Slow Cooker Korean Chicken Sliders

Name: Slow Cooker Korean Chicken Sliders
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 4 h
Total time: 4 h 10 min
Yield: A Lot of Sliders!
Ingredients: 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts and/or thighs; 1/4 cup gochujang; 1/4 cup soy sauce; 1 small red onion, grated; 4 cloves garlic, grated; 1" piece of ginger, peeled and grated; 3 tablespoons mirin; 3 tablespoons brown sugar; 1 teaspoon sesame oil; 1/4 teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon arrowroot powder or cornstarch; 1/4 cup water; Slider buns and/or Bibb lettuce; Kimchi; Avocado, thinly sliced; Lightly pickled bean sprouts (recipe below); Gochujang Aioli (recipe below); 1 bunch scallions, chopped; Sesame seeds; 1 cup bean sprouts; 3 tablespoons rice vinegar; 1/2 cup warm water; 1/2 scant tablespoon sugar; 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt; 1/3 cup sour cream; 1/4 cup mayonnaise; 1 1/2 tablespoons gochujang; 1 clove garlic, grated with microzester; 1/4 teaspoon salt; Pinch of garlic powder

By Chris Cockren 58 Comments

Easy has never tasted so good. These Slow Cooker Korean Chicken Sliders are perfect for game day, parties, and easy entertaining. Gluten free option too!

You know my favorite part of fall? Raking.

What's more fun than getting to spend hours upon hours outside casually gathering up all the leaves from the one tree on your property, along with the several million leaves from neighboring trees? And then you get to do it again and again all the way until snow starts falling.

Uhm, no. Raking is stupid.

It takes up so much time. And for what? At least when you mow the lawn or do weeding, you have instant gratification of a beautiful, clean-cut landscape. When you're done raking, all you have is a dead, yellow lawn. I'd rather just look at the pretty leaves.

At this point I should have probably thought of a clever transition to talk about these sliders. Oops.

Sorry, I was busy being angry at the thought of having to rake soon.

Fall, I do love you. The weather is beautiful. The apple cider is good. Getting back into the kitchen and turning on that oven makes me happy. But raking? Yea... no.

Once fall hits, I start breaking out my slow cooker again. Because slow cooker meals rock. Actually, let's amend that statement. There are a lot of terrible slow cooker recipes out there. I think we've all experienced a #slowcookerrecipefail.

You know the ones I'm talking about. The photo shows beautifully browned chicken covered in a thick glazy sauce... but what comes out of your slow cooker looks like a glop of disgusting, runny blandness. Dinner is served... take-out pizza.

Good news. This is not one of those recipes.

I'm going to be completely honest with you. We are on that level, right? Right.

The magic of this recipe is in the sum of its parts. The slow cooker Korean gochujang chicken by itself is totally fine and whatever... but with the kimchi, avocado, quick pickled bean sprouts, and gochujang aioli? Yea, that's where it's at.

I'm gong to resist saying some lame Guy Fieri like statement like this is going to take you to flavor-town or something like that. But it's true. You will be going on a road trip to flavor-town.

This is going to become a party food staple at our house. And since all the hard work is done by the slow cooker, it's optimal for easy entertaining. Need a healthier or gluten free option? Just use bibb lettuce instead of rolls and make sure to grab gluten-free soy sauce. Boom. Now you have gluten-free slow cooker Korean chicken sliders.

And hey dudes that aren't big on hanging around the kitchen... this is perfect food for your next game day party. Become a hero among your friends.