CROCK POT CHICKEN LO MEIN

I was home on Friday and decided that would be my day to try out this new recipe for crock pot chicken lo mein. I had bought all the ingredients on Tuesday and waited for my next day off. Well I was in for a surprise.  Now remember I said I bought the ingredients but I didn’t really read the instructions. You know I kind of favor the dump and go kind of recipes. Not this one from www.lifemadesweeter.com . Obviously this women has a little more time to devote to cooking, blogging, and picture taking then I do. Her pictures were so good looking I wanted to eat the food right from the screen. So Friday after my 2 cups of coffee I pull out everything for my dinner and pulled up the recipe. OMG! It took forever to get there. First off I hadn’t even marinated my chicken. I thought about for a minute. Did I really need to do this? What the heck it’s my day off and it’s only for 30 minutes. I could have some more coffee! So into the plastic bag goes the chicken and all the seasonings. Thirty minutes later the chicken goes into the crock pot to cook on high for 2 -1/2 hours. Then I remove the chicken and place all the vegetables in with the sauce for 30 more minutes. Okay then she talks about browning the chicken as an option. Not happening here! I need to go straight to adding the noodles and getting done with this. I’ll let you in on my secret. I wanted precooked noodles so I could save time by not boiling noodles and messing up another pot. Those Miki noodles in her recipe I couldn’t find so I just substituted Top Ramen noodles which are kind of precooked. I left out the seasoning packet which in thinking about it now I could have used it for the cup of chicken broth. Anyway about 3 ½ hours later and a couple times into the pot my chicken lo mein was done. It was awesome! I was very pleased and surprised even though the recipe called for a lot more attention than my usual recipes. I did cut out a few things like not browning my chicken and thickening my sauce so it saved me some time. I wouldn’t however suggest cutting out the marinating of the chicken. I think this step helped to enhance the flavor of the chicken and also give it a little color too. The Top Ramon noodles worked out great. They were soft and ready to eat in about 15 minutes. Cooking them in the sauce really made them take on the flavors of the sauce. I can see myself making this again and adding maybe some snow peas or broccoli, maybe even using beef strips instead of chicken. This makes a lot of noodles, enough to take a pot luck dinner or feed a hungry crowd at home. I am including the picture from www.lifemadesweeter.com and my picture just so you can see how really good it looks.

 

INGREDIENTS:
CHICKEN MARINADE:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp. of soy sauce
¼ tsp. of sesame oil
½ tsp. of corn starch
Dash of ground pepper
1 plastic bag

SAUCE:
1 cup of chicken broth
2 tbs. of soy sauce
2 tsp. of sugar
1 tsp. of sesame oil
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 tsp. of minced fresh ginger

VEGETABLES:
2 cups of baby bok choy leaves washed and sliced
½ cup of matchstick carrots
2 green onions sliced
2 packets of Top Ramon noodles without the seasoning packet

DIRECTIONS:
In a plastic bag combine the marinade and the chicken and let it sit for at least 30 minutes. Then spray the crock pot with PAM. Place chicken and marinade in bottom of the crock pot and cook on high for 2- ½ hours until done. Remove the chicken and cut it into bite size pieces. Next place the bok choy leaves on the bottom with the carrots and green onions. Throw the cut chicken back in the pot on top of the vegetables.  Mix together the chicken broth and seasonings and pour over the chicken and vegetables and cook on high for 30 minutes. Then add the noodles uncooked in to the pot. I rearranged everything and put them on the bottom in the sauce. Cook on high another 10- 15 minutes until the noodles are soft. Stir everything together and enjoy.