Honey Garlic Chicken Success

After a little cooking hiatus due to having a nasty cold (also probably laziness) I decided to make honey garlic chicken this past weekend. This recipe was actually a recipe created to follow the weight watchers program. As well, it actually followed my criteria of being more towards the healthy side, as well as not having any dairy in the recipe. The website for this recipe actually allows you to change the number of people you are cooking the recipe for, which was very helpful. 

For three people the recipe called for:

• 1lb boneless skinless chicken breast cut into chunks
• 1 1/2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 2 tbsp + 2tsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp + 2 tsp ketchup
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/16  tsp red pepper flakes (which I ended up switching for an Asian spice mix I found)

The recipe actually was pretty easy and quick. The recipe called for a five minute prep time, and a four hour cooking time, on low. The recipe began with cubing the chicken, and then mixing the ingredients to create the sauce.

In all honesty, at first the sauce looked kind of gross, and I was a little scared to taste test it. Once it was added to the cubed chicken in the Crock-Pot, it looked a little bit more appetizing and more like the honey garlic chicken that I was picturing in my head. After mixing the chicken and the sauce in the slow cooker, it did look a little sad in terms of portion, but I think I also need to realize the Crock-Pot is quite large. This means that when I am cooking for just myself, or only three people, the portions are going to look off.

It looks liked a tiny amount, but it did end up feeding three people!  From there I continued to check on the chicken and stir it every 20-30 minutes. I noticed that the chicken actually seemed to be cooked within 2.5- 3 hours, on low.  This is the first time I have cooked a Crock-Pot meal and not lost my patience and did not end up turning the temperature from high to low.  YAY!
 The recipe ended up giving an option that if you wanted to create a crunchier chicken, that you could put the chicken in the over with the broiler on for five minutes once it was cooked, so I decided I would give this a try.

This ended up making the chicken crunchy on the outside, but moist on the inside. It ended up being delicious and I would highly recommend this recipe.  As I was waiting for this to finish cooking I was able to clean, do a quick workout, as well as make sides of steamed veggies with cheese sauce (breaking my rule a bit here).

Although the picture does not do the meal much justice, it turned out really good! I was super impressed and it is a fairly cheap meal that I would definitely make again!  My stomach was also much happier with this meal, and it also made me feel better that I has chosen a meal that was from a weight watchers website and utilized healthier options to create a delicious dish.

I am very excited and motivated to create the next dish!