Sticky Chicken

When I’m making chicken stock for my homemade chicken soup I usually buy legs/thighs on sale. Before I drop those puppies into a big pot to boil for hours with onions, green peppers and carrots (sometimes broccoli stems or whatever veggies are approaching their best-before dates) I take time to cut some of the dark meat off the bone. I’m not manic about this, desperate to get every last big. But I do take off the big chunks, stick them in a plastic bag and freeze them for another day.

So another day came. Alex was coming home for a few days and wanted Sticky Chicken – her words – for a meal. So here’s what I came up with:

 

Sticky Chicken

2 tsp fresh ginger, grated or chopped very fine
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbs ketchup
1 tbs cider vinegar
2/3 cup apple cider (you could use juice too)
1 tbs soya sauce
2 tbs garlic olive oil*

 

Combine all the ingredients in a small pot and simmer for about 20 minutes. Let cool.

Add chicken (dark meat: Pieces, legs and thighs, whatever is your preference) to a plastic bag and pour in half the above sauce to marinate. Leave overnight or at least 4 hours.

Warm garlic oil in skillet. Add chicken with marinating sauce to the pan, stirring often so the meat doesn’t stick to the pan. As the sauce thickens, add a little more from the reserve until all the sauce you made is used up.

Serve with rice. (You can use plain white rice, or wait for the Caribbean Fried Rice coming in a couple of weeks.)

 

*I make my own garlic oil by filling a small jar with olive oil and adding two smashed cloves of garlic. I make sure to use it up weekly so it stays fresh. I don’t make too much at once. It’s always easy to add a little more oil to get through the week.