Slow cooker honey mustard chicken
Golden chicken thighs in a creamy mustard and honey sauce makes a great family supper, especially as you prepare it in a slow cooker. It might seem like a lot of mustard but the flavour softens during cooking, leaving just a hint that complements the sweetness of the honey perfectly. Serve with green veg and potatoes or rice.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp sunflower, vegetable or light olive oil
- 6–8 chicken thighs, with skin and bone-in
- 300ml/10fl oz hot chicken stock, made with 1 stock cube
- 2 tbsp mustard, English, wholegrain or a combination
- 2 tbsp runny honey
- ½ tsp dried mixed herbs
- 4 tbsp double cream
- 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp cold water
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Season the chicken thighs on all sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Fry the chicken thighs, skin-side down, for 3–5 minutes or until crisp and golden. Turn and cook on the other side for 2 minutes. Frying the chicken will give it a lovely colour and render out some of the fat that sits just below the skin, but take care as it can spit a little as it fries.
While the chicken is frying, pour the stock into the slow cooker and stir in the mustard, honey and herbs until thoroughly mixed. Add the chicken pieces to the slow cooker, skin-side up, cover and cook on high for 3–4 hours.
Once the chicken is cooked, gently stir in the cream and cornflour mixture, cover and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens. (If your chicken releases lots of fat into the pot, you may want to spoon a little off before adding the cream.)
Serve the chicken hot with the sauce and lots of freshly cooked vegetables, with potatoes or rice on the side.
Recipe Tips
This slow cooker recipe cooks best on high for a shorter time but you can also cook on low for 4–6 hours if that suits your timings better, switching to high when you add the cream and cornflour.
Pack sizes of chicken thighs vary, but you should aim for one large chicken thigh, or quarter, or two smaller thighs per person. If you end up with an uneven number, don’t worry too much, the chicken is so tender that it can be pulled off the bone and divided very easily.
Any mustard works for this recipe, but I like to use 1 tbsp each of English mustard and wholegrain mustard if I have both handy.