This easy chicken crock pot recipe is a delicious twist on Orange Chicken, which is usually fried and breaded. Flavorful, healthy – and it’s all done in the crock pot! Oh yeeeeah… some amazing stuff happenin’ here!
Delicious and tangy Orange Chicken made in your slow cooker! This Crock Pot Orange Chicken is super simple to prepare, and it tastes so much better than takeout.
Hey Hi, friends! What’s going awn?? I hope today finds you enjoying the almost Spring-like weather. It’s 60 degrees here, but that darn wind is killin’ it! Feels like 42.5 degrees.
I also have an update on that egg-tapping. I lost to an 8 year old. I bet her egg was made of wood. She broke everyone’s eggs!
Also? And to get you up to speed… Last night I tuned into my DVR and OD’d on… get ready for this… a show about people marrying each other without ever meeting. Uhmmm, OH.MAH.GAH. I.AM.HOOKED. Holy Moly.
And? When I start posting crock pot/slow cooker recipes, know that I am in over my head. As in, I have so much work, I can hardly breathe. As in, I have to watch all the reality shows recorded on my DVR while my family thinks I’m slaving over the hot stove. But, you didn’t hear this from me. Just sayin’.
The Origin of This Crock Pot Orange Chicken Recipe
In all honesty, this, my dear friends, should be called the accidental Orange Chicken. I’ll ‘splain.
You see, I intended to recreate my faaaaavorite OLIVE GARDEN Apricot Chicken, and not my other faaaaaaaavorite, Orange Chicken from P.F. Chang’s.
Instead of grabbing the apricot preserves jar, I somehow grabbed the one next to it, which was the orange preserves jar, and didn’t even notice until I came home and my house smelled like P.F. Chang’s and not the Olive Garden. I can read, I promise. I am smarter than I appear.
That night, when I saw our two-year old inhale almost everything on her plate, I knew I had to remake this beauty and share it with you all. It was a delicious accident and I’m glad I made it. So that’s that.
Well!!?? What are we waiting for? Grab them ingredients and let’s do this! You only need, like, 7 things, including salt and pepper.
P.S. 300 calories per serving. Just sayin’. Again.
Advice. Per me. While you can combine all the ingredients in the crock pot and let it do its thing for a few hours, I like to brown the chicken just for a minute or two on the stove before placing it in the crock pot. That’s a personal preference, but you can do as you please.
Now, to go and get some of my smart marbles back, I am going to tune into a book. Trashy TV, I’ll miss you.
ENJOY!
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WATCH HOW TO MAKE CROCK POT ORANGE CHICKEN
Crock Pot Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 (4-ounces each) skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 3/4 cup low-sugar orange preserves ( I like to use the one with pulp in the preserves; adds texture )
- 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger , or to taste (I use just a little less than 1/8 teaspoon in mine)
- toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Lightly grease crock pot insert with cooking spray.
- If browning the chicken, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet and brown all chicken pieces, 2 minutes per side.
- Place chicken breasts on the bottom of the crock pot, one next to another, and season with salt and pepper.
- In a mixing bowl, combine orange preserves, orange juice, soy sauce, garlic and ginger; mix until combined.
- Pour over the chicken.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours, or on HIGH for 2.5 to 3 hours.
- In the meantime, prepare the sesame seeds.
- In a frying pan, heat the sesame seeds over medium heat, shaking the pan frequently, cooking just until fragrant; about 30 seconds. Set aside.
- Remove chicken from slow cooker and transfer to a plate.
- Spoon the orange sauce over chicken.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and serve.
Notes
Recipe Source: DIETHOOD
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I noticed that this recipe calls for both orange juice and orange preserves. However, the video shows it being made with no orange juice. Which one is correct?
Can I use orange juice and would it be the same measurement
Why do you say prep time only 5 minutes. I find this very frustrating that all food bloggers say prep time is only 5 minutes. It takes more than 5 minutes simply to pull out the ingredients. You have to gather the ingredients, measure, chop, put them all in the pot. That takes at least 20 minutes. Please be honest about prep time.
