Pan-Fried Honey Garlic Chicken

This recipe evolved A LOT before my very eyes in the space of a few hours. Initially wanting to do a roast, Hadi swerved to stirfry before finally settling on pan-frying instead. The flavour was another issue, but he finally decided to make it sweet - just the way Hadi likes it! ;) So, here we go!

What you need:
3 pieces boneless chicken

Marinade:
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon chicken stock (concentrate, powder or granules)

1 bulb garlic (about 15-20 cloves, peeled)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chicken stock (concentrate, powder or granules)

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken in the marinade ingredients for at least 30 minutes, if you have time.
2. Heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat, and add the garlic cloves. Fry for about 5 minutes, or until fragrant, then mash up the garlic pieces to release the juices into the oil. Fry for another 2-3 minutes, or until the garlic is golden-brown and crispy. Set aside.
   
3. Add the chicken pieces (with any remaining marinade) into the garlic-infused oil, trying as much as possible to keep them flat and in one layer. Fry, with occasional turning, until the pieces are cooked through.
4. Add the sauce ingredients, and simmer for 30 seconds, or until heated through. Serve immediately, with the fried garlic pieces on the side.
   

Hadi's reaction on his first bite was "Oh yes! This satisfies Hadi's sweet tooth." Yes, he does occasionally refer to himself in the third person. Do not ask me why. I have a very weird brother, that's all. I was busy taking pictures at that point, so I hadn't had a taste yet - but I had a definite sinking feeling.

And true enough, the chicken was extremely extremely sweet. I am sooo not a fan of sweet chicken. Ok, so I do eat (and enjoy!) buttermilk chicken, honey chicken and tori teriyaki, but in those cases, there's usually something to counter the sweetness. In this case, I can't taste the saltiness (from the chicken stock) at all! With Hadi's permission, I added a pinch of salt over my chicken, and that made it taste loads better. Hadi tried this on a *tiny* part of his chicken, and conceded that it did, in fact, give more depth to the flavour, but he refused to sacrifice the sweetness. Sigh. Hadi has the biggest sweet tooth I know.

The boys think that this is quite similar to my tori teriyaki, but I say it is not. For one thing, this is way sweeter, and more intense in that way, but it doesn't have the teriyaki taste. :P The honey is all I could taste. I tried persuading Hadi to NOT put the sauce, but nope. His flimsy excuse was that the chicken pieces shrunk (in the cooking), so we needed to pad it up with more sauce.

I've been trying to think of ways of making honey garlic chicken, but this is not how I would do it. First, I would lessen the honey. By a *LOT*. I would also make the garlic flavour a bit more pronounced. The garlic was strong, but only if you ate the fried garlic, which I found too bitter. (No, it wasn't burnt) Hadi was too lazy to slice it up, by the way, which is why he used whole cloves in this. I also think it could do with a bit of... a zing, haha. Hadi tried to up the spiciness with the cayenne pepper, but it was completely overwhelmed by the honey. Probably increasing the cayenne pepper, if we do this again. Also, I'm not sure if dried chillies would go with this, but it's worth a try. ;)

Oh well, at least the cook liked it. :P

Quote of the day: The only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey....and the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.