"Mandarin" Chicken - A Quest

We have mixed feelings about last night's dinner. First the recipe and then some talking. (This is exactly how the recipe was listed).

Mandarin Chicken (Mock Panda Express)

2/3 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1 Tbl Lemon Juice
1 tsp Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Minced fresh Garlic
1/2 tsp Minced fresh Ginger
1/4 Cup Water
6 tsp Cornstarch
4 Skinless Chicken Thigh Fillets

1. Put Chicken Thighs in crockpot, pour other ingredients on top, except water and cornstarch. Mix water and cornstarch in bowl, add to crockpot mixture, stirring to combine.

2. Cook on high about 4 hours.

3. Cook rice and serve over rice.

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So the first thing I thought when looking at this recipe was, "That's a heck of a lot of sugar!" So I reduced it to "only" a 1/2 cup. Next thing to notice, there is no orange ingredient! (I noticed that after I said it was "orange chicken" in the last post). I made up the recipe anyways, just as listed. I probably put in extra ginger.

(Hint: If you want fresh ginger for a recipe; purchase a ginger root, and then peel and freeze it. When you need ginger you can just pull it out and grate some. I don't peel the whole ginger root at once because I worry about freezer burn.)

Brien liked how the chicken tasted by itself, but after it was on the rice he said it tasted too much like carmel corn. I think that can be attributed too much sugar.

So why am I sharing this recipe? Because I think it has good information. I loved the consistency of the sauce. I wish I felt comfortable enough to ask the woman who shared it if something was missing or miscalculated, but I don't.

The chicken turned out great. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It's difficult to find boneless chicken thighs here. I've previously used bone-in thighs and have also de-boned thighs for similar recipes, and it just wasn't worth the effort. If you want your dish to taste more like a chinese restaurant though, chances are you need to use thigh meat.

While typing this up I was also checking for recipes on the web. Guess what, I found almost the exact same one as this (lesser amounts of cornstarch). So maybe there isn't anything wrong with the recipe.

Next Tuesday I will try this again. Hopefully the grocery store will have the thighs in (I have a raincheck for some because they were on sale last week).

This is what my sauce will be:
(note: it didn't work out at all. I added some pre-made Panda Express Orange Sauce and that made it taste good.)

1/4 Cup Sugar (if that)
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Lemon Juice (or I might pull out a little of my rice vinegar instead)
1 tsp vegetable oil (we only have olive oil in the house right now)
2 tsp Minced fresh garlic ( I like my garlic)
1 tsp Minced fresh Ginger
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (we need a little heat, and Z fortunately likes spicy)
1 Small can mandarin oranges
1/4 cup water
6 tsp cornstarch

With the mandarin oranges I'll add the liquid from the can of oranges in the beginning and set the actual oranges aside to just add to the pot near the end so they don't overcook. (We made orange chicken with sauce from a bottle and Brien tossed in some oranges and I liked it even though I thought it would be gross).

I cut up my chicken, so it cooked for 2 hours on high heat, then it was looking good so I turned it to low. I really loved the texture of the chicken. And we can tell ourselves that it's healthier than breading and frying the chicken before adding it to the sauce to cook!

Really this is all for me. Becky commented on the last post that she's looking for a good orange chicken recipe, and so am I. On crockpot365.blogspot.com they have an Orange Chicken recipe that's supposed to be really good, but it seems super sugary to me, using orange juice concentrate, brown sugar, and ketchup (along with other ingredients). I like to separate my ingredients as much as possible sometimes because I feel I can control the sugar content better while still keeping the flavor. Does that make sense?

Who knows I may make the crockpot365 sauce next week instead of my alternate version.