Friday, October 3, 2008

Lemon, honey and mustard chicken - my own recipe

I think I've mentioned before that I enjoy cooking, and often use it as a welcome distraction from workday stresses. Well, I'd bought some beautiful, big lemons the other day, and was thinking on how I might use one or two of them in a recipe I'd not tried before. So, this is what I did.

Took four large chicken thighs (I'm not a fan of breasts, but they would work just as well if you prefer), de-skinned them and removed as much fat as possible. Pricked them all over with my very sharp knife, to help the marinade get deep into the chicken, and put them aside.

Made the marinade with:

Half a cup of honey
A teaspoon of dijon mustard
The juice of two lemons
The peel from the lemons (none of the white pith), very finely chopped
Four large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Fresh ginger (size of your little finger), peeled and finely chopped
Pinch of salt and generous amount of freshly ground black pepper
Two large red chillis, finely chopped (optional, but we all love chillis)

Place the chicken and the mixed marinade into a freezer bag, seal it, and massage the marinade well into the chicken before putting into the fridge for about an hour. Don't need longer as you're going to cook the chicken in the marinade.

Pre-heat oven to 180c (350f) and place the chicken and marinade into an oven proof dish, covering with aluminum foil, and bake covered for 30-40 minutes or until cooked. Remove foil, drain off all the juice, saving it for the sauce, and put a pat of butter onto the top of each piece of chicken, then return to the oven for about 10 minutes to brown off.

To make the sauce, pour into a saucepan straining off all the bits of chopped garlic, chopped ginger, lemon peel etc, and bring the juice to the boil, reducing it by half to make it more intense. I thicken it too with a little cornflour, but it's fine without.

I serve with plain steamed rice and stir-fried baby bak choy.

The family's verdict was a big thumbs up, which gave me the confidence to share it here with all of you.

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