Asian Chicken Sliders

I love slow cooker meals, they're so convenient. With a little prep ahead of time, you can have a meal ready to eat when you get home. I prefer slow cooker meals that also have veggies, so it's all-in-one and you don't need to do anything extra, but I will make exceptions for something that sounds interesting.  This is one of those dishes, there are no veggies in it, but you could easily add some diced carrots, celery, bok choy, etc.

Inspiration

Ingredients lineup

Healthy. Delicious. Asian Pulled Chicken Sliders

Ingredients

• 8 oz unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 small onion, minced
• 2 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon five-spice seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 8 small dinner rolls

All ingredients, ready to go.

I went with my usual chicken thighs instead of breasts and substituted unsweetened applesauce instead of apple butter. I added an extra 1/2 tsp of ginger because my five-spice powder smelled only like cinnamon and I didn't want apple-cinnamon chicken!

Directions

Start of the cooking

I mixed the first seven ingredients together in a slow cooker and added the chicken thighs and spread the mixture on top.  I cooked it on 'medium' for 8 hours.

I went home for lunch so I was able to check on it in the middle of cooking.  I smashed the meat up with a spoon and spatula so it was "pulled" or shredded.   I thought there was a lot of liquid, so I turned the slow cooker to 'high' and left the lid off for half an hour to cook off some moisture.  This probably wasn't necessary since I could have thickened it with arrowroot powder or cornstarch later, but I figured I would try it out.  I also tasted it, it was nice, but seemed like it needed to be more "Asian", but I didn't adjust it at all since I wanted to try it as written.

The final mixture

We ate this on mini potato buns for slider sandwiches.   

Verdict

This was nice, but only decently popular.  We weren't fighting over the leftovers but we did eat them. Husband Jeff had some leftovers on rice and a couple more sliders, I ate leftovers on top of greens for an Asian salad.  As a sandwich, I would prefer the sauce to be thicker so it clings to the meat rather than soaking all over the bun.

Asian food is about balancing flavors.  In my opinion this was a little too sweet, but I liked how it was different than what I would normally make and uses ingredients I have on hand.  Next time I would add a little more soy sauce to balance out the sweetness and maybe some fresh black pepper for spice.  Sesame oil might be nice, along with a rice vinegar or mustard for bite/acidity.