Caramelized Chicken With Ginger

*Post by Angela.

This wonderfully rich dish from the Williams Sonoma cookbook took me three days to make. Not because it's a time-intensive recipe. Or because it requires any marinating or stewing time. It's because I started making it late Friday night while waiting for Mark to come home from working a dinner shift and fell asleep right after finishing the sauce (Mark was a little confused and sad at the scene in the kitchen when he finally walked in). The next day we traveled up to Baltimore and ate lunch and dinner there. Then I had a wonderful picnic with friends for lunch on Sunday. I wasn't able to get back to this recipe until Sunday evening, but it all worked out perfectly - I was recovering from heat stroke, and so my half-prepped meal was a fantastic boon. While it took me a couple of tries overall to get the caramel sauce right, I'm glad I took the time - this dish is a great combination of salty, sweet, savory, and tangy.

List of ingredients for the chicken:

• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 2 lbs chicken wingettes
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp water
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 4 shallots, finely minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp finely julienned fresh ginger
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 green onion, white and light green parts, finely sliced
• 3 cups cooked white rice

First, I heated the oil in a pot over high heat and seared the chicken wings all over until golden brown, about 5-6 minutes per side. I removed the chicken from the pot (covering it and setting it aside), along with most of the oil (leaving about 2 tbsp), and set the pot aside.

Next, I moved on to the sauce. I added the sugar, lemon juice, and 3 tbsp water to a pan and heated it over low heat, stirring, until the sugar had dissolved.

In the meantime, I brought the fish sauce, soy sauce, and 1/4 cup water to a simmer in a saucepan, then covered it and removed it from the heat.

I turned my attention back to the sugar mixture, turning the heat to high. Full disclosure: the original recipe calls for you to bring the sugar to the boil and boil, without stirring, for 10-12 minutes, until the mixture caramelized. That resulted in a dark, sticky mess that took me about 10 minutes to clean up. My second try turned out a lot better. First, I heated the sugar mixture (#2) over high heat until it started bubbling up.

I turned down the heat slightly, and stirred with a wire whisk occasionally, until the mixture had taken on a deep amber color. Then I took it off the heat.

I poured the warm fish sauce mixture into the sugar mixture (careful, it bubbles up something fierce!), whisked until the combination was smooth, covered it, and set it aside.

Now, remember that pot I set aside earlier? I put it back on the stove over medium heat, added the shallots, garlic, ginger, and about a tsp of pepper, and cooked for about 3-5 minutes, until the shallots were tender.

I added the chicken, poured the sauce over the top, and reduced the heat to medium low. I covered the pot, cooking for about 20 minutes, then uncovered it and cooked an additional 10 minutes, until the chicken was really tender. I only stirred it a couple of times throughout the cooking process to make sure all of the chicken was thoroughly coated.

I served the chicken and sauce over some rice, and garnished it with the remaining ginger and green onions. I enjoyed it a lot, and while Mark didn't actually get to try it, I think he would have liked it, too (heh). After all, there isn't much that caramelization can't improve. Even after 3 days.

Comments

[Shulie]

At first glance the carmelization grabbed me and i was impressed!! I looked at the post again and I might even try it tonight if I don't pass out. Just happen to have wings but was up till 3am last night so it might take me three days too:)

[Angela]

Mark finally got to try them last night and really liked them! And of course, I devoured them. If you do make them, please let me know how it turns out!

And just WHAT are you doing up at 3 am, young lady?

[Nan]

The chicken looks really really good. I gotta try it. you are right, carmellization does wonders. yes, your chicken is probably better than last evening's--love the ginger flavor.

[Angela]

Hi Nan! Glad you found your way to the blog, and it was good to see you last night! Thank you for the compliment, you can bet I'm going to tell Mark ALL about it.