Thoughtless Thursdays: Soy Ginger Chicken

I’ve been on a chinese kick this week.  Had it out for lunch on Monday, made vegetable fried rice for supper last night (which I then had for lunch today), and now made a soy ginger chicken for supper tonight.  Maybe tomorrow will be Mexican.  In any event, I’d been wanting to try some kind of ginger chicken and after trolling the net for a recipe I had everything to make, I stumbled across this post at YumSugar.  How convenient.  She’s already converted it to crock pot for us!  I did make a few changes to her recipe based on what I had in the house, but I found the end result flavorful and satisfying.  The only big change I would make is to grate the ginger.  The original recipe called for cutting it into sticks, I minced it, and I really just don’t like the chunks even though I love the flavor of ginger.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons brown sugar Splenda
• 5 teaspoons of minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon dried cilantro
• 1 piece fresh ginger (about 2 inches long), peeled and grated
• 5 scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal (1 cup packed) + another 2 sliced for garnish
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (frozen–if they’re already thawed, shorten the cooking time)
• 2 medium carrots, thinly sliced crosswise
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• Cooked white rice

Directions

1. Mix the soy sauce, Splenda, vinegar, cup of scallions, garlic, ginger, pepper, and cilantro in the bottom of a 5-6 quart crock pot.
2. Throw in the carrots and chicken and toss to coat (yeah even if the chicken is still frozen).
3. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours (shorter if the chicken is thawed).
4. Remove the chicken to a cutting board and cut into bite size chunks.
5. Meanwhile, mix the corn starch with 1 tablespoon of cold water, then add 1 cup of the liquid from the crock pot.
6. Bring this mixture to a boil in a small saucepan and simmer until thickened (about 1 minute).
7. Add the chicken and the thickened sauce back to the crock pot and mix well.
8. Serve over white rice.

Printable version.