Cook until the sauce is nice and thick then add the spinach and lime juice.
If you try it out and it works like a charm, please let us know!