Monday, October 27, 2008

Soy Ginger Chicken

I am always looking for new ways to cook chicken. It's such a convenience meat - not too expensive and easy to keep around. So when I saw this recipe on Everyday Food's site, I couldn't wait to try it. Having a momentary lapse in judgement and forgetting that the boyfriend doesn't always dig the Asian flavors, I decided to make this for our Saturday night dinner. True to form, he was not a huge fan. He thought it was fine and ate it, but this won't likely be making it into regular rotation. I, on the other hand, loved it. The soy sauce and cilantro flavors really come through in the chicken, and the meat gets to that magical place of tenderizing and falling off the bone. Delicious. The original recipe was clearly lacking some stock or other cooking liquid from the ingredient list so I've added two cups of chicken stock to the mix.

Soy Ginger Chicken
Adapted from Everyday Food
Serves 2

1/3 cup soy sauce
2 T brown sugar
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 small piece ginger, peeled and cut into thin strips
1 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 t ground pepper
2 cups chicken stock
5 scallions, thinly sliced
2 chicken quarters, skin removed and leg and thigh cut apart
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 T cornstarch

Preheat oven to 325*
Combine first eight ingredients and half the scallions in a medium dutch oven and stir to combine. Place chicken and carrots in the pot and stir to coat. Place in the oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes until the chicken starts to fall of the bone. Continue cooking if necessary. Mix cornstarch with 1 T water. Remove the pot from the oven and ladle one cup of cooking liquid into a a small saucepan. Mix the cornstarch slurry into the cooking liquid and cook until simmering and thickened. Return the thickened cooking liquid to the pot and mix. Divide chicken and sauce between two bowls of white rice and enjoy!

12 comments:

Hopie said...

I'm one of those people who can't do cilantro, but I do love Asian recipes other than that. And I agree about chicken - you can do so much with it and it's always good to have around! I like to roast a chicken on the weekend, and then make different things out of the leftovers during the week.

Maria said...

Love this jazzed up chicken dish!

Unknown said...

Your BF and my fiance must have come from the same mold. Too bad for them. This sounds awesome!!!

I'll add it to my list of "I'm the only one home" meals. Yum.

La Bella Cooks said...

This looks and sounds delicious. I think I would be the only one to enjoy this at my house as well. Oh well, more for me!

Erica said...

Well it certainly looks incredible! Nice work! Its hard to come up with new ways to make chicken!!

Meg said...

Delicious...so many of my favorites...soy, ginger, cilantro!

Anonymous said...

The flavors of this dish sound wonderful to me!

Anonymous said...

I am also always on the look-out for new and tasty ways to cook chicken. Lucky for me, I really enjoy Asian flavors so will be adding this to my recipe list :). It looks delicious!

Michele said...

I've gotten my boyfriend on a cilantro kick...and he loves Asian food...so this may be a nice surprise meal for him tonight. :-)

janelle said...

Sounds yummy; we are just delving into Asian flavors. I too, love them, but still need to convince my kiddos. Last night's rice vinegar salad dressing wasn't a fave:).

Happy to find your blog!

Laura Paterson said...

I love this recipe - just the kind of flavours I love! My boyf won't touch cheese or cream - good for my waistline, though I do sometimes have to make a massive mac and cheese just for me!!!!

Katie said...

All of the ingredients sound so good; I bet the end product was fantastic!