Sweet and Sour Crockpot Chicken
Try this Sweet and Sour Crockpot Chicken recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Sweet and Sour Crockpot Chicken recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 red pepper diced
- 1/4 cup cold water
- sesame seeds
- green onions
- 4 tablespoon cornstarch divided
- 1 1/2 pounds chicken cut into chunks (about 4 cups)
- 1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks
- 1 cup chopped red onion
- 1/4 cups red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce
- cooked white or brown rice
- Carbohydrate 25.5245640463456 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 2.53132359893387 g
- Fiber 2.84881260840691 g
- Protein 4.0584791921273 g
- Saturated Fat 0.357535390641125 g
- Serving Size 1 1 -8 serving (298g)
- Sodium 128.791709672409 mg
- Sugar 22.6757514379386 g
- Trans Fat 0.210763472624338 g
- Calories 131 calories
Step-by-step
- Place the chicken chunks in a large ziplock bag with 2 tablespoons cornstarch and the paprika.
- Shake until evenly coated.
- In a nonstick skillet brown half the chicken in 1 tablespoon oil for 1 minute, then transfer to a 3 qt. crock pot.
- Repeat with the remaining chicken and oil.
- Toss the onions on top.
- Drain the pineapple.
- Place the pineapple in a container and refrigerate for later.
- Stir together the pineapple juice, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and salt and pour over the chicken in the crock pot.
- Stir everything together.
- Cook on high heat for 3 hours or until meat is done.
- Combine the cornstarch and water and whisk until smooth.
- Stir into the chicken mixture.
- Add the reserved pineapple and red peppers.
- Cover and cook for another 30 minutes or until sauce is thickened slightly.
- Serve over cooked rice.
- Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds, if desired.
Coating chicken in cornstarch before searing creates a protective barrier that prevents the lean meat from drying out during extended slow cooking. Starch molecules hydrate on the surface of the meat and gel when exposed to heat, locking in internal moisture. Browning the protein briefly in a skillet develops Maillard compounds that a humid slow cooker environment cannot replicate on its own. Retaining the pineapple fruit until the final thirty minutes prevents the flesh from turning to mush due to proteolytic enzymes breaking down the structural proteins.
Managing Starch and Acidity
Cornstarch loses its thickening capacity when subjected to prolonged high heat. Adding a slurry of cornstarch and cold water near the end of the cooking cycle ensures a glossy, viscous sauce rather than a watery broth. Acidity from the red wine vinegar balances the sugar but also breaks down starches if boiled too long, making late addition critical for texture.
- Sear chicken in small batches for exactly one minute per side to avoid steaming the meat.
- Whisk the cornstarch slurry thoroughly in cold water to prevent lumps before incorporating it into hot liquid.
- Cook on high heat for three hours, monitoring internal chicken temperature past 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
