If anyone has been paying attention you will see that four of the last six meals I have served to my family have been chicken breasts. Chicken breasts were on sale for $1.87 a pound this month so I bought 25-30 pounds of it for meals. Not a single person has complained about eating too much chicken. Why? Because the dishes have all been vastly different. My family will eat chicken most days but I have to be a bit creative. We have had Simple Pan Fried Chicken Sandwiches, Chicken and Broccoli, Pesto Pasta with Roasted Red Peppers and Grilled Chicken, and now Slow Cooker General Tso’s Chicken in the last six days. My daughter even reached in the freezer to take chicken out for tomorrow and when I mentioned that we have had quite a bit of chicken already she said she didn’t mind. In fact she hadn’t even realized that we had so much chicken until I pointed it out.

We love Chinese Food in our house. General Tso’s is one dish all of us can agree to order when we get take-out. I have yet to find a recipe that duplicates the taste from our local Chinese restaurant. I searched through Pinterest to find another recipe to try when I stumbled upon this one from Creme de la Crumb for General Tso’s Chicken. (Click for link to original recipe.) As I have changed this recipe to work for my family I hope you will change it to fit your family.

That it is partially made in the slow cooker seemed very appealing to me as I needed something that would be ready after the kids voice and cello lessons and I did not feel like fussing over dinner. But, I was fearful of the dish being mushy and soggy putting coated chicken pieces into a slow cooker for any length of time.

Verdict:

This dish turned out far better than I thought it was going to. Lightly frying the chicken pieces before putting them into the slow cooker helped keep them from being too soggy and kept most of the coating on the chicken. You must be extra careful not to over stir when frying the chicken or cooking in the slow cooker. This will make the coating fall off the chicken. You only want to stir the mixture once or twice in the slow cooker.

I steamed/lightly fried some broccoli to add to the dish and served it over steamed rice. I cooked the chicken in about 1/2 the sauce and then used another 1/4 of the sauce to pour over the meal just as I served it. The remaining 1/4 of the sauce I mixed with the broccoli to add more flavor.

Everyone said this was a meal to put back onto the menu. Both children did not think it tasted exactly like the General Tso’s chicken from our local Chinese Take-Out place as they thought it needed to be sweeter but they both thought is had a very good flavor.

I used gluten-free products so this dish was completely gluten-free and my mostly gluten-free son ate the same meal we did!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. chicken breasts, cut into 1″ chunks
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 cup corn starch
• 2 Tablespoons Morton’s Nature’s Seasonings

Sauce:

• 1/2 cup hoison sauce
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. In a large zip lock bag mix together corn starch and Morton’s Nature’s Seasonings. Once the corn starch is well mixed add chicken pieces and shake the bag to coat chicken.
3. Carefully remove chicken pieces from the bag and place the chicken pieces in the pan. Saute 3-6 minutes until browned. Chicken will be raw in the middle but brown on the outside.
4. In a bowl combine all sauce ingredients and whisk to combine. Add half of the sauce with the chicken pieces and stir carefully.
5. Cook chicken on low for 4 hours.
6. Serve with rice and broccoli if desired. Add 1/4 of sauce to broccoli and remaining 1/4 of sauce pour over chicken prior to serving.