Honey Sesame Chicken

I should start off by apologizing to those of you who disdain crock pots in all of their glory...I have come to realize that crock pots are really quite a nice contribution to a working families meal plans. I used to be that person who had this disdain for anything crock pot.... until I tried this recipe.

For those of you who don't have those fancy new crock pots that the insides lift out of the base...my recommendation get one. It's so hard to clean this old one we share in our house. I'm always afraid I'll ruin ours by getting water in any number of areas.

I stumbled on this recipe from Chef in Training the other day, and I almost wrote it off as a non-recipe because I didn't want to do something in a crock pot...yes I am one those people mentioned above who disdained crock pots...

Anyway. I thought heck, why not...you want to try more things and do more in your cooking besides baked goods...

"save"

It should be noted, I don't like to follow recipes exactly to the t, but I really do mean well...

With that all being said, I tried to make this dish the night before. So...you can only get so far with that...duh...raw chicken...crock pot...leave it on low all night all day...you'll end up with some foreign looking chicken parts...

I started by just getting my sauce ingredients (honey, soy sauce, diced onion, ketchup, canola oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes) mixed well in a tightly sealed bowl so I could keep it in the fridge overnight and then I could set it out in the morning before I went to work so my mother could put it all in the crock pot later in the day.

I cry when chopping onions...I hate it! I come close to it with garlic. Which brings up an excellent question...how do you all get rid of that garlic smell that seems to permeate from your fingers for weeks on end after touching it?

I used these nice little chicken tender frozen pieces instead of a chicken breast or thighs. I just wanted the easiest bit of meat that I could find in our freezer, and dear lord bones and then taking the meat off bones…not my favorite!

I don’t really have any pictures of it during the cooking process until the end when I finished it. I love coming home to the smell of something super awesome cooking and then getting to play with it and finish it up.

In haste to try something new, we used rice noodles, which claim to be this amazing supplement to fried rice. We found them a bit dull to go along with the honey sesame chicken…however; we have used them before and liked them in other preparations.

Honey Sesame Chicken, crock pot style
from: Chef in Training

Ingredients

• 2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken
• to your liking salt and pepper
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons diced onions
• 4 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 6 tablespoons water
• to your liking sesame seeds

Cooking Directions

1. Season both sides of chicken lightly with salt and pepper, put into your crock pot.
2. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic, and pepper flakes.
3. Pour the combined ingredients over the chicken.
4. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1.5 - 2.5 hours, or until chicken is cooked through.
5. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce behind.
6. Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine.
7. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.
8. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving.
9. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over your choice of rice or noodles.

Momma T's recommendations: More red pepper flakes it wasn't spicy enough for me, and also cashews or something on top would have added a really nice crunch that it seemed to be missing
Nikki's recommendations: less honey, dice the onions finely, and thicken the sauce more
Pappa T's recommendations: the sauce needs to be a lot thicker...this has been his comment on everything recently...perhaps a theme for him


Enjoy!
~Nikki