Orange Chicken made in the crock pot

Orange Chicken - made January 29, 2012

I'm trying to cook more these days so I don't go out to eat all the time. Although, "cook" might be a subjective term. Let's call it, "I took down my crock pot from the high shelf and threw in some chicken". It took a little more effort than that but not much more. Last year I had tried a slow cooker orange chicken recipe from another blog that was pretty good and I was going to make it again but when it was time to assemble it, I didn't have my computer on and was too lazy to fire it up to check that original recipe so I made up this one on the fly instead with the ingredients I had on hand. It came out pretty well, although it could've been more orange-y.  Next time I need to decrease the barbecue sauce and increase the orange marmalade.

I want to use my crockpot more often because it's the easiest way to cook but one issue I always have with whatever I make in it is that it always comes out soupy. Sometimes I'm not going for the soup texture so I end up thickening the sauce with some cornstarch. It still hardly ever thickens up to the consistency I want but taste-wise, it comes out okay. I've made worse, haha.

12 skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
1 cup barbecue sauce (I used Trader Joe's smoky-sweet BBQ sauce)
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 green onions, chopped (green tops and all)
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Combine all ingredients except cornstarch.  Cook on low setting in slow cooker overnight or 6-8 hours until chicken is fork-tender.  
2. Remove 1/4 cup of the sauce and combine with 2 teaspoons cornstarch.  Stir to dissolve and add back into slow cooker.  Stir and let simmer another 10 minutes.  Turn off crock pot and serve.