Crock Pot Sweet Garlic Chicken

I love how people can easily share recipes and meal ideas on Facebook.  A friend shared this recipe yesterday.  Even though I already had a Sunday meal planned, I already had all the ingredients for this dinner so I decided to try it instead.

Crock Pot Sweet Garlic Chicken

Ingredients:

4-6 chicken breast

1 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. vinegar
1/4 c. lemon-lime soda

2-3 T. minced garlic

2 T. soy sauce

1 t. pepper

2 T. cornstarch

2 T. water

red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

Spray a slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.  Place chicken in slow cooker.  Mix together sugar, vinegar, soda, garlic, soy sauce, and pepper.  Pour over chicken.  Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 4 hours.  Remove chicken from crock pot and shred with a fork.  Pour remaining sauce in a saucepan.  Mix together cornstarch and water.  Whisk cornstarch mixture into the sauce.  Bring sauce to a boil for 2-3 minutes.  Reduce heat to simmer and let sauce thicken.  Pour sauce over chicken.  Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.

Serve over rice or noodles. 

In my test kitchen:

Why is it that chicken dries out sooooo much in a crock pot?  I used thawed, smaller pieces of chicken in this recipe and cooked it on low for 3 hours.  The chicken was PLENTY done.  Next time I'll cook it on low for 2 hours instead and see how it is.  Despite the fact that the chicken is dry, the sauce that goes along with it is great.  So it makes a great meal.  I only had a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar (which the original author recommended) so I used it up and added additional regular white vinegar.  I'll try all apple cider vinegar next time because I think it would have suited this recipe a little better.  I also really like garlic but decided to only use 2 T.  That was more than enough!  You've got to really love garlic to put all 3 T. in this sauce.  And my husband just LOVES spice so I sprinkled quite a bit of the red pepper flakes on his chicken.  I only did a light sprinkle of red pepper on mine and it was almost too spicy for me.  But I really think it added to the flavor of the meal so I would say it shouldn't be an optional ingredient unless you absolutely hate that kind of heat.

Great recipe that I will make again!

~Happy Cooking!