Slow cooked crock pot orange chicken

Last weekend, a friend of mine decided to go into a very industrious cooking frenzy and made a whole bunch of meals, slow cooked and otherwise to freeze for the week. One of the dishes that she made was a recipe for orange chicken which she found on Pinterest (doesn't every recipe come from Pinterest these days? or at least it feels like it?).

I was interested in the recipe since we hadn't had orange chicken in a very long time, and for that matter, not even lemon chicken. The reason for that is because being of the Chinese ethnic persuasion, orange chicken and lemon chicken was always the dish that the "kwai lows" (ie, foreigners) ordered when they went to a Chinese restaurant. Us Chinese would turn our noses up on them and the dish because, well, we'd eat more authentic dishes, of course!! Seriously, though, sweet and sour pork is one of my favorite Chinese dishes at a Chinese restaurant, so I really have no excuse about being a snob about orange or lemon chicken.

Snobbishness aside, this recipe looked tasty (the picture on the Pinterest post looked really nice and don't they say we eat with our eyes?) and I wanted to try it. It was time we had something slightly ethnic in our cooking repertoire and dinner menu rather than your usual pedestrian American or Italian fare. This one was at least Asian-ish and had different flavors from the tomatoey, cheesy, beefy or chickeny goodness I usually served up.

I'm going to serve this with brown rice and steamed broccoli.

Here's the very simple RECIPE for the orange chicken:

Ingredients:

• 3-4 boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small chunks
• 1/3 cup flour
• olive oil
• 1/2 Tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 Tablespoon ketchup
• 200ml frozen orange juice concentrate (thaw or throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds)
• 4 Tablespoon brown sugar

Instructions:

• In a bowl, mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, and ketchup.
• Pour the flour in a small bowl.
• Cover the chicken breast chunks in flour and shake off the excess.
• Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour-covered chicken.
• The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it's going in the crock pot.
• After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crock pot.
• Then cover the chicken with your sauce mixture and give the pot a stir.
• Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3.
• Serve over rice and even add veggies if you want a healthier meal.
• Enjoy!

I bought a 500ml carton of the orange concentrate and didn't want to end up with too much of the orange concentrate on my hands so decided to be generous with it. I used about 250ml of it in the dish and that worked out really well.

My brown sugar had also hardened to almost a rock-like state (from not being used in a long time) so I ended up popping it into the Thermomix to blitz it up. I then just tossed all the ingredients for the sauce into the Thermomix and just mixed it up in there.

I think I've said this before, but I don't have a crock pot, so I used a cast iron pot and put it in the oven at 90dC for 3 hours.

This turned out to be super tasty. Orangey but not too orangey and the sauce was so good that I wanted to drink it (which I did when I was putting away the leftovers!).

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My top 10 most popular and most viewed posts

I've been noticing that some of my posts seem to be more popular than others and often end up in search engine results over and over again. I never know, of course, what makes them popular, especially my number 1 post.

Anyhow, here's a list of my top 10 most popular posts.

1. Boiling vegetables ... hot water? cold water? - I talk about the correct and best ways to cook vegetables.

2. Risotto, risotto, risotto - I talk about risotto and how to make it the traditional method.

3. F-F-F-Friday ... Love affair!  - I talk about my love affair with my Nespresso coffee.

4. Beef lasagna with bechamel sauce ... in the Thermomix - I talk about how to make a traditional beef lasagne but with the help of the Thermomix.

5. Chicken and mushroom risotto ... in the Thermomix - I talk about making risotto but using the Thermomix instead of doing it traditionally in the pan.

6. Creme Brulee ... in the Thermomix - I talk about how I made a lot of creme brulees using the Thermomix.

7. Farewell my boys ... with chocolate mousse - I talk about how I make my favorite chocolate mousse dessert. It's completely dairy free!

8. Beef stroganoff with fettuccine noodles - I talk about the recipe I use to make an amazingly luscious beef stroganoff.

9. Curry ala Thermomix - I talk about one of my first attempts at making a curry using the Thermomix.

10. Swedish meatballs with creamy mushroom sauce and fettuccine - I talk about making meatballs (and calling them Swedish!) with a creamy sauce served over a bed of fettuccine noodles.

So that's it, my current top 10 most viewed posts.

Hope you enjoy this little recap.

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd

Simple but delicious chicken pot pie

First of all, I apologize for the once a week posts lately but I just haven't cooked as much the past couple of weeks and also doing some repeat meals of some of The Boy's favorites. Minimally, I try to do something at least over the weekend.

Tonight I decided to drag out an old, old recipe for chicken pot pie that I had not made in a very long time. I originally got this recipe from a dear friend of mine who is a wiz in the kitchen. She was visiting and staying with me and whenever she visits, I always take advantage (yes, I know, naughty!) and have her do a lot of the cooking because she is an awesome cook. One evening we thought we'd have chicken pie and she came up with the recipe for this chicken pot pie. I've loved it ever since.

