I love Chinese food...the problem is it's too expensive and way saturated with fat. So I trialed and errorred a couple of orange chicken recipes. They were ok, but I've found the best combination out of my trial and error. Below is my version of orange chicken....in a crock pot. It is sure to please and a lot healthier than going out. I also think it is more tasty. The picture below I got from online because I keep forgetting to take pictures of my food! But it looks pretty close to that.
Orange Chicken in a Crock Pot
Ingredients:
1 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breasts chopped into bite sized chunks
1/3 cup of flour
1tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper
olive oil
4-5 oz of frozen orange juice concentrate (thawed)
2-3 TBSP of Balsamic vinegar
3 TBSP of ketchup
3-4 TBSP of brown sugar
2 tsp of ginger
3 tsp of garlic
1-2 TBSP of soy sauce
Red Pepper flakes to taste or liking
In the crock pot mix the Orange Juice, Balsamic vinegar, Ketchup, Brown sugar, Ginger, Garlic, Soy Sauce and red pepper flakes to combine all ingredients.
Place the flour into a small bowl. Sprinkle your salt and pepper on the chicken chunks, then place them into the flour and cover them. Shake off excess flour.
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. When it is hot enough, place all the chicken chunks in and cook. Cook the chicken until they have a nice light golden brown color to them. (You don't need to cook them all of the way, just enough to get some color on them) Place the browned chicken into the crock pot mixture.
Cook on high for 1-2 hours or low for 3 -4 hours. I personally stick them in the crock pot for only 1 hour on high as it retains the moister of the chicken better.
**Note: you can make the sauce thinner by adding 1/2 cup of water to the mixture before adding the chicken, if you'd like.
If you try this recipe, let me know what you think!