I love takeaways but there's no doubt ordering in too often can prove disastrous for my waist line and my wallet. Luckily it's simple to make some take-out faves easily and cheaply and if you add some convenience options and a crockpot it's almost as effort free too.
With Chinese New Year coming up on Friday February 16 we decided to celebrate the start of the Year of the Dog (early for blogging purposes of course!) with a fabulous Asian-inspired feast featuring zingy lemon chicken as the centre piece.
The recipe in full is further down but basically you throw chicken breast, honey, lemon juice, soy sauce, five spice and ginger into a slow cooker and switch it on then enjoy the wonderful aromas before you prepare the rest of the meal later in the day.
I decided to cheat and headed to my local supermarket to pick up microwave egg fried rice and vegetable chow mein mix to throw into a wok. I may have also cheated more and bought ready marinaded spare ribs even though they are equally easy to make in a slow cooker. Please don't judge me - it's been a hectic week!
I had a couple of packets of dim sum picked up during my last visit to London's Chinatown recently in the freezer and they went into my steamer. No Chinese style meal is complete without prawn crackers, not in my childrens' eyes anyway, so I shook a packet into a bowl. I added some crunchy spring onions for colour and Voila! Fakeaway complete.
If you fancy making lemon chicken with no fuss here's my simple slow cooker recipe: (serves 4 as a main course but stretches to six as part of a fakeaway feast along with other dishes)
It won't be bright yellow like the takeaway version is and the sauce may not be as thick but it will be very tasty I promise! If you do want to thicken the sauce up, add cold water to a little corn flour (or plain flour at a push), mis well and stir in about half an hour before serving.
You will need:
1kg chicken breasts cut into 3cm chunks.
1 cup lemon juice (or juice from one large fresh lemon)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
Method
Spray or wipe inside of crockpot with vegetable oil.
Add chicken.
Combine rest of ingredients in jug then add to chicken.
Stir well until chicken is well coated.
Cook on low for 4 hours.
That's it! Enjoy!
With Chinese New Year coming up on Friday February 16 we decided to celebrate the start of the Year of the Dog (early for blogging purposes of course!) with a fabulous Asian-inspired feast featuring zingy lemon chicken as the centre piece.
The recipe in full is further down but basically you throw chicken breast, honey, lemon juice, soy sauce, five spice and ginger into a slow cooker and switch it on then enjoy the wonderful aromas before you prepare the rest of the meal later in the day.
I decided to cheat and headed to my local supermarket to pick up microwave egg fried rice and vegetable chow mein mix to throw into a wok. I may have also cheated more and bought ready marinaded spare ribs even though they are equally easy to make in a slow cooker. Please don't judge me - it's been a hectic week!
I had a couple of packets of dim sum picked up during my last visit to London's Chinatown recently in the freezer and they went into my steamer. No Chinese style meal is complete without prawn crackers, not in my childrens' eyes anyway, so I shook a packet into a bowl. I added some crunchy spring onions for colour and Voila! Fakeaway complete.
If you fancy making lemon chicken with no fuss here's my simple slow cooker recipe: (serves 4 as a main course but stretches to six as part of a fakeaway feast along with other dishes)
It won't be bright yellow like the takeaway version is and the sauce may not be as thick but it will be very tasty I promise! If you do want to thicken the sauce up, add cold water to a little corn flour (or plain flour at a push), mis well and stir in about half an hour before serving.
You will need:
1kg chicken breasts cut into 3cm chunks.
1 cup lemon juice (or juice from one large fresh lemon)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
Method
Spray or wipe inside of crockpot with vegetable oil.
Add chicken.
Combine rest of ingredients in jug then add to chicken.
Stir well until chicken is well coated.
Cook on low for 4 hours.
That's it! Enjoy!
