easy Orange Chicken recipe

Utilize your slow cooker to make this easy orange chicken recipe with only 5 minutes of prep time. A fix and forget it meal the family will love!

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I’m going to come clean right from the start and admit to you all that I am horrible at using my [easyazon_link identifier=”B004P2NG0K” locale=”US”]slow cooker[/easyazon_link]. In theory, I think they are awesome and have a few favorite recipes! But in practice, I never think about dinner far enough ahead to get it started earlier in the day. I’m good about planning a menu for the week on Sunday’s, sure.

But planning a menu for the week allows me to not think about meals until right before supper, when it’s time to cook. Slow cooker meals require thought in the morning. My brain is NOT thinking dinner thoughts at that time. However, one of my favorite slow cooker meals that you will find me trying hard to plan ahead for is Slow Cooker Orange Chicken. This is super easy, only a couple ingredients, and tastes great on quick rice. The fact that I can use frozen chicken is a bonus, too!

I want to apologize for the raw meat picture, it is so very un-appetizing. I cringe putting raw meat pics up on posts but fully understand that images help those of you making this dish better understand the instructions. So, raw meat it is. Yuck.

Note: although my chicken started out thawed, you can certainly use it frozen from the bag, simply add an extra hour for cooking time.

Use high-quality bbq sauce and orange marmalade without additional sweeteners. If you aren’t careful to watch the quality of that marmalade and the sugar content of your barbecue sauce you will end up with orange-candy flavored chicken…not tasty.

Note: you can forgo the additions of ginger, garlic, & chili powder to keep it faster but be mindful the flavor development won’t be quite as good. In my opinion, the extra ingredients are well worth the time! And hey, think about adding a pepper or onion!

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

Prep Time | 5 minutes mins

Cook Time | 4 hours hrs

Total Time | 4 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

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Ingredients

 

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• 6 oz high quality orange marmalade
• 1 cup barbecue sauce
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• green onions optional, for topping
• chicken breasts or tenders about 2 pounds

Check out our Kitchen Reference Guide for help with unfamiliar terms.

Instructions

• Spray with cooking spray or insert liner in your crock pot.
• Put your chicken into the crockpot and cook on low for 4hours if frozen, 3 hours if thawed.
• Remove chicken from slow cooker and cut into chunks. Return to slow cooker.
• Add all additional ingredients, stir, and cook on low for an additional 1 hour.
• Turn the slow cooker to high, push all the meat to one side, whisk 2 tablespoons of flour into the side with no meat to thicken the sauce. Stir well.
• Cook just until thickened, about 5 minutes.
• Serve over rice.

Notes

You can also put the chicken and all the ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning and cook it on low for 8 hours. However, sometimes the sauce will burn if not stirred often through the day. Not always, but sometimes. To help with that I use the method of cooking the chicken and then add then ingredients for the sauce and cooking an additional period of time. Try both methods and see which you prefer.