You can buy the garlic cloves already chopped in the garden section of any major grocery store. That’s all I use and I have never regretted the time save.
I LOVE UR IDEAS IM GONNA TRY I NEED FAST THEY ARE FOR ME NEED TO TRIM AWHOLE LOT MATTER OF FACT EVERYWHERE LOL
Can’t wait to try the orange chicken. Look forward to the diet meals emails. I am on a diet and always need different recipes. Have lost 16 pounds so far.
I found unsweetened Smucker’s Marmalade, the meat came out on the dry side, so I think next time I’ll double up on the sauce when I put in the slow cooker it’s totally submerged.
So could you do the apricot instead with all the same ingredients?
Hi Sara! Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a delicious idea! 🙂
Looks and sounds awesome. I am debating on making either this or another recipe that I found for my slow cooker. Decisions, decisions….. Anyway, I WILL be trying this sometime and I will post another comment on how it turns out. Thanks again for the recipe!
Brian Rungaitis
I found this recipe online about a month ago and have been wanting to try it, but finding orange preserves here is very difficult (I live in a small fishing village in Nicaragua), yesterday I had gone into a decent size city to meet some friends for lunch and found 2 jars of orange jelly–not preserves but it was the best I was going to get. Got up this morning and got it started in the crock pot. I was a little worried that after all the waiting and searching for orange preserves it would not live up to what I had been anticipating. It was DELICIOUS. I bought the only 2 jars of orange jelly the store had so I can make this one more time before I have to go back to searching for more 🙂 The only negative was having to smell it cooking all day before I could devour it 🙂
Hi Beth!! SO happy you enjoyed it!! I mean, after all that trouble to find the preserves and all, it better be good, right?! 😉
I really wanted to like this but it did not come out. I followed the directions exactly and at only four hours on low the chicken is very dark brown almost burnt looking and they are very dry. The sauce also seems to have a burnt flavor. Not sure what happened but I know I followed the directions exactly.
I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out for you, Rebecca. 🙁 I hate when that happens. I’m not sure why the chicken would burn, especially on the low setting. My previous slow cooker was cooking at too high of a temperature (even at low), which would create problems with all foods. Just a thought.
I am unfamiliar with orange preserves, but I am familiar with orange marmalade. Could it be used as a substitute or is it too strong?
HI! Yes, it basically is the same thing, so marmalade would work great.
Your site is aweeeesome 🙂 Thank you for doing this. My hubby will never know he is eating healthy.
Hi Shar! Thanks so, so much for the kind words!!
I’m up for anything that my toddler might inhale!! This looks delish!
I’ve really been wanting to make something like this! You’ve just inspired me! Looks amazing!!
Oh how I want my house to smell like this! Such a happy mistake, I’m adding it to our menu for next week, my kids will devour it, I’m sure!
I love crockpot meals, so nice having supper ready at the end of the day! And this orange chicken looks like a fantastic meal!
I have the Vitaclay and I can’t dry slowcook so I always need to add broth or water to it. It cooks super fast but I wonder if I’m watering down the recipe or making it taste different. Anyway, I leave work at 7:30 and don’t come home til about 4 how would I be able to make this in a regular slow cooker? If I put it on before I leave?
200 calories?!?! Sold!! This sounds absolutely amazing! Sometimes my best recipes come from random mess-ups like grabbing the wrong ingredient accidentally, lol! Love this!
Ah this looks incredible! I’ve never had orange chicken before but your photos make me want to run to the kitchen and get cooking!!!
Haha, the most delicious accident! LOVE and love everything slow cooker! Pinned 🙂
I don’t know what I would do without my slow cooker on busy weeks like this one! This looks crazy good, Kate! Pinned!
An easy chicken dinner that looks this good should be on every mom’s list! Beautiful!
Ahhh! I love those beyond-delish accidents! This was definitely one of those. Holy moly, this chicken is absolutely stunning, Kate! I love how perfectly glazed it is and crockpot FTW! 🙂 Pinned.
What tempurter should I cook it in a oven please? 160?
I had received a little gift box with orange marmalade so I made this recepie. It was awesome. My husband actually went out next day and bought more marmalade