I enjoy the combination of sweet and sour or salty foods, and often order anything covered in a sticky sauce when eating out. One evening I had a craving for something sweet and sticky. Only having chicken thighs in the fridge, I decided to give the making of my own sweet and sticky sauce a go and it was a huge success. This is a juicy dish that I would recommend you make for date night if you don’t mind getting a little messy 😀 It’s no KFC, but this recipe has certainly gotten my guests licking their fingers!
Ingredients
1 teaspoon Olive oil
1 red chili chopped
1 small onion chopped
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup marmalade jam
2 table spoons brown sugar
1 table spoon sweet chili
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 pinch of salt
6 pieces of chicken thighs or drumsticks
Garlic chives chopped
Sprinkle of sesame seeds
Serves 2 to 3 people
Directions
Heat up a drizzle of Olive oil in a sauce pan and braise the chicken thighs for about 5 minutes on each side or until golden. Be careful not to overcook at this stage.
Remove the chicken and place in a grill pan while you prepare the sticky sauce using the sauce pan that you braised the chicken in.
Pre-Heat your oven grill to 140 degrees Celsius.
Lower the heat of the top stove and put the onions and chili into the pan to gently fry for about 1 minute. (remove most seeds when chopping the chili if you prefer a mild sauce)
Add the jam, apple cider vinegar, sweet chili sauce, brown sugar, salt, lime juice, splash of balsamic and stir well. Keep stirring while it thickens and add more sugar/salt/lime juice etc to taste.
Once the consistency is syrupy(like above), lower the temp, and begin to baste the sauce over the braised chicken. Baste both sides and pop your grill pan into the oven.
Remove the pan every 5 minutes and baste the chicken with more of the sauce until the chicken has cooked through and is fully covered in the now golden sauce.
Place the chicken on a serving dish and sprinkle with sesame seeds and chives (spring onions work too).
This dish goes well with warm brown rice and a healthy green vegetable dish (like the Zesty Broccoli side that I used for this plate below)… don’t forget to use the left over sauce in the pot, it’s too good to waste 🙂
Check out the Zesty Broccoli recipe to recreate this spectacular combination pictured above.