Here's the RECIPE for the pie:

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces of chicken thigh fillet
• 1 small head of broccoli
• 1 stick of celery
• 1 small carrot
• 2 small white onions
• 1 can of Campbell's condensed chicken / chicken & corn / chicken & mushroom soup
• Small amount of flour

For topping:

• 1 cup Bisquick
• 1 egg (beaten)
• ½ cup of milk

Instructions:

• Cut chicken and vegetables into bite size pieces
• Dip chicken in some flour and cover
• Lightly fry chicken in oil until cooked until browned
• Lightly fry vegetables until cooked
• Mix chicken and vegetables in together
• Pour in condensed soup, mix well and cook
• Add salt and pepper to flavor

For topping:

• Mix the bisquick, egg and milk together
• Put chicken pie mix into pie dish or individual bowls
• Cover with bisquick mixture
• Put into over at 180dC for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown on top

This recipe makes 2 large individual pot pies and 2 small individual pot pies.

I wasn't in the mood for the broccoli and celery and decided to go with a bag of frozen mixed vegetables instead, plus one brown onion, diced. I ended up using about two cups of the frozen vegetables which is a mix of peas, corn and carrots. Other than that, everything else was pretty much done to the recipe.

The Boy loved it and even said that the chicken pot pie was exactly how a chicken pot pie should taste. :-)

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd

Pork chops slow cooked with creamy gravy and mashed potatoes ... in the Thermomix

I'm sorry that there has not been as many posts the last couple of weeks. One week, we just had a lot of leftovers and this week, The Boy has been out a few nights so I have not cooked much. I also haven't been well and have not had much of an appetite. One night, I just had a banana for dinner.

I've been wanting to try slow cooking for ages and I've been seeing a ton of slow cooking / crock pot recipes being pinned on Pinterest.

In the past, when I've tried a slow cooker recipe, it has not been particularly tasty and The Boy has been all "don't ever cook that again!" That was mostly my fault due to the fact that back then I knew nothing about cooking and I didn't know how to adjust flavors to something that The Boy would enjoy. I'm hoping that this time, with a little bit more cooking experience, I am able to make a recipe taste good.

So, in trolling through Pinterest, this recipe for pork chops with dressing and creamy gravy caught my eye and I decided that it would be great for our Sunday night dinner.

I'm going to serve this with mashed potatoes made in the Thermomix ... which is where the "Thermomix" part in the title comes from.

Here's the RECIPE for the pork chops:

Ingredients:

• 4 pork chops, 3/4-inch thick (I used bone-in chops)
• 1 onion, cut into rings about 1/4-inch thick
• 1 box stuffing or dressing mix (I used Stove-Top brand, pork flavored. Chicken flavored would also be great.)
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup (I used Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of chicken soup)
• 1 soup can water
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted (optional, but recommended if your pork chops are very lean)
• Salt and pepper, to taste or use seasoning salt, to taste

Instructions:

• Season each pork chop with salt and pepper. Place in the bottom of a slow cooker.
• Scatter the onion rings over the pork chops.
• Sprinkle the dry stuffing mix over the onions.
• In a bowl, mix together the cream of chicken soup, one soup can full of water, and the melted butter. Pour over the dry stuffing mix.
• Cover. Cook on high for 4 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes and a side salad.

I have to admit to being rather intimidated about the whole idea of slow cooking since my previous attempts have not been met with enthusiasm. That said, I was careful in what I did this time so that I could make sure that the dish was tasty.

I was generous with the salt and pepper when I seasoned the pork chops and I also browned them in a pan first. When I spoke to a chef friend of mine to ask him if it was possible for me to "crock pot" in the oven since I didn't have a crock pot, he told me yes, but he also said that I needed to brown the meat since that would bring out more flavor in the cooking.

We don't have the Stove Top brand stuffing mix mentioned in the recipe so I got the White Wings Stuffing Mix because it seemed to have the most spices in it compared to the other brand that was on offer. Even after that, since the recipe said pork or chicken flavored and this was just stuffing mix with herbs and spices, I added a teaspoon of chicken stock into the mix (just in case).

I did use the butter just because the butter just makes everything taste better. If you're extremely health conscious then you can skip it but it does make the meat cook a lot more tenderly.

I didn't use a crock pot (as I mentioned before, I don't have one!) but used a cast iron casserole pot instead. I put everything into the pot according to the recipe instructions, then put a sheet of baking paper on top of the opening of the pot and then put the lid on. My chef friend tells me that this seals in the moisture better and keeps the liquids from evaporating as much, though to be honest, my cast iron pots seal pretty well.

After a couple of hours the apartment started to smell pretty good. After 3 hours, I took the pot out of the oven to check on it (I also did a little taste test!). I poked the meat with the fork and it seemed like it was becoming quite tender. I also mixed some of the stuffing mix around that was sitting on top since it had not integrated entirely with the soup / gravy, then back in the oven it went for another hour before serving.

This turned out to be a really delicious and tasty meal. Very rich and creamy. There was a ton of gravy from the dish too.

Oh and by the way, this is my first time cooking pork chops. Since it's turned out well, I might do it again.

Of course, I was very remiss and did not update my blog post to talk about the wine that The Boy had picked out to drink with dinner tonight, so check out his blog post on what wine goes best with pork chops.

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd