Nov 28 Dinner Blog:

Tonight I was lucky to get home at 7:05.  I was even luckier that dinner was basically ready.  When I left the house at 2:45, I had the chicken in the slow cooker, brown rice in the rice cooker, leaving only the frozen green beans to warm in the microwave. Pre-prep earlier in the day paid off.

This afternoon I spent about 20 minutes, washing and preparing the chicken in the slow cooker and getting the brown rice in the rice cooker.  First I measured out the thyme, pressed the garlic cloves, and mixed them together. Next I washed all the chicken and rubbed the thyme garlic mixture on the chicken. Once in the slow cooker, I stirred orange juice concentrate and balsamic vinegar and the rest of the thyme-garlic mixture together.  Finally, I spooned the mixture over the chicken, and set the slow cooker to low for 5 hours.  Once the chicken was done, I put brown rice and water in the rice cooker and left.

When I returned at 7, I warmed the beans in the microwave and served the meal.

Orange Garlic Chicken For 4

The Verdict

The meal received 8’s and 9’s and everyone thought it had good flavor, but I didn’t think it was my best meal.  I don’t know if Melanie Barsuk’s negative comments about slow cookers are rubbing off on me, but I really think that chicken doesn’t do as well in a slow cooker as it does in the oven.  Perhaps I am being too harsh – everyone liked it – but the chicken didn’t stay together as well as I would have liked. It would have been very difficult to cube, for instance…

I would like to “Dare to Compare” and try my luck making the same recipe in the oven…