This is loosely based on a Thai chicken and potato stew from Lonny—a Dutch Indonesian chef.

I had no idea just how Thai this recipe he named Alu Che really was (never heard of it) but loved the sound of it and figured it would make a perfect crock pot recipe. Which it did.

I made a few changes: instead of a cut-up fryer I used chicken legs. I also didn’t use 19 small Thai chillies (why not 20, I wonder?) and replaced them with 4 Anaheim chillies. Still spicy, but in a warming kind of way. Mainly I left the original recipe intact, which was ‘throw everything in a big pot and simmer it’.

In hindsight I would have sautéed the onions first and I would have removed the chicken skin, but that’s about all the changes I’ll make next time. It’s spicy, it’s fragrant and it lifts your spirit in a way only Thai, Chinese and Indonesian food can.

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs (& thighs)
1 pound potatoes
2 onions
3 stalks lemon grass
3 spring onions
2 two medium-sized tomatoes
4 chili peppers
thumb-size piece fresh ginger
1 bulb garlic (mine was fresh garlic)
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp oil
4 tbsp water (or chicken broth)

 
Directions:

Chop the onions.

Remove the tip, the end, and the outer layer and now smash it on the kitchen counter to bruise it. Just release all your built up tension, stress and anger!

 
Feels good, doesn’t it? Cooking is therapeutic. You get to slap things around, that always helps.
 

Remove the seeds from the peppers and finely mince them.

Finely mince the garlic as well.

Normally I grate my ginger. But not this time….

I peeled the ginger and turned it into match sticks.

Chop the spring onions and tomato as well while you’re at it.

Peel and cube the potatoes. Not too small or they’ll turn everything into soup.

 
I think replacing half the potatoes with sweet potatoes might be really tasty as well.
 

The chicken legs. Lonny used a cut-up fryer, I used just legs and thighs.

 
Lonny didn’t remove the skin… I sure as heck will next time. You see, Lonny and I are very different. I’m a 5′ 8″ girl with copper blonde hair and green eyes and Lonny, well, he’s not.
 

Now comes the easy part: place the chicken in your slow cooker and top it with the onions and chilli pepper.

 
Another thing I disagree on with Lonny: I’m going to sauté the onion next time. Quite honestly, my recipe doesn’t look a whole lot like his anymore.
 

Add the remaining ingredients. It sure looks cheerful, doesn’t it?

Add your potatoes. Push some underneath the chicken as well.

Mix everything up, pour in the peanut oil and sprinkle in the salt and pepper.

 
Add 4 tbsp water or chicken broth.
 

Push the lemongrass stalks in there. We only need the flavour, so we’ll remove them before eating the dish.

 
Put the lid on and cook on low for 8 hours, until the chicken almost falls off the bone, the potatoes are tender and there’s lots of yummy liquid.
 

After 3 hours I took a peek and stirred a little. There was a quite some flavoured broth that smelled out-of-this-world good.

After 8 hours it was done. I removed the lemongrass.

This is so really tasty.

 
You can serve the chicken thighs whole, but I preferred to pick the chicken meat from the bones and put it back into the slow cooker after I skimmed the fat from the surface. Check the seasoning and adjust when needed.
 

Serve with steamed rice and lime wedges and (optionally) finely minced cilantro.