Phew! sorry about the delay but I was in Frankenmuth with my hubby for the past 4 days and I'm finally home! It was a wonderful trip (minus the bit of heat exhaustion, burnt skin, and aches) filled with a lot of shopping, walking, and yummy food! If you have never been to Frankenmuth, MI or even Birch Run, MI I have to wonder what are you waiting for!? lol it's a great place to stay and take in the German atmosphere and let's be real the stores there are stellar, ha! and with that we're back to the real world. So fear not, your loyal blog mistress is here to bring you this week's recipe. It's Ma's pick and she went with a recipe that goes into your good ole slow cooker. What is it exactly? Follow me:
Slow-Cooked Orange Chicken Recipe
4 Servings
Prep: 10 min. Cook: 4-1/2 hours
Ingredients
1 broiler/fryer chicken (3 pounds), cut up and skin removed
3 cups orange juice
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
4 teaspoons dried minced onion
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons cold water
Hot cooked rice, optional
Additional minced fresh parsley, optional
Directions
*In a 3-qt. slow cooker, combine the first nine ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or until chicken juices run clear.
*Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; gradually stir into cooking liquid. Cover and cook on high for 30-45 minutes or until thickened.
*Serve with rice and sprinkle with parsley if desired. Yield: 4 servings.
So how did this one turn out? Well it was split down the middle. Ma and Aunt Jane loved it and Geoff and I weren't fans. The orange tasted nice but it had a weird after taste (for us) and Geoff compared the consistency to that of snot but again just because he felt that way and I didn't like it much doesn't mean you guys shouldn't whip this up and give it a try yourselves. Ma and Aunt Jane loved it after all.
Tid Bits:
*I never serve plain rice, I always flavor my rice. I place butter in a bowl with italics seasoning or basil/parsley then mix the rice with the butter mixture. This gives your rice a nice taste for anyone who likes plain rice and it happened to work well with this dish.
Ma's spot: I loved this dish. I used boneless skinless chicken breasts cause that's the part I love the most but feel free to use any part of the chicken you prefer. At first when I heard the only juice used in this dish was orange juice I thought "wow, that will be overpowering orange taste" while you can taste the orange juice it actually turned out to be not so overpowering. It made a lot of servings. The 4 of us had the dish and there was leftovers for later. I encourage you to make it and whatever is leftover place in freezer bags to freezer for another night's dinner.
*SNACK CORNER:*
It's time for snack corner! Where we take new snacks in the grocery store and break it down for you. We tell you which are hot and which are not. Let's get to this week's picks:
Dinah: This week's product is Ma's pick and she went into the savory category with this treat. It's New Pepperidge Farm Baked Naturals Cracker Chips. They currently come in two flavors: cheddar and multi-grain. While Ma would love the multi-grain over the cheddar she took one for the food team and went with the cheddar since the rest of us like cheddar over multi-grain any day. These cracker chips were light, well seasoned, and crispy. My only complaint was they gave me heartburn a few hours after eating them. I think it had to do with my gastric reflux disease and the crackers overpowering it. So sadly for that reason I won't be buying them for myself personally again but I definitely will encourage you guys to pick these up. They taste fantastic!
Ma: I LOVE THESE CRACKERS! As you guys know I'm not a cheddar cheese fan but it did have 3 of my favorite cheeses which made me intrigued to try it. I had a coupon for these but even without it I would buy these on their own right simply because they taste amazing.
That's it kiddies for this week's entry. We'll be back next Tuesday (on time lol) with an all new recipe (which is my pick) and we're going with something we have NEVER done before as well as something else new for the blog. Wanna know what they are? Meet us back here then.
Have a great week guys!
Spoons & Spatula's
~Dinah & Ma
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