Recipes

[Carol1229]

I think you've figured it out by now-we eat A LOT of chicken here. I'm always happy to run across a new and tasty chicken recipe to add to my arsenal.

When I found this one, I knew it had "good" written all over it. The mix of ingredients looked like it was going to make a slam-dunk delicious coating for chicken breasts.

The only thing I added was a couple cloves of minced garlic-we love garlic and I pretty much always use it in marinades and sauces like this.

What I love is how EASY this recipe it. The chicken was in the skillet in no time flat. Oh boy does it smell good as it's simmering away. If you find that the sauce isn't as thick as you want it after simmering it for a few minutes, you can thicken it with a little cornstarch/water slurry, which is what I did here. I didn't want to reduce the sauce too much because I wanted enough to have with the leftover chicken. I didn't measure the cornstarch and water-I just spooned a little into a custard cup and whisked in a little water-that did the trick and thickened up the sauce nicely.

We had this over rice with sliced green onions stirred in-we like the crunch they give. The leftover sliced onions got sprinkled over top of the chicken-totally optional ingredient, I just had them leftover from the rice.

How good is this? The sauce is the perfect blend of sweet heat-sweet from the maple syrup with a nice heat from the ginger and cayenne. I'm glad I added the garlic-it gave the sauce another level of flavor. And how much did Bob like it? The second night we had it, I caught him lapping the plate that some of the leftover sauce was on......yes he was..........when I gave him that WHAT ARE YOU DOING? look, he said "This is REALLY REALLY good-I don't want ANY to go to waste."

I'd call that a ringing endorsement for this recipe-wouldn't you? He's already asking when we're going to have this again. It's a winner in this house, that's for sure.


Carol


MAPLE-GINGER GLAZED CHICKEN
(Source: slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2008)

1/4 c. pure maple syrup
1 Tbsp. lite soy sauce
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/2 lb.)
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Combine maple syrup, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and cayenne in a small bowl; set aside.

Pat chicken dry with paper towels; season with salt and pepper.

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken; cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side.

Reduce heat to medium-low; add syrup mixture to pan. Simmer, turning chicken once or twice to coat, until glaze is slightly thickened and chicken is cooked through, about 2-4 minutes. 4 servings.