Crockpot General Tso's Chicken

I've got to say up front that while this meal was SUPER yummy, I will not make it the same way again. It was just too time intensive for me. Also, I abhor cutting raw chicken into bite sized pieces. I think next time I will skip the cutting and browning step and just throw all the chicken and sauce into the crockpot at the very beginning. Matthew Darling suggested trying to cut up the chicken and browning it AFTER letting it cook all day, but the chicken may be too soft to do that. With my 7 month pregnant belly and achy feet, this was just too much to take on!

That disclaimer made, you just can't go wrong with Asian food. It's probably good for our waistlines that it was too time consuming to make on a regular basis because it's just really tasty! I used some Jasmine rice I had in the pantry and frozen stir-fry veggies to make this a whole meal and it was a real treat when it all came together! The original recipe can be found here.

I didn't snap many pictures while in the heat of things because I spent most of my time cutting up raw chicken and I don't wanna mix raw meat with my iPhone! I'm sure you can use your imagination to picture an exasperated, hungry, pregnant woman laboring over raw meat!

Here are the ingredients for making the chicken breading.

This wasn't even poured in the crockpot but was already smelling really good!

All ready to cook! WARNING: The smell coming from the crockpot all day is likely to make you drool a little.

2lbs Chicken
1/2 cup Cornstarch (and a little more for the starch slurry)
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper

For Sauce:

1 cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce
2/3 cup Water
7 tbsp Honey
7 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
4 tbsp Vinegar
6 tbsp Tomato Paste (may also use Ketchup)
3 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Dried Red Pepper Flakes
4 tsp Red Chili Garlic Paste (I had sweet red chili sauce in the fridge so I just used it)

Cut chicken breasts into bit sized pieces.
In a large bowl, combine chicken, 1/2 cup Cornstarch, salt, and black pepper until the chicken is well coated. Set aside.
In separate bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce.
OPTIONAL STEP (that I will skip next time): In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook chicken for 2-3 minutes, turning until lightly browned on each side.
Transfer chicken into the crockpot and pour the sauce over it.
Cook on low 6-8 hours (I always cook for the full 8 hours to avoid food poisoning, however, with the chicken cut into such small pieces, this was probably too long)
30 minutes before serving, in a small bowl, whisk together about 3 tbsp of the cornstarch with equal amounts water then add to the crockpot and cook on high for the last 30 minutes so the sauce will thicken.
Serve over rice with Asian veggies.