Crockpot Orange Chicken

Today I was craving Chinese food for dinner! So I decided to do my own spin on orange chicken and rice. Orange chicken is one of my favorite things to order when eating Asian food. However, sometimes I am left disappointed, feeling that the orange chicken was not seasoned well. The orange chicken served at some restaurants does not have any flavor beyond the outer crust. So to enhance the flavor of this dish, I wondered what would happen if I allowed the chicken to sit in the crockpot for one hour prior to serving. To my surprise, the chicken came out wonderful and truly tasted like orange chicken all the way through! Here are the details to how I prepared my orange chicken for dinner:

Crockpot Orange Chicken

Traditionally, Orange Chicken is prepared completely on the stove top, sautéd with a wok. However in this recipe, I wanted to switch things up allow the orange flavors to truly sink into the chicken. Therefore, this recipe will be partially stovetop and part crockpot.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Dinner

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

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Chicken Prep

• 1.25 lbs Chicken Thighs
• 1 Egg White
• 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/3 cup Corn Starch
• Salt & Pepper to Taste
• Canola Oil

Orange Sauce Glaze

• 1/2 jar Orange Marmalade around 9oz
• 1/2 cup Raw Honey
• 1/4 cup Chicken Broth
• 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp Fresh Ginger grated
• 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
• 1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• Orange Zest 1/2 an orange
• Salt & Pepper to Taste

Instructions

 

Chicken Prep

• Take chicken thighs and safely clean these prior to seasoning. After cleaning your chicken, cut it into nugget size pieces and place these in a clean bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir to ensure the salt and pepper spread evenly on your chicken pieces.
• To your bowl, add 1 egg white and stir again. Once the egg white evenly distributes on the chicken nuggets, add corn starch and all purpose flour and stir again until chicken is completely coated.
• Now you're ready to fry your nuggets. Take a pan or wok and fill the bottom of it with canola oil , around 1/4 an inch.(I recommend canola oil or peanut oil since these have a high smoke point. However please do not use peanut oil if you are allergic to peanuts). Allow your oil and pan to come up to the correct heat temperature. TIP: An easy way to determine oil temperature without a thermometer is to flick some flour into the hot oil. If the flour sizzles upon hitting the oil, your chicken is ready to fry!
• Add your chicken nuggets to the hot pan or wok and fry these until both sides cook evenly and are brown. Once chicken has fully cooked, remove these from the pan and place in a dish lined with a paper towel to capture the additional grease. Set chicken aside.

Crockpot Prep

• To your crockpot add orange marmalade, honey, chicken broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar (or regular vinegar is fine as a substitute), sesame oil, grated fresh ginger, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, orange zest, and salt/pepper to taste. Stir ingredients together.
• Turn on your crockpot and add the fried chicken nuggets to the orange sauce mixture. Sir, cover and allow ingredients to cook for 1 hour. The crockpot will do a great job with allowing the orange sauce to melt into your nuggets.
• After 1 hour, turn off your crockpot and enjoy your orange chicken over a bed of jasmine rice. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve!

Keyword chinese, crockpot orange chicken, crockpot recipe, orange chicken, slow cooker

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