Thursday, July 26, 2012

Crockpot Sesame Chicken

Chicken is inexpensive and versatile. I always have one or two birds in the freezer for a quick meal. This recipe was so simple and the results were fantastic. I served it over fried rice but it could also be ladled over toast or mashed potatoes or even eaten plain!

Ingredients:

1 3-5lb whole chicken, washed with giblets removed
sea salt
1 cup of raw honey
1/2 cup Bragg's Liquid Aminos
1/4 cup dried onion(1/2 cup chopped, fresh)
1/4 cup of ketchup
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
red pepper flakes to taste(we like ours kind of zippy and used 1 tsp)
2 T cornstarch, dissolved in cold water
2 T Sesame seeds

The How To's:

Wash bird, sprinkle with salt and place in the crockpot. In a bowl, mix honey, aminos, onion, ketchup, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.
Remove chicken carefully to a platter or large bowl, allowing to cool enough to handle. Whisk dissolved cornstarch into the remaining liquid. At this point I tasted the sauce. You can add more salt or garlic powder to achieve the flavor you want. Even adding some chili paste for heat if you like!  Since the cooker is still on low, the mixture thickens into a rich, tasty sauce. With a fork, carefully lift meat off the bones of the chicken*, placing meat in crock pot with sauce. Stir gently and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with rice, stir-fried vegetables or anything else you like.

*Once I have the meat I need for dinner, I then take the remaining carcass, and set aside. After dinner, I remove any remaining easily removed meat and put the chicken bones in another crock pot with water and make broth or, depending on how much meat I left on the bird, chicken soup. You can debone the bird prior to cooking, but this was much easier. The meat fell right off. You could also use boneless breast meat, but the flavor won't be nearly as rich and the cost would increase dramatically for this simple meal.