Crockpot Sesame Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I was totally not feeling it today but I was motivated enough by a clean kitchen counter to make my family food for dinner! So I took the easier route and dragged the crockpot out, chopped veggies, defrosted chicken and let it go. Yummy yummy yummy! The house was smelling awesome and it tasted pretty awesome.

My quicker trick today: Tastefully Simple's Toasted Sesame Teriyaki Sauce. Now, I never just pour a full bottle of a sauce into anything anymore so note that a bottle of this awesomeness will last me through 4-8 meals depending. And why am I ok with using TS pre-made "stuff?" Because they use all natural ingredients and no craptastic preservatives ... So using a little of this leaves me with very few qualms!

BTW I totally preferred this over the other Sesame Crockpot Chicken I had made a few posts down. More flavor even with using just a little of the TS sauce. Plus I didn't add grains to this so that helped.

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Crockpot Sesame Chicken Lettuce Wraps

2-4 big boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
Dash of Red Pepper

2 cups tri-colored peppers chopped
1/2 red onion chopped

1/8 c. Tastefully Simple Toasted Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 c. Water

1/8 c. peanuts (non-salted)
1-2 tbsp. sesame seeds

4-6 big lettuce leafs of your choice

Set the crockpot to low cook 8 hours. Chop up the veggies and place in the pot. Sprinkle the spices generously over the chicken breasts and place on top of the veggies.

Mix the teriyaki sauce with the water and pour into the pot. Sprinkle in the peanuts and sesame seeds. Cover and cook. No reason to really stir. You may need to add a touch more water towards the end to keep it moist and move everything around to keep it from sticking.

Shred the finished chicken with two forks while in the pot and mix everything together. Serve in big lettuce leafs. I added broccoli-cut cole slaw mix and rice noodles for some texture and crunch!

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Yummy for sure! I made the mistake of thinking I picked up organic lettuce but instead picked up organic white cabbage ... Needless to say I dumped the stuffing out, added regular lettuce and enjoyed LOL Note to self: don't go grocery shopping for dinner essentials when you aren't having a "with it" day!! Ugh, yes next time it will be lettuce or big ole romaine or something ... Not cabbage leaves. It looks pretty but the cabbage leaves are tough.


Challenge Friendly: Yes. No rice noodles, especially on the cleanse.

Sweet, Tangy Sesame Crockpot Chicken

So I found this recipe via Pinterest and The Comfort of Cooking Blog.  I am allllllll for yummy Asian dishes. I'm also allllllll for crockpot meals because I can prep that sucker and not have to worry about trying to create dinner out of thin air at 5pm when the kids are starving, Dave isn't home yet, and I haven't had time to do the dishes!

(Side note: I want a freaking dishwasher ASAP! I'm tired of living without one.)

Of course, I couldn't do just as the recipe told me to ... because that would mean I wasn't sticking with a "healthier" version AND I hate extra steps like making rice later so I threw everything together to cook AND I wanted to be good since I have 3 days left in my 24-Day Challenge. So I did good! And don't judge, but yes, I used raw honey ... life will go on! I couldn't justify using a whole cup like the original recipe so what I did use was my compromise.

I have to say, after making the "sauce" I am totally reminded of Asian BBQ and OMG we aren't telling Dave it's BBQ (since he hates BBQ) BUT he is going to eat the crap out of this ... I hope. I'm totally excited to dive in to this later.

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Sweet, Tangy Sesame Crockpot Chicken

2-3 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
Shake of Sea Salt on each side and Black Pepper. I also threw Garlic Powder on the meat for good measure.

Sauce:
1/2 c. Diced Onions
1/4 c. Raw Honey
1/4 c. Liquid Aminos
1/4 c. Organic Tomato Paste (about 3 oz. so half of a little can)
3 cloves Garlic - pressed
1 tbsp. Red Pepper Flakes
2 tbsp. Sesame Oil (or EVOO)
1 tbsp. Sesame Seeds

Base:
1 c. Brown Rice
1 c. water
Any frozen veggies you have left in the freezer. I used about 2 cups of Stir Fry Veggies I had sitting around and waiting to be used.
1 tsp. Ground Ginger

Throw your Base ingredients into the crockpot and sprinkle the ginger powder over it. There was no ginger in the sauce recipe so I added some to the base just because I LURVE ginger.

The seasoned chicken goes on top of the base.

Mix up the "sauce" and spoon on top of the chicken. That's it! I'm cooking on High for 4 Hours because my chicken was still partially frozen but cook it alllllll day for even better results but add extra water so it doesn't dry out.

Garnish with diced green onions.

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The verdict? Good but I should have taken the extra step of doing everything separate. Since it all cooked together, the sauce ends up mixed in with rice and veggies which is fine but it doesn't look as pretty as my predecessors. LOL The flavor is fine but slightly unexpected due to the tomato paste addition. I can't imagine it would be better with ketchup though. I think I might either cut the tomato paste to 1/8 cup and maybe up the honey to 1/3 cup. Not too shabby! Next time I will definitely do the rice and veggies right before I serve so the chicken gets the whole sauce flavor!


Challenge Friendly: YES but only for Max. You don't need the extra sugars during Cleanse. In fact, you probably don't need the extra sugars anyway ... so let's list this as a MAYBE ... only if in dire need of a dish ... and you happen to have everything you need sitting around ... LOL