Thai Chicken
Enjoy this previously published Zola classic!
It’s funny how trends change.
In the 1950’s, you could not watch a movie without seeing just about every character in it smoking a cigarette. In the 1960’s, most sales were done over a 3 martini lunch. Very few now. That’s pretty much frowned upon.
Most trend changes like these are precipitated by a group of adults who decide something is "bad" and decide to change it. But for the long run, for the change to stick, you have to get it in the heads of kids.
I’m trying to start a new trend (along with several medical professionals). I want to make sugar the next “bad” thing. I’d like to see the kids of this generation come home and tell their parents that sugar is bad. How do we do it? With video productions like this one...
Thai Chicken
This dish is super easy. Serve with green beans and eat them with your fingers if you dare. This can be a one pan job if you have a cast iron pan. Otherwise you’ll have to transfer your chicken to a heat proof pan you can put in the oven and under the broiler.
Ingredients:
3 Tbl of butter
4 boneless chicken thighs (You can also do this with breast pieces)
1/2 cup of Hoisin sauce
1/4 – 1/2 tsp of hot chili oil. (To your taste. I just use the oil and no flakes)
2 Tbl of coconut aminos or Braggs aminos or tamari
2 tsp of minced garlic
1 Tbl of fish sauce
1 Tbl of grated ginger (jar ginger will work)
1 Tbl lemon or lime juice
1/4 cup of peanuts, chopped (optional)
Sriracha (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Melt the butter on medium high in your cast iron pan. Put in the chicken flat side down. Begin to cook the chicken on medium or medium high for four minutes. Don’t mess with them. Make sure they don’t burn but you want a bit of a crust to form on them. Then turn them over and cook two more minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, take out a medium-small bowl and put in the sauce ingredients: Hoisin sauce, chili oil, aminos/tamari, garlic, fish sauce, ginger and citrus. Stir to combine.
With the chicken pieces flat side up, pour the sauce over them. Lift the chicken pieces to make sure some sauce gets underneath each piece.
Put in the oven to roast until no pink remains. This will take about 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of your pieces. You can check with a meat thermometer. You want the temperature to read 165 degrees or higher.
Then turn on your broiler. You want to broil the pieces for two to three minutes to caramelize the sauce and get a teeny bit of char on the meat. (You decide what a teeny bit is.)
Serve with the peanuts on top and a sprinkle of sriracha if you decided to use those two items. The dish has some kick to it but if you use the sriracha you can kick it up to a whole new level of SPICY.
Serve.
Pro-tip:
I put my cast iron pan in the sink right away with some water in it while we ate. The sauce along the edge can get so caramelized that it sticks to the pan. The hardest part of making this meal might be cleaning the pan. The rest is a breeze. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola
