Guest Post: Kate's Who Needs Takeout Honey Garlic Chicken Recipe

Blergh, I'm having a crazy busy week! Luckily, guest blogger Kate is here to save the day. She's reporting back on another freezer to crock pot meal. This is part of an occasional series where Kate details how she shops, prepares and stores 40 meals for her family at once using a freezer to crock pot cooking method. Catch up on her previous posts here.

This meal seemed a little small when I dumped the frozen contents (still frozen) from the freezer bag in to the crockpot, but I saved judgment for when it was done cooking (after about 4 hours on low).

At which point, my judgment was “Are you kidding me? Who are these people that can feed a family on 1 lb (or slightly more) of chicken thighs?”

This meal was so tiny, I’m glad we had Chinese takeout leftovers from the weekend, because - much
like many of the other recipes we’ve tried in this “40 meals” experiment – we would starve if I served them alone. I warned my husband before we even ate that he was going to have to eat something else as a snack after dinner (like those leftovers), because there was no way this was going to fill him up.

Moral of this story (also echoed in my Shopping and Prep post) – buy about 20-30 percent more chicken than the “Shopping List” indicates. And then maybe buy even more if your family has more than two people in it or are big eaters.

That said – the kids got a hearty starter of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I luckily already made roasted white and sweet potatoes. I also threw in some applesauce to round it out. You know, because you can never have more
carbs.

The chicken was delicious and we’ll definitely be making this one again. It cooks much faster than other standard freezer/crockpot meals, so only make this one on a weekend or maybe if you have a
programmable crockpot that you trust. It would be great with some rice and some green veges.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 (this meal was incredibly delicious, but lost point value for being incredibly skimpy).


Kate Appelman is a couples and portrait photographer trying to keep up with two toddlers and keep everyone fed. Besides photography, Kate daydreams about actually making something from Pinterest and sometimes fitting in a CrossFit workout.