I love making sticky chicken. Probably because there are endless ways to make it and it's always a big win with the kids. This time around, I was lucky enough to have some incredible ingredients to kick up the flavor!
I used ingredients from all around the world to bring this unique and absolutely delicious dish together.
Another thing I love to do is play around with aspects of a dish that most people wouldn't bother with. Rice, for instance, is a staple food and is so often treated as something boring, which is probably why I've never really liked it. That was, of course, until I had the bright idea of making magical savory rice!
Let's look at how I get both right below:
Sticky Chicken
Serves 5
Garlic one whole bulb, peeled and chopped
2 large onions, peeled and chopped
Turmeric
About 1kg fresh chicken pieces.
Mustard seeds
Soya Sauce
Maple Syrup
Braai Salt (which is essentially just MSG
One and a half to two cups of plain white rice
1.5 Liters of boiling water (about a kettle and a half)
A 1 kg bag of stir-fry frozen veg
Fresh chicken works so much better than frozen chicken. Store-bought frozen chicken is so often injected with brine and this leads to another annoying step being added to the process. You basically have to cook the chicken twice. The first time will be just to get out all the excess brine and you do this part with no flavourants as they'll just get lost. With the water loss, the chicken also shrinks substantially so when you select your chicken pieces, you need to factor that in. Fresh chicken, on the other hand, mostly maintains its size though, of course, some shrinkage can be expected as with cooking and meat.
Coat the chicken thoroughly in generous amounts of the sicky sauce ingredients and bake at 180 deg celcius.
While this is on the go, you can start preparing your savory rice.
Heat a little oil at the bottom of a large pot and add lots of turmeric, chopped FRESH garlic - I used a whole bulb! Never Mind Cloves.
At the same time, add two chopped onions to the pot. Let that brown on a medium heat and then add your frozen veg. I picked Hawaiian stir-fry for the theme of cooking from around the world. Normally I'd just use frozen carrots and peas, but the Hawaiian veg contains peppers and pineapple pieces that add exciting flavor to the pot. Brown this a bit and then add your rice. I don't normally measure it. To be honest. I normally just pour until it looks right, but I suppose it must be around 1.5 to 2 cups of rice. Add 1.5lt of boiling water, cover with a lid, and let it come to a boil for about ten minutes, then reduce the temperature and allow to simmer for however long it takes for ALL the water to be absorbed. You NEVER drain rice.
As your chicken bakes, you can turn it over a few times, like once every 20 minutes to half an hour to ensure an even coating of the sauce. You can also spoon it over the chicken as you go.
With the rice, you also only stir it twice. Once right at the start to ensure even distribution of the water and your yummy garlicky veg base and then once right at the end to ensure no water is left behind and that your rice is evenly cooked. If you HAVE to, at this stage and only if there is remaining water, give it another stir and allow it to simmer until all the water is absorbed.
By the time the rice is done, so should your chicken! Easy peasy! It all takes about an hour of cooking time and about 20 minutes of prep time for the sauce-making and chopping.
And there you have it! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
