Since winter started, many customers have been walking into the store and asking, “What do you recommend using in a slow-cooker?” That’s an easy answer – Sichuan Chinese Five Spice. But until today, we haven’t had a slow-cooker recipe up on the site to share with all of you who have requested it. So here’s the first – Slow Cooked Chinese Five Spice Chicken with Cashews & Shiitake Mushrooms.
As much as I enjoy stir-frying up a quick meal, during our busiest time in December when we would come home late and hungry, there was always a sigh of exhaustion walking through the front door and into an empty kitchen where nothing was prepped for dinner. I know many of you feel the same way – especially the many parents out there who experience that same dreaded feeling (multiplied by the number of kids you have).
This slow-cooker recipe is for the both of us. Because we all deserve to walk in the house after a long day at work, and smell the warm, rich aroma of a home cooked five spice chicken ready to serve immediately over steaming rice.
If you want to experience a real homestyle Chinese meal, I highly recommend trying this Slow-Cooked Chinese Five Spice Chicken with Cashews & Shiitake Mushrooms. No matter what dishes my mom cooks up for dinner back in Malaysia, she will usually serve a Chinese-style chicken or pork broth dish to accompany the meal. It’s incredibly nourishing, which is especially important here in the winter months to keep your body healthy and happy.
Since this is a slow-cooker recipe, it’s easy to modify without sacrificing the dish. So go ahead and leave out a couple of ingredients from the list if you don’t have them, or add in a few more. Just have the basics ready – a whole chicken, dried Shiitake mushrooms, cashews, garlic, a few Chinese cooking essentials, and a high quality Chinese Five Spice powder.
I specifically used our Sichuan Chinese Five Spice for this recipe because of the addition of Sichuan Pepper (remember, it has a citrusy, numbing flavor – it’s not spicy at all). The spice works its magic into the chicken all day as it cooks, and gives that wonderful sensation on the tongue when you take your first sip of the savory broth.
Once you’ve served up your last portion of this Slow-Cooked Chinese Five Spice Chicken with Cashews & Shiitake Mushrooms, there will probably be some leftovers. That’s great news since you already have a head start for dinner tomorrow. Even when I have leftovers, I like to change up dinner the next day. So for this specific dish, I used the leftovers to cook a healthy noodle dish, which I will share with you in my next post. Stay tuned!
[tasty-recipe id=”1312″]
