Oriental Roast Chicken

For all their making fun of my blog, Hadi and Justin actually seem to care about what I put in here (although they almost never read it, heh :P) Hadi usually directs me on how to make his dishes prettier, whilst Justin agonises on what to cook. He usually feels pressure to make something new - since I almost never make repeat food, and Hadi can be astonishingly creative sometimes.

Sometimes, I don't know what he worries about, since what I care about the most is that its edible, hehe. Although yes, I admit I do get tired of their favorite sauces. But anyway, today was no exception. He asked me what he should cook, before storming off without waiting for my answer. (Well, almost not waiting anyway). Heh. But, I guess when left on their own, people can rise to the occasion~ :D

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon hoisin sauce
1/2 teaspoon BBQ sauce
1 teaspoon chicken stock
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
White pepper, for seasoning

What you do:

1. Mix everything except the chicken together, until well combined.
2. Coat the chicken with the mixture, season with white pepper, and place in an oven preheated to 175 C.
3. Cook until chicken is brown and tender.

Heh, typical roast chicken recipe - its so short. It can almost be one step! :P Basically, just mix everything together, add the chicken and cook in the oven. But one step Justin forgot (or rather didn't bother with) is marination. I have fully accepted the power of marination, hehe, and would fully recommend marinating any roast dish. It'll make a huge difference!



But that's not to say this dish wasn't tasty though. The chicken pieces we had were quite small, so the flavour did go in quite a way. Plus the sauce was very flavoursome! I barely tasted the hoisin and BBQ at all, but they were there...lending their subtle flavour. The main flavour, of course, was the honey and garlic. Hadi loved the dish, of course. He likes anything sweet. Anything at all. I was almost be tempted to call this honey garlic chicken, but the garlic flavour was not quite strong enough. Just a hint of garlic, is all. Plus, I don't know... I have this picture of honey garlic chicken in my mind - and its NOT a dark brown. I think it should be a creamy golden brown.... *drool* I have a feeling my next dish is going to be honey garlic chicken ;) hoho. Look out for it!

I had one problem with this dish though. Like most sweet chicken dishes they cook, it tasted... empty. Just sweet, but with no ZAP! I think this could've used with a bit of salt, and perhaps more pepper. It would add some depth to the flavour, I think. And of course, Justin thought it could've used some Thai sweet chilli sauce. That might work, since this is an Oriental-based roast, hehe. I sense a version 2 coming up as well ;)

Quote of the day: "Bee vomit," my brother said once, "that's all honey is," so that I could not put my tongue to its jellied flame without tasting regurgitated blossoms.