Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

Ingredients
6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup flour
Olive oil
2 tablespoons kosher salt or 1 tablespoon table salt
1 can (12 ounces) frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (I used Minute Maid No Pulp, use something that isn’t very pulpy.)
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (I used some exotic honey vinegar balsamic, but any would work well.)
6 tablespoons ketchup

Instructions
1. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.  Dredge the chicken in flour and shake off the excess.  Heat olive oil in large skillet and brown the chicken on all sides.  (The chicken does not need to be fully cooked, that will happen in the slow cooker.)

2. Place the chicken in slow cooker.  In a small bowl, mix together kosher salt, orange juice concentrate, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, and ketchup.  Pour sauce over chicken and toss gently to coat. 

3. Cover and cook on LOW for 5-6 hours or HIGH for 3-4.  Serve with rice. 

Comments
This recipe is from A Year of Slow Cooking and I was worried, as I was putting it together, that it was going to end up being entirely too sweet.  Thankfully, it wasn’t at all!  The flavor was nice and I’d say this is one of the better slow cooker recipes I’ve made in the recent past.  I served it with rice and some sautéed broccoli. 

I did find that the recipe generated quite a lot of sauce.  Maybe next time I should use more chicken?  Or reduce the sauce ingredients?  There was way too much sauce.  I also felt that a few of the chicken pieces were overcooked.  I think this might be resolved by stirring during the cooking or by cooking for less time.

Internet - A Year of Slow Cooking