a year of crockpot recipes + crockpot honey sesame chicken

Hey there, happy end of the week! I am super excited to share my meal simplifying idea I came up!

I believe I was looking around on Pinterest, or maybe it was Facebook… where ever it was I came across this link to a post on Chef in Training for 50 slow cooker recipes. I browsed through them. They looked tasty and crockpots always mean simple. I started to think about which one I wanted to make. But then I thought, why not all?

With 52 weeks in the year and 50 recipes, that gives me just about enough for one a week. That’s one day a week I don’t have to think about what’s going to be on the table. I’ll just go straight down the list, one at a time, no picking or choosing. Keeping it simple. I like simple.  Quick and simple have become staples around here with my happy little monster here.

So for week 1 here’s  what I made.

crockpot honey sesame chicken

Ingredients

•  2.5 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast (or thigh)
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons diced onion
• 4 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoon sesame oil (recipe calls for canola)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water
• Sesame seeds (I forgot this)

Directions

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

Notes

• I cut the recipe in half since I only had about 1.5 pounds of chicken on hand – cooked on high for 1.5 hours
• Forgot the sesame seeds, so I’m glad I added the sesame oil for the flavor
• Served it over bulgar for me – sushi rice for Jacob, with a side of avocado and coleslaw mixed with a little bit of asian dressing + a dab of mayo

What I liked

• the flavor was amazing
• chicken with tender
• all ingredients I already had on hand

What I didn’t like

• not being able to start the crockpot in the morning with the short cook time – I still had to throw it together after a day of teaching/xmas shopping
• my sauce didn’t thicken up like I would have liked, and I had it on high for double the time it called to thicken up

I shared the link to the 50 slow cooker recipes on my Facebook page and already my cousin Andrea is following along with one a week as well. I think it would be so much fun if more of you followed along too! I’m planning to share a bit about each recipe, so if you end up making it too you can chime in! And if you don’t want to participate, at least you’ll get to see how a ton of crockpot recipes turn out. 🙂

Next week it’s onto slow cooker salsa verde pork.

Do you call your crockpot a slow cooker or crockpot? Do you love your crockpot as much as I do?  Want to participate in the 50 crockpot recipes?  One of them is eventually a cake…. 🙂

Happy Friday!

Heather