Barefoot Bloggers: Indonesian Ginger Chicken

Okay, I really want to go to bed now, but I was so excited to actually be posting my Barefoot Bloggers recipe on the right day that I'm staying up to do so! I'm so dedicated, I know. Okay, not really. I just checked this week to see what the January recipes are that we're going to be making. When I saw the title of this one I thought for sure I'd have to go buy a bunch of fancy ingredients which would totally defeat the Pantry Challenge, so I was pleasantly surprised when all the ingredients are things I have on hand. I even had a whole chicken I could use! Thanks to Todd of A Cooking Dad for choosing an easy and tasty sounding recipe to kick off the new year!

Indonesian Ginger Chicken

1 cup honey
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced garlic (8 to 12 cloves)
1/2 cup peeled and grated fresh ginger root
2 (3 1/2 pound) chickens, quartered, with backs removed

Cook the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger root in a small saucepan over low heat until the honey is melted. Arrange the chicken in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan, skin side down, and pour on the sauce. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan, turn the chicken skin side up, and raise the temperature to 375 degrees F. Continue baking for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh and the sauce is a rich, dark brown.

*****

I forgot to get a whole chicken out to defrost, so I decided to just use chicken breasts instead. And I didn't have any fresh ginger on hand, so I just threw in a couple teaspoons of the powder stuff to make up for it. And I missed the part initially about marinating overnight. Oops. I mixed up the marinade and then just poured it over the chicken breasts and let it sit all day. Oh, and I cut all the marinade ingredients in half since I was just using four pieces of chicken instead of two whole ones.

This was FANTASTIC!!! All four of us devoured what was on our plates. The butternut squash mash I made to go with it was not so good, however, so I'm not even going to bother typing it out. None of us ate that. Sad waste of a butternut squash. Anyway, make this chicken! It's easy, it's tasty, and if you have a well-stocked kitchen, you should have everything on hand for it!

Oh, and I also made another side dish from the Make it Fast, Cook it Slow cookbook--rice in the crockpot!! Instead of posting the recipe, here's the link to it on her blog. I don't remember if I've shared before that I'm not good at making rice. Brown rice and basmati I can make okay, but plain ol' white rice always comes out gummy. I was intrigued by making it this way, and honestly...it's the best rice I've ever had!!! Mine took about two hours to cook, maybe a few minutes longer. Then I just turned off the crockpot and kept tasting it every now and then to make sure it wasn't getting gummy--and it didn't!! And it sat for at least 30 minutes. This is definitely my new favorite way to make rice.



Check out my cool retro crockpot! It was my grandma's...I love it!