Orange you glad I said crock pot?

Orange chicken. Yum.
Orange chicken in the crock pot. Even better.

The check list:
Sounds delicious? Check.
Simple ingredients? Check.
Simple to make? Check.



The beginning
I've been seeing a lot of orange chicken recipes creeping up in the food blog world, and it left me with an insatiable hunger for it. Getting take out is out of the question as I usually feel bad for paying $10 for one meal (which I scarf in 10 minutes and then feel tingly pings of guilt).

This is my take on it. I adapted it from here and added/subtracted some ingredients.

The characters
1.5 pounds of chicken breasts cut into chunks. I used two because it's what I had.
1/3 c flour
Olive oil for browning the chicken
*Note. Usually whenever I see a crock pot recipe that needs any stovetop attention before dumping it in, I pass. But this is legit a 4 minute process. Everybody has 4 minutes. Come on.

Sauce
6 ounces of orange juice concentrate (it comes in 12 ounce cans....I did not read this. I dumped the whole thing in. Learn from me people.)
1 tsp of balsamic vinegar
3 tbs of ketchup
3 tbs of soy sauce (this makes it nice and Asian-y. Don't skip.)
1 tsp of ground ginger
1 tsp of garlic power
1-2 red pepper flakes (if you like it hot, add more. I like it hot, so I added a lot...I lost count).

Vegetables (honestly... you can add whatever you have or omit what you don't. If you are allergic to the sight of a vegetable, then just ignore this.)
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 small onion chopped
1 carrot cut into matchsticks
1 can of water chestnuts (I just had this in my cabinet for some reason. I don't know why.)

The plot
Make your sauce in a bowl. You might have to zap the orange juice concentrate in the microwave. Taste it. Adjust to your liking. If you want it sweeter (I don't know why you would) add brown sugar. If you want it saltier (yes please) add soy sauce. Set aside.

Coat your chicken in flour. Brown in frying pan. You don't need to completely cook it, just get a nice crunchy brown color.

Dump your chicken in your crock pot. Dump sauce over the chicken.

Cook on low for 4-5 hours. It should take about four hours honestly. In the last hour of cooking, add your veggies. Adding them last will help keep them from turning into mushy grossness. Nobody likes mushy peppers that reminds them of college cafeteria food.

Serve over rice. I used minute rice. Because it's easy and I burn the other kinds.

The Conclusion

I didn't read the directions. I used the whole can of orange juice concentrate and it was wayyyyy too sweet and overpowering. It required a lot of rice to eat it and smile. The Boyfriend liked it. He likes everything.
Other than my mishap (whoops) it was quite good.

Moral of the story
Read directions. And I should take more pictures. Lesson learned.