Crockpot Orange Chicken

A few weeks ago, Hubs came back from a team practice he coaches with a bag of oranges.  Great, but no one in our family eats oranges.  I mean, Hubs will eat the occasional orange, but the rest of us are a hard nope.  Which is funny, because Dude loves orange juice, but I dunno.

The next team practice was in more than 2 weeks, so I knew the oranges probably wouldn’t last until then, so I figured I’d better use them somehow.  So why not orange chicken?

Second confession…I’ve never actually eaten orange chicken.  I see it at school when I’m on lunch duty or in mall food courts and it usually looks like fried popcorn chicken covered in neon orange sauce.  Gross and no.

So I found a recipe and made it…in the crockpot because it was a busy day.

As I served it that night, Hibs and Dude, who do eat orange chicken at school or food courts, were like, “whoa, this is taking me a second because the orange chicken actually tastes like orange!  It’s like what orange chicken is trying to be!”

I’ll take that as a compliment.  So while it took those two a second to wrap their minds around my orange chicken, they ended up liking it more than the commercial version…Spud and I enjoyed it too!

Sunday Funday

Crockpot

• Braised Beef Cheeks over Garlic Gnocchi by Culinary Cam
• Crockpot Orange Chickenby Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Garlic Rosemary Lamb Shanksby Food Lust People Love
• Keto Masala Beef Steaksby Sneha's Recipe
• Leftover Kabob Fajitasby A Day in the LIfe on the Farm
• Peppered Short Ribs by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apple Oatsby Our Good Life
• Slow Cooker Chili con Carne by Palatable Pastime

Crockpot Orange Chicken

Adapted from Show Me the Yummy

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts1 cup water

½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice + 1 tablespoon zest

½ cup rice vinegar

½ cup low sodium soy sauce

¼ cup honey

¼ cup brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¼ teaspoon  black pepper

¼ cup cornstarch + ¼ cup cold water, whisked

Place the chicken in a crock pot.  Add the water, orange juice & zest, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and back pepper.  Stir lightly to mix.

Cook on High for 2 hours or Low for 4 hours.

Remove chicken and cut into chunks.  Return to crockpot along with the cornstarch.water mixture.  Stir to mix and cook on High for 1 hour or until chicken is cooked though and sauce is thickened.  Serve over rice.