Soy-Ginger Chicken

I have hardly ever used chicken in the slow-cooker in the past. When I was in university, my room mate's mom told me that chicken sits at room-temperature for too long in the slow-cooker, so there is a high risk of food poisoning. I guess I believed her, so I never tried it.  When looking for slow-cooker recipes for this challenge, however, I saw so many mouth-watering chicken recipes, I had to expand my repertoire and give one (actually two!) a try.  

I browsed through Martha Stewart's slow cooker recipes gallery (btw, if you ever need dinner ideas, check out her recipe galleries...pictures of food are so inspiring when you're hungry!) and found this recipe for Soy-Ginger Chicken.

(Martha's picture, not mine...sorry!)

I substituted/omitted a few ingredients so the recipe below is  with my modifications.   If you want Martha's version, check out the link above.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 T brown sugar
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 2" piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into strips
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• pepper, to taste
• 4 chicken drumsticks and 4 thighs, skin removed
• 3 medium carrots, sliced
• 1 T cornstarch

Directions:

1. 1.  Stir together soy sauce, garlic, sugar, and ginger, pepper, and vinegar in slow cooker
2. Add chicken and carrots, toss  to coat
3. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours. I added my green onions half way through. (Reserve some green onions for a garnish)
4. Whisk cornstarch with 1 T water.  Ladle 1 cup of cooking liquid into measuring cup; whisk to combine.  Pour into a small saucepan, bring to a boil; cook until thickened (about a minute)
5. Turn off slow cooker and stir in cornstarch mixture
6. Serve on brown rice, and garnish with green onions.

Reaction:  

We really liked this recipe!  It's basically teriyaki chicken, and since we love teriyaki sauce, it was great.  It wasn't the most visually appealing meal-- everything in the slow cooker was soy-sauce-brown, but the garnish helped a little.  I cooked mine a bit long, and the chicken was falling off the bone, so there were a few random chicken bones in my slow cooker...but other than that, it was great.  Caleb had the leftovers for lunch the next day.