Oven Barbecue Chicken

Greetings, Dear Reader. I cheated. I got intrigued with the Honey Ginger Chicken recipe and decided to change out sauces. Same method on the chicken, different sauce. And this would go better with mashed potatoes or a nice polenta, but I did it with rice. Plain this time.

SO... As I said. Same as the Honey Ginger, just a different sauce. The chicken is made the same way and the sauce is applied the same way.

THE SAUCE:

I decided I was in the mood for some barbecue, Dear Reader.

1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I used the store brand hickory flavor)
3 tablespoons steak sauce (I used Lee&Perrins)
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Here's the pictures and it fixed my craving for barbecue.



***EDIT*** Just as an aside, I just noticed... the House™ has had 10K visitors. Welcome!

Ginger Rice Plus..?

I thought I'd follow up last week's chicken recipe with the recipe for the rice it's sitting on. It's SUPER easy, no mess, no fuss, and (alas) no pictures. It's rice, you know? I will say that I am a firm convert to basmati rice over the standard 'long grain white rice' that Mom always made. The basmati has a better texture, is less starchy, and the slight tone the aroma gives is exquisite. One caveat: If you have a rice cooker, follow their directions for basmati rice.

Darkneuro's Ginger Rice

1 cup basmati rice
1 3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger

Bring all ingredients to a boil in a 3 quart saucepan. Once boiling, cover pot with the lid if it's tightfitting, or foil and then the lid if it's not. Reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, let sit 5 minutes. Stir rice to make sure the ginger is fully incorporated, serve.

Makes about 3 cups


Now, since that was kindof cheesy because it's rice... IT'S JUST RICE... I thought I'd also post the following:

Tomato Provencal
(I got this recipe from my French teacher in 1985)
Take a large tomato (preferably organic), slice it into 1/2 inch thick slices. Brush both sides with olive oil. Finely chop basil and parsley together, enough to cover the tomato slices so no red is showing (sorry for the lack of measurements. depends on the size of the tomato. I can usually get away with a handful of each). Shred mozzarella LIGHTLY over the top, sprinkle lightly with VERY finely minced garlic (about 1/4 teaspoon each slice), throw under the broiler and broil until cheese is bubbly.
Your house will smell WONDERFUL, and they're great as a sandwich, appetizer, garnish... They're delish.

Honey Ginger Chicken

I decided to hit Mom's old recipe books and came across this. As usual, Dear Reader, I've messed with it and come up with something just a little spicier than the original recipe.

HONEY GINGER CHICKEN

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
2 teaspoons grated gingerroot
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 pounds chicken thighs

Sauce ingredients:

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup chili sauce (see notes below)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons grated gingerroot
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce (I used Tabasco©)

Heat your oven to 425. PAN PREP: Foil a 13x9x2 inch pan. I would suggest rolling the foil over the edges of the pan, makes it easy to pour out the fat later. [see the note on this down below]

Heat the oil and butter in the pan in the oven until it's melted. While it's melting, mix the flour, the grated gingerroot and the pepper. Coat your chicken in the flour mixture thoroughly. Let it sit a couple minutes, then coat the skin side again with the flour mixture. Place the chicken SKIN SIDE DOWN in the pan.



Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken over, bake for an additional 15 minutes. The skin should look rather dry. Remove the chicken from the pan and drain the fat (see? Methods to my madness.). Return the chicken to the pan, skin side up.



Mix the sauce ingredients. Pour 1/2 of the sauce over the chicken, reserving the other 1/2 of it for the first basting.


Bake 5 minutes. Pour the remaining sauce over the chicken. Feel free to move the chicken around in the pan, since this will make sure the sauce penetrates the cut side. Bake for 5 minutes. Baste a final time, spooning the sauce from the bottom of the pan over the chicken. Bake for 5 minutes.

Serve over rice, spooning some sauce onto the top of the chicken.

Notes: As stated, I foiled my pan. I foil all my cooking pans except the baking pans (and they get parchment) because it's a cleaning thing. The original recipe had instructions to bake the chicken, drain the fat THEN foil the pan, which is just silly. "Here! Let's put foil over the remaining fats AND the fond (and it's all about the fond) and then BAKE IT AGAIN!"

You can leave out the hot sauce if you like. I like a little spice. And of course, you can do it 'to taste'.

CHILI SAUCE: I had never heard of this, thought it might be similar to enchilada sauce or something. It's not. It's a ketchup-type product that has more body and flavor than ketchup. Which means I've found a new ketchup, Dear Reader. Like I said... It's got more body and flavor, and something tells me that's what I want on my french fries when I bother to eat them. There were several brands at the store, I went with the most familiar name.

On the sauce: I mixed my sauce while the chicken was in the oven for the last 15 minutes.

On the rice: I used basmati rice, and threw about 1 teaspoon of grated gingerroot in with it.

Now, what I changed: I dropped the amount of soy from 1/3 cup to 1/4 cup. I upped the ginger all over by 1/2 a teaspoon, all measurements (I like ginger). I also added the hot sauce. Some orange zest or juice in the sauce would NOT be remiss, since orange and ginger go together really well.
Oh, and the original recipe was from The Betty Crocker Cookbook, the one from 1989? 1990?