Saturday, January 8, 2011

Honey Garlic Chicken

I went on a searching spree a little while ago, because the hubby likes dark meat chicken. I bookmarked quite a few options, and Honey Garlic Chicken won out tonight. I halved this recipe (because we're two people) and added garlic as suggested in the Comments section; so, here are my adjusted ingredients:


4 chicken pieces (2 legs, 2 thighs)
1/4 cup (apple cider) vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon salt (optional)


A couple other notes: this seemed rather high in sodium to me, so that's why I marked the salt as optional -- I imagine it could be left out without the taste of the final product being impacted. Also, I'm not sure about the inclusion of garlic salt... next time I'll probably leave it out and add extra minced garlic or garlic powder. Regarding vinegar, I usually use apple cider vinegar for cooking, and leave the white vinegar for cleaning... just use what you prefer/have.


Here are my step-by-step instructions:


1. Mix the above ingredients (other than chicken) together. Preheat oven to 350 (unless you plan to let this marinate a few hours; in that case, hold off on the preheating ;-)).


2. Spray baking dish with non-stick cooking spray (not sure if this really makes a difference in clean-up, but figured it's worth a shot even if it helps a little).


3. Dip each piece in the sauce to coat, then place in the baking pan and pour the sauce over the chicken pieces (again, not sure if dipping made a difference, but I wanted to be sure the whole surface got covered).  Allow to marinate, if desired (I didn't, and it was still awfully tasty).


4. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes with foil covering the baking dish. I removed it every 15 minutes and brushed the juices onto the chicken (a different recipe I found that I'll post another day sold me on basting, so while it's not in this recipe, I did it anyway -- I'm a rebel like that). 


4a. We had this with jasmine rice (and it was awesome -- I highly recommend it). Whether you go that route or not, once the chicken is in the oven, fix your sides. (Thanks, Tracy, for the rice cooker!)


5. Remove foil, transfer chicken to another dish temporarily, pour sauce into a small saucepan (thanks, step-sisters!), return chicken to baking dish, and bake, uncovered, for about 20 additional minutes (to an internal temperature of 165). Meanwhile, cook sauce over medium heat, reducing to low heat once it thickens.**


**Yep, deviating from the linked recipe again. I was hungry. So, I increased the temp slightly and decreased the cooking time a bit (the original recipe's cook time seemed rather long to me... you guessed it, I Googled it). Removing the sauce was a suggestion from the Comments section. I added cornstarch, but it clumped, so I'm wondering if it would thicken on its own over medium heat... or is there a trick to adding cornstarch?


6. Serve and enjoy. 


I put the sauce in a bowl and brought it to the table so we could each use it as we pleased. It was a lot yummier than I had even hoped it would be. I wish I had cooked more rice, because we ended up with a lot of extra sauce... and, did I mention, it was yummy! I guess that brings up a good point: if four pieces of chicken aren't enough for you and your family, unless you like to really drown things in sauce, you don't necessarily need to double this recipe. Just make my "halved" recipe as detailed, but add more chicken, and you'll probably still have some sauce left over.


We were naughty and didn't have a veggie with dinner tonight, but I think carrots (maybe Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots) would go well with this dish.


Well, I hadn't really decided I was going to write this blog until about half-way through our meal, so I don't have any pictures for you, but I'll try to be better about that in the future!

2 comments:

  1. Nice work sister. I'm not a pro on making gravy/sauces to avoid clumping...but when in doubt, I trust Alton :-) COOKING WITH SCIENCE!!

    Gravy Confidential Part 1:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFmvw8s5Bc

    Part 2:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7T7XN62ejw

    I think you'll appreciate the artistry of cooking rouxs to different levels depending on flavor and thickening power ;-)

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  2. ooOOOoooOO - cooking with SCIENCE! That's right up my alley!

    Thanks brother. Dad sent an email with tips also. I've just never had the occasion to make gravy before, but one of the commenters from the original post said "add cornstarch", so I tried it. Just can't always trust those other commenters... I guess that's why I thought I'd share my reviews this way ;)

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