Crock Pot Sweet-and-Sour Chicken

 For Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me a Taste of Home Cookbook called Casseroles, Slow Cooker, & Soups.  I found this recipe and thought it would be perfect for after church on my first Sunday morning "off" (and by "off," I mean they didn't need me in both services so I didn't have to go until 11!) in several months.  You can find the original recipe here, but I adjusted the recipe significantly to suit our family's tastes and to try to keep from buying ingredients that I would only use for this dish.

To make this recipe, you will need all the ingredients below:

• 1.5 lbs chicken breast, chopped into chunks (not pictured because I forgot and it was already on the stove)
• 1 T oil
• 1 8 oz can pineapple chunks and syrup
• 1 green pepper, chopped into large chunks
• approx half a bag of carrots (I used carrot chips)
• 2 T soy sauce
• 4 t corn starch
• 1 1/2 t ground ginger
• 1/4 C water
• 1 C sweet chili sauce
• rice
• salt and pepper to taste

 

1. Saute the chicken in the oil.  The recipe says you only need to do this for 4-5 minutes, but you could still see pink in 4-5 minutes, so I kept going...

2. Combine pineapple juice (save pineapple for later), soy sauce, carrots, green pepper, and chicken. I also added half an onion, chopped. Cover and set to low for 3 hours.

 3. Mix corn starch, ginger, water, and sweet chili sauce (and pardon the mess in the picture above) until it is smooth like the picture below:

 4. Add sweet-and-sour mixture to crock pot with pineapples and turn to high for 15 minutes more.

 5. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Take Aways:

• The original recipe did not include onions, but I chopped about half of a large one and threw them in.  This was a good decision.  I personally believe the original recipe is remiss without them.
• Crock pot cooking is nice and so convenient, but it doesn't really suit my lifestyle right now.  Most recipes require at least 3 hours in the crock pot and I have found very few that require 12, which is about what I would need for a typical school day!
• It's always fun to try a new recipe.  It was yummy and pretty healthy, but my son would not eat it and I don't know that I liked it enough to make it again.  It was also a pretty expensive meal. HOWEVER, I will say that when I ate the leftovers the next day for lunch, it was much tastier!