This is how my spur-of-the-moment dish usually looked like, minus the meticulously organised vegetables for styling purpose of course. *wink*
Minimal use of ingredients and preparations, which also means the less chopping the better, from the stove to table can be achieve under 30 minutes, foolproof and the end result will look like a dish that has sprung out of the Donna Hay magazine – these are simply my thoughts on what makes an ideal spur-of-the-moment dish.
I love when I can illustrate my points with an example. This example comes in the form of a delicious honey soy chicken recipe which I hope you are going to like as much as I do!
What I love about this recipe is that there’s barely any chopping required. Imagine that you come home after a long day’s work, after a quick change of clothes and head straight to the kitchen. I suggest that you cook the rice first because the honey soy chicken will take less time to cook than the rice. Start by lightly grease the pan and wait for it to heat up. When the pan is hot, add chicken thigh fillets (no need to slice or dice) and cook on one side until 50% cooked. In the meantime, grate a fat clove of garlic over the chicken. Then flip the chicken fillets to cook on the other side. When the garlic becomes aromatic, add soy sauce and a bit of water. Cover and simmer the chicken for two minutes and flip the chicken to other sides again so that both sides will absorb the soy sauce. Keep cooking the chicken until fully cooked and sauce will appear to have been reduced. Add honey and cook on high heat until the sauce starts to thickened, resembling caramel in texture. Continue to reduce the sauce until it is thick enough coat and stick to the chicken. Remove from the pan, slice (if you like) and your honey soy chicken is ready to devour!
There aren’t many recipes that start by turning on the stove and commence cooking straightaway. I hope you’ll try this one at home! 🙂
Ingredients
- 500g chicken thigh fillets (4 x chicken thigh fillets)
- A fat clove of garlic,grated
- 1/8 cup gluten free soy sauce (I used Fountain Sauce Good Choice Soy)
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 Tbsps honey
- Optional toasted sesame seeds as garnish
Instructions
- Heat up a teaspoon of cooking oil in the pan. When the oil is hot, add chicken thigh fillets. Make sure you leave some gap between the fillets. In the meantime, add grated garlic over the fillets.
- Then flip the chicken fillets to cook on the other side.
- When the garlic becomes aromatic, add 1/8 cup soy sauce and 1/8 cup of water.
- Cover and simmer the chicken for two minutes and flip the chicken to other sides again so that both sides will absorb the soy sauce. Keep cooking the chicken until fully cooked and sauce will appear to have been reduced.
- Use a tablespoon and pour about 1/2 teaspoon worth of sesame oil and make sure you swirl the sesame oil around on the tablespoon before dropping it into the chicken. This step is to grease the spoon which you will use to measure the honey and this will help the honey to slide off the spoon easily.
- Add 2 tablespons of honey and cook on high heat until the sauce starts to thickened, resembling caramel in texture.
- Continue to reduce the sauce until it is thick enough coat and stick to the chicken. Remove from the pan, slice (if you like) and garnish with some toasted sesame seeds if preferred.
- Serve with rice and steamed vegetables.
This looks fantastic. I have a friend with coeliac disease coming to visit in a few weeks- definitely adding this to my repertoire.
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What kind of soy sauce should I use if I don’t want a gluten-free version?