Sweeeeeeeeeet.......

......and sour!

If nothing in my life i LOVE contrast, and that carries over to my food choices.  Peanuts and chocolate, raisins in my curry, apples in my curry, mangoes in my curry, man I love curry...but this isn't curry.

I made this a few days ago in the crock and had it again last night for supper.  I liked it alot, so did Adam and I learned a bit from it if I made it again, but as it stood, it was very good.

Don't expect it to be a stir fry, it isn't.  A slow cooker is a completely different way to enjoy your usual favourites, a stir fry is generally tender crisp, this is more mushy but arguably has alot more flavour, so really you end up winning, yes?  This was great, and the leftovers were greater still.



Plated on rice, with some shredded lettuce
for CONTRAST



CROCKPOT SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN (with veggies)

Somewhat inspired by this recipe: http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotchicken/r/bl98c10.htm but also by any other sweet and sour stew recipe out there.  Here's what I did:

Meat:
1.5lb of boneless skinless chicken breast meat cut into large chunks*

Veg:
1 large green pepper, 1 red pepper, 1 large carrot, 2 large celery stalks all cut into large chunks
2 cloves of garlic sliced

Sauce:
1/2C ketchup
1/3C packed brown sugar
1/4C rice vinegar
1T worcestershire sauce
2T soya sauce
1/8t cayenne pepper
dash of salt and pepper
1C chicken stock

End:Small can of pineapple tidbits in juice. Drain. Take about 2/3C juice and mix with 2T cornstarch, whisk.

Method:In a medium to large crock place in your cut up veg, and ontop the cut up chicken.  Season w/ a bit of salt and pepper fresh ground if you can.
Whisk all sauce ingredients and add to the slow cooker.
Cook on high for 4.5-5 hours
Remove lid and add the pineapple tidbits, then add cornstarch sauce and stir - and keep on high for about 20 minutes+ to thicken with the lid removed.
Serve on cooked rice, for a nice bit of contrast put down a small bed of shredded lettuce before topping with the chicken (I believe I stole that from none other than Jamie Oliver).
*you want the larger chunks because in a slow cooker things break down so this helps retain some shape.  Smaller chunks you would have chicken threads everywhere.

If I did this again:  Add the peppers with the pineapple along with the cornstarch thickener to keep them crisper near the end. Would use a bit less stock since the veg release water when they break down.  Other than that, I really liked this, if not a bit saucy!!  Goes great with some egg rolls or spring rolls!