Crock Pot Sesame Ginger Chicken Recipe

I made my crock pot Sesame Ginger Chicken again last week, and it turned out really tasty--this was my second attempt and I feel like I figured out the cooking time, so I feel pretty confident posting my recipe!  I don't want to steer anyone wrong, especially when I haven't worked out the kinks.  I got the basic idea for this recipe from a sweet and sour chicken recipe, but I didn't have sweet and sour sauce--so I made a few tweaks, used a Lawry's Sesame Ginger marinade that we love, and my Sesame Ginger Chicken was born!

Good Housewife Crock Pot Sesame Ginger Chicken

Prepared in a manual 3-quart round Crock-Pot. 
Prep Time:  15 minutes
Cook Time:  3.5 hours
Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

• 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 lb.), cut into halves
• 1 cup cut carrots (or baby carrots)
• 1 cup Lawry's Sesame Ginger Marinade
• 1 (8 oz.) can pineapple chunks in juice, separated
• 1.5 bell pepper, chopped
• Green beans (as much as preferred)
• Broccoli (as much as preferred)
• 2/3 tsp minced onions
• Rice, prepared per directions (I use white Minute Rice)

Directions:

• Cover bottom of crock pot with carrots.
• Top with chicken.
• Combine pineapple juice with water to 1 cup, then pour over chicken and carrots.
• Cover and cook on low for 2.5 hours.
• Remove chicken and carrots from the pot; drain and discard liquid from the pot.
• Return chicken to the pot.
• Pour Sesame Ginger Marinade over chicken.
• Top with carrots, pineapple, bell peppers, broccoli, green beans, and minced onions.
• Pour 1/2 cup of water over the pineapple and veggies.
• Cover and cook on high for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until chicken is done.
• Prepare rice separately, per directions.
• Serve chicken, pineapple, and veggies over rice with as much sauce as preferred.

Nutritional Information:  Between 320-370 calories without the rice, depending on how much chicken, veggies, and pineapple you eat.  I ate half of a chicken breast with extra sauce (around 180 calories) with 1.25 cups of rice (225 calories), plus some peppers, green beans, broccoli, and carrots (around 100 calories).  I also ate almost all the pineapple, because Dan doesn't like pineapple and Abby isn't a fan of warm pineapple...and because I love it.  :)  That's about 70 calories (although I didn't eat all the juice by myself, since that was part of the cooking process for the chicken, so 70 is probably a little high).  My whole meal came to around 575 calories.

Good Housewife Crock Pot Sesame Ginger Chicken

I really reduced the cook time from my original attempt, mostly because I'm not a big fan of shredded, dry chicken.  :)  The lower cook time doesn't hurt the flavor at all--I think you could even reduce it to two hours before discarding the liquid from the pot, but I didn't want to risk not having the chicken cooked through.  If you want more of the Sesame Ginger Marinade flavor in the chicken, you could actually marinate the chicken in the marinade for a few hours before starting the crock pot--I haven't tried doing that, but may in the future just to see how it turns out.  If I marinated the chicken first, I would still follow the recipe, but probably only add 3/4 cup of the marinade to the pot instead of a full cup...don't want to overdo the sesame ginger.

Dan, Abby, and I ate this meal last week (the boys had leftovers from a previous night that I needed to use up), and Abby declared it the best chicken she's ever tasted, and begged to know when I would make it again.  I remembered that I had enjoyed it the first time I made it back in February, but I was again pleasantly surprised at how good it was.  I could probably make this once a week and not get tired of it!  Dan thought it was delicious and took the leftovers to work with him for lunch the next day--that's always how I can tell it's a hit, since my husband really doesn't like leftovers.  :)  The next time I make it, I will have the boys try it again, and hopefully get a good response from the whole family!