Since my last post I have been too sore to type. I have visited my personal trainer twice now. I hate him exponentially more every time so that by the time this 3 month session is up, I should be looking in the Yellow Pages for contract killers. I jest! Sort of.
Anyway, my new exercise regimen poses an unforseen problem. I work out twice a week and it has to be in the late afternoon. Twice a week, I take my daughter to Taekwondo class. So, there are a few days in there when I get home too late to fix a proper dinner. Enter the slow cooker.
I have always been a slow cooker fan. I make pork with salsa verde, chili and short ribs in mine. I do corned beef and cabbage. Delicious! However, since I will be using my slow cooker a lot more often I need to branch out. Me and my friend, the internet, have been searching for interesting and innovative recipes that I can tweak for my low carb life. One of my favorite sites is this:
A Year of Slow Cooking
Stephanie O'Dea essentially made something in her slow cooker every day for a year (and then some). Her recipes are almost tailor made for the low carb lifestyle as she is gluten intolerant. She has to be very careful about wheat or other gluten containing ingredients. The only problem is that she is not sugar intolerant so some of her recipes have to be tweaked a little.
Today's recipe is Chinese Lemon Chicken. Her original recipe is here:
Chinese Lemon Chicken
Her recipe is slightly problematic for me as one of the main ingredients is a half can of thawed lemonade frozen concentrate. Unfortunately, just that half can is 103 carbs. The recipe also calls for sugar. The recipe I came up with after fiddling around with it is pretty tasty. It is more sour than sweet but I like it that way... my husband likes it better that way, too. By making my substitutions I took it from approximately 48 carbs per serving to 12.75 carbs per serving. Of course, to beef it up (enhance it), add vitamins and more flavor I chopped up some vegetables which will add a few carbs but all in all, I am very pleased with the results. You can serve it over cauliflower rice.
Slow Cooker Citrus Chicken
Serves 4-6
6 chicken thighs; boneless/skinless/trimmed of excess fat
1/4 cup flour
2 tsp kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup orange juice, no extra sugar added
Juice of 2 lemons
1 TB balsamic vinegar
3 TB ketchup (or low-sugar ketchup)
1 onion, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into strips
3 celery stalks, sliced into half moons
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2" coins
Olive oil for browning chicken
Cut the chicken thighs into large-ish bite sized chunks. Put the flour and the salt into a large zip-top bag. Dump the chicken into the bag and shake until the chicken bits are coated. (This step is optional. I use it because maybe only an 1/8 of a cup ends up on the actual chicken and it thickens the sauce). Heat a large, non-stick saute pan over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add 2 tsp of olive oil and swirl, coating the bottom. Using a large, slotted spoon, lift the chicken from the bag, shaking off the excess and drop the chicken chunks into the hot oil. Don't necessarily cook the chicken all the way, just give it a little color and get the flour to stick to it. Dump the browned chicken into the bowl of your slow cooker. Add the cut vegetables and stir to incorporate.
Mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl. Whisk to combine thoroughly. Pour it over the chicken in the slow cooker. Don't worry if it doesn't seem like a lot of liquid. There will be plenty of liquid by the time you are done.
Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours.
It tasted very much like the lemon chicken you'd get in a Chinese-American restaurant... without hardly any of the fat or MSG or CARBS!
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