Magnificent Chicken Dinner

Tonight’s chicken was proclaimed ‘MAGNIFICENT’ by Brian, so I better write my recipe down so I can repeat  it sometime! Sorry, no photos, we were too hungry…

I got my inspiration for this dish from this recipe for Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken, but I didn’t want to broil. I needed the oven at a moderate heat because I wanted to bake sweet potatoes too. I just wrapped those in foil and put them on the top rack at 350F for an hour. Here is what I did with the chicken:

Magnificent Chicken

INGREDIENTS

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (I put more)

8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I had bone-in with skin)

olive oil,to coat pan

6 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons cider vinegar

several tablespoons flour, to make a thick ‘gravy’-like mixture

sesame seeds

 

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 350F

Oil a large metal (rectangular) baking pan

Combine all spices and flour and mix well

Add honey and vinegar, stir well

Coat  the chicken well and place in a single layer in the pan. I poured the rest of the spice mix over the chicken pieces – there wasn’t much left in the bowl.

Sprinkle the chicken with sesame seeds, cover tightly with foil, and bake for 30-40minutes (These chicken pieces were good sized, so I gave ours 40 minutes). Then remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

It was VERY nice! Spicy, sweet, and the meat was juicy and falling off the bone.

In addition to the Magnificent Chicken and sweet potatoes, Honor made steamed broccoli and carrots, and together we made bread. I experimented with the bread too, because my friend ‘G’ had mentioned on Facebook that she’d gone out and bought fresh Arabic bread today. That sounded sooo good, but I didn’t have the car and it was too late to go shopping. I had to come up with something!

So, I made …

PAN BREAD

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup warm water plus tablespoon yeast, left to proof 10 minutes.
• 3 cups flour (plus more to reach desired consistency)
• a shake of baking powder and salt
• a little less than a 1/4 cup of sugar
• 3/4 cup warm milk
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• and just for fun, I added a tbsp of ground ginger

PREPARATION

Mix all the dry ingredients, add in all the wet. Mix well. Gradually add additional flour until a soft dough is formed. With floured hands, take a ping pong size ball of dough roll it smooth, and flatten as much as possible. I didn’t bother to let the dough rest or rise, so they didn’t flatten too much, approx. pancake thick.

Fry in hot skillet. 3-4 at a time.

I experimented with cooking the breads dry, in a little oil, and with a little butter. The butter and olive oil smoked (I wanted the heat high), but tasted nice. Dry worked just fine, probably because of the oil I had put in the batter. I let each bread cook until it started to brown on one side, then flipped it to do the same on the other. They puffed a little as they cooked.

I thought we might need butter or something to eat on the bread, but these palm-sized, thick-ish rounds were good enough to eat plain, and I almost had to put them off limits until dinner was ready! Mmm!

Honor came in and helped me roll the breads and finish up dinner after her homework was done. Fortunately, by the time we got the bread done, the chicken and other side dishes were done and ready to put on the table, and Brad was walking in the door. These recipes were a hit and I am definitely going to have to make them again!