Apple Ginger Chicken

This has been my favorite chicken recipe of 2020- sweet and spicy- the sauce really has a great flavor. I think I’ve made it every week for the past 3 months. It’s a quick and easy meal for a weeknight dinner.

This dish is a quick 30 minute meal on the stove top. I also sometimes make it in a crock pot- because I can throw it together mid-morning, and by the time I finish work in the afternoon, dinner is ready. However, after making this numerous times, I’ve realized that it’s too easy to overcook the chicken in the crockpot, so I have switched back to making this on the stove top.

The sauce does seem to come out a little bit thicker on the stove top, but the chicken is more tender when it is cooked in the crock pot. 🙂

Apple Ginger Chicken

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Equipment

• Skillet or Small crock pot

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

• 2 Chicken breasts
• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 Tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 Tablespoon water
• 1 small bag frozen vegetables (optional)
• Rice or Noodles (to serve it over)

Instructions

 

• Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in medium sized skillet over medium to medium high heat.
• Cut chicken into bit sized cubes and add to skillet. Sprinkle with pepper and a dash of salt
• Cook chicken until browned and no longer pink (about 10 minutes).
• While chicken is cooking, in a small bowl or measuring cup, combine apple juice, soy sauce, water, brown sugar, ground ginger, garlic, and crushed red pepper. Stir until smooth.
• In a small dish, mix cornstarch with a couple tablespoons of water. Add the cornstarch mixture into the sauce mixture, and stir.
• Once chicken is cooked, add the sauce & frozen veggies (if using) to the skillet. Stir to coat the chicken and veggies. Turn heat down to low, and simmer for 5-10 minutes (until the sauce thickens up).
• Serve over rice or wide egg noodles

Notes

This can also be made in a crock pot:

• When making it in a crock pot, do not add the 1/4 cup water to the sauce ingredients. (The additional water makes the sauce too thin when using the crock pot, but is needed when making it on the stovetop).
• Add the chicken and sauce mixture into the crock pot, and let cook on low for 4 hours. 
• When making it in a crock pot, I also add 1-2 sliced carrots to the pot at the same time I add the chicken About 1 hour before the end of cooking, I also add sliced a red bell pepper to the crock pot and stir in. 

If you don’t generally keep apple juice on hand, use frozen apple;  mix 1 T frozen apple juice with 3 T of water.

• It’s easy to scoop the apple juice concentrate from the can while it’s still frozen. 
• Then I just put the lid back on the apple juice can, place it in a gallon size zip lock baggie and store it in the freezer until the next time I make this recipe. 

Keyword Chicken

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