Slow Cooker Ginger Chicken

I haven't posted in a while because the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind!  We got back to school on January 2, had 7 days of pathology lecture and workshops, then had our exam this past Friday!  The huge upside to having the exam on Friday is that we have a completely FREE weekend with nothing to study for!  We start Immunology tomorrow, and from what the upperclassmen say, it will be a handful. So I broke out my new Crock Pot for the first time, and I'll be eating for a week!

Ignore the thyme!!!! That's for another recipe...oops!

I chose a relatively simple recipe for the first use: Gingery Chicken from the Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook by America's Test Kitchen.  I plan on eating it throughout the week with brown rice or sweet potato.  I'm off to my friend's house for dinner tonight, but I tasted this and it is quite delicious!  No knife needed, the chicken just shreds!  The prep was easy, except for grating the ginger.  Ginger is a great flavor, but grating it is such a hassle!!

I changed the recipe a bit to make it healthier.  The original recipe calls for skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts, but I used boneless skinless.  I also used olive oil instead of canola oil.

Onion, ginger, garlic

Ingredients:
5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts*
Olive oil
1/2 large onion, minced (or 1 med-small onion)
3 tbs ginger, grated
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbs sugar
3 tbs low-sodium soy sauce

*(The chicken breasts I had were huge, so I cut them in half horizontally.  This also allowed them to cook through faster.)

Season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet, and brown the chicken breasts.  Remove them from the pan and place them on a plate to the side.  Add the onion, ginger, and garlic to the pan and saute until the onion is translucent (this mixture smells amazing!!).  Add the flour, mixing for about a minute.  Slowly add the chicken broth while stirring, and you'll be left with a thick mixture.  Add this to the slow cooker, then stir in the sugar and soy sauce.  Place the chicken in the slow cooker, and set it on low for 4 hours.  Mix everything around every hour so that each piece of chicken has time in the sauce.  Serve!

Also, I started a little project on New Years Day - a picture a day!  I've been documenting it on a separate blog: 2013-365.  I usually try to post something interesting or unique about each day, considering much of my time is spent in class and studying, so hopefully I can keep that up!! :)