Ginger Chicken

Well it's been a million years since I posted here hasn't it? I wish I could give a good excuse, but I can't really, so let's move on.

Speaking of moving, I've moved across town--new apartment, new roommate, aiming for a new outlook on life. Same appetite as before, so really need to be cooking more. And the new (to me) kitchen finally gives me the opportunity to use my "kitchen stuff" (a lot of it was in boxes in storage before).

So let's cook! But before we cook, we (read: me) have to find recipes, because I'm unfortunately not one of those people who can just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and have it come out great. I need ingredients and measurements because I don't really know what to do otherwise. Oh well. Can't win them all.

I recently subscribed to Food & Wine magazine on my Kindle, and read the September issue on a recent plane ride. Several things jumped out at me, one being this ginger chicken recipe by pop up restaurant Rice Paper Scissors in San Francisco. I wanted to christen my new purple Le Creuset and I happened to have leftover white rice from a Chinese take-out order, so it sounded like the perfect thing to make.

I'm going to say this is an "adapted" recipe, since I didn't follow it exactly, but mainly I just left out some ingredients (thai chiles and pickled daikon) and I didn't make the sticky rice (since I already had some).
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar 
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
4 chicken thighs (recipe actually called for whole legs)
1/4 cup vegetable oil 
6 scallions, thinly sliced 
3 tablespoons soy sauce 
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar 
1 tablespoon honey 
4 medium shallots, very finely chopped 
4 garlic cloves, very finely chopped 
1/2 cup minced peeled fresh ginger <--I used my microplaner, which took 800 years, so next time I'd probably just run it through a mini food processor

Always love an opportunity to use my Shun and practice my knife skills. 

 
In a large baking dish (I used a pyrex) stir 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar with 2 tablespoons of the fish sauce until the sugar is dissolved. Add the chicken and coat them thoroughly with the marinade. Let the chicken stand at room temperature for a couple hours or refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 450°. In a small saucepan, heat the vegetable oil. Add the scallions and cook over high heat until they sizzle, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat.

Roast the chicken in the upper third of the oven for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium enameled cast-iron casserole (I used my 3.5 quart wide round Le Creuset) combine the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar with 1 tablespoon of water and cook over moderately high heat, stirring a few times, until bubbling, about 3 minutes. Gradually stir in 1 1/2 cups of water, then stir in the remaining 1/3 cup of fish sauce along with the soy sauce, vinegar, honey and half of the scallion oil. Bring to a boil and simmer over moderately high heat until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the shallots, garlic, ginger and chiles and simmer over moderately low heat for 5 minutes.


Discard the chicken skin and nestle the legs in the sauce in the casserole. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, basting the chicken a few times, until cooked through; add a few tablespoons of water if the sauce gets too thick and dark (mine didn't).


You should probably make some white rice if you don't have any already :)

I reheated my leftover rice in a pot with a little water, and poured the remaining scallion oil over it. Then just serve the chicken with the sticky rice. My end result wasn't as dark as the picture in the magazine, but the flavor was great. And I think it could definitely benefit from having the Thai chiles in it (from the original recipe) but I just made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home from work, and wasn't able to find them. So this version was mainly sweet, as opposed to being sweet and spicy.