Ingredients - great. Method - terrible.

Orange Hoisin Chicken
Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook Copyright 2005

2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 slices peeled fresh ginger, about ¼-inch thick
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon sesame oil
6 individually frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (do not thaw)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons cold water
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (optional), toasted in a dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant

1. In a zippered-top plastic bag, combine the orange juice concentrate, honey, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil. One at a time, put the chicken pieces in the bag, seal, and gently shake to coat with the sauce. Transfer the coated chicken to the slow cooker, then pour the remaining sauce over the chicken. Cover and cook on LOW until the chicken is tender and cooked through, 5 to 6 hours.
2. Transfer the chicken to a warm platter. Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer into a small saucepan. In a cup or small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and cold water. Bring the sauce to a boil over high heat, add the slurry, and cook, stirring a few times, until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour some of the sauce over the chicken and pass the rest on the side. If desired, sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top.

I know better than this. Chicken breasts do not work in a crockpot. When I mixed up the sauce for this, it was delicious. After several hours in the slow cooker, it just didn’t have the same zing. I don’t know what I was thinking – why would chicken breasts need to be cooked in a crockpot?

I would do something with this sauce again – a stir fry, a marinade for grilled chicken, a dipping sauce for shrimp. Anything outside the crockpot.

This was a library book and it looks like a very comprehensive slow-cooker cookbook and the recipes look promising but this one just wasn’t a winner. We had chili dogs for dinner and I took this for lunch.