Crockpot Sesame Chicken

The weekend is slowly coming upon us, the time when your healthy eating habits may fall to the wayside…maybe it’s because the last thing you want to be doing on your down time is slaving away in the kitchen or you just can’t deny those fast food cravings that always seem to strike on Saturday night after Happy Hour….

Regardless of the reason, you don’t have to let your eating habits fall to the wayside OR deprive yourself of the deliciousness you so badly crave!  Satisfy yourself with an at home version of one of my favorite take out dishes, Sesame Chicken!  And the best part?  It’s made in the crockpot, so essentially, you can set it and forget it until dinner time after a little bit of prep work!

Crockpot Honey Sesame Chicken
3-4 Chicken Breasts Defrosted
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Honey
1/2 Cup GF Teriyaki Sauce
(you can use soy sauce here, but I prefer the taste of Wegmans teriyaki marinade, it has a much thicker consistency than soy sauce, which I love!)
2 Tablespoons of Sesame Seeds
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cornstarch

Vegetable Suggestions – I starred my favorites
Greens: Snap Peas*, Green Beans*, Broccoli
Other: Baby Corn*, Water Chestnuts*, Carrots, Onion

1. Cut chicken into bite size pieces
2. Put olive oil, honey, and teriyaki sauce in the crockpot, stir them all together well.  Taste your sauce, add more honey or teriyaki sauce depending on what flavor you want stronger.  I typically add an extra 1/2 tablespoon of teriyaki sauce at this point!
3. Add sesame seeds, salt and pepper to taste (not too much)
4. Add chicken to crockpot and stir
5. Cook crockpot on low for three hours, check chicken by cutting one piece in half and making sure it is no longer pink
6. Take the Honey Sesame sauce out of the crockpot, transfer to a pot, put on medium heat
7. Mix 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch with cold water in a separate bowl before adding to your Honey Sesame sauce, this will prevent the cornstarch from becoming lumpy
8. Stir in the cornstarch slowly, continuously stirring until desired consistency is reached.  You may or may not have to let the mixture boil for a minute until it thickens up completely.
9. Mix chicken and sauce back together again OR top chicken with as much sauce as you want!

Tips/Notes
– I cooked and added my vegetables after the chicken was taken out of the crockpot.  I am sure you could add the vegetables in the crockpot and let it cook with the chicken and sauce, but the veggies might become overcooked or soak up too much sauce.  Yes, in my opinion, although I LOVE sauce, I don’t love it saturating my veggies
– Pair with brown rice or quinoa, or if you’re looking to pack in some extra protein, try my Lazy Fried Quinoa, it’s super simple and quick to make, and in my opinion, really makes the dish feel like you are at a restaurant!

Visit http://www.eatsandexercisebyamber.com/ for more ideas from Amber!