Asian Sticky Chicken

Yin and Yang!

It's Sticky Chicken time! In the south, we often make smothered chicken, and it's cooked in a rich gravy that is full of flavor and spice. Well, since I am a southern cooking mama, I knew I could take my southern style smothered chicken and turn it into an Asian masterpiece. 

First, the pantry. I keep my pantry stocked with Asian supplies at all times.  If Big Goo doesn't eat Asian food at least once a week, he starts acting out!

Therefore, fresh ginger, sweet and sour sauce, chili sauce, rice, sriracha, noodles, soy sauce,  rice wine vinegar, lime, Asian long beans...and any other Asian food product I can find is always in my pantry and fridge waiting to be turned into something magnificent!

Once you rinse and pat dry the chicken, you're going to lightly coat it in flour and pan fry it in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes per side, just to make sure the seasonings stick to the chicken.

This is the pan fried chicken, it's not cooked, so don't eat it...but it does look really good.

After I pan fried the chicken, I added my veggies to the pan and sauteed them, then I added the chicken to a baking dish, baked it for about 30 minutes covered, then uncovered the dish, poured the Asian sauce and baked around 10 minutes more and finally, broiled the chicken for about 5 minutes, for a sticky ending.

Here is the final dish, it's has a nice balance of yin and yang, at least that's what my husband said. I have no clue how even knows about this.

Then I had to go into teaching mode...lol...explaining that the yang would be the chicken, garlic, ginger and onions, because they are warm foods(yang), and the yin would be the celery and honey, which are cold (yin)...and I think chicken could be yin sometimes, depending on who you ask.

Big Goo was like, can you just feed me, and save all that brainy info...lol...I told him you started it, now eat!


Asian Sticky Chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings: 6

Ingredients:

12 chicken drumsticks or 6 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon creole seasonings
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 stalk celery, diced
1 white onion, diced
1 fresh jalapeno, slice
1/2 cup Italian parsley, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup flour
1 cup chicken broth, low sodium
extra virgin olive oil
rice

For the Sticky Sauce

1/2 cup Asian sweet chili sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
1 tablespoon sriracha
1 lemon, zested, juiced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare the Asian Sticky Sauce by mixing all ingredients together and set aside.

Rinse chicken and pat dry, mix seasoning blend and set aside. Place flour in a bowl, add about 1 teaspoonful of seasoning blend and mix well.

Coat chicken with about 1 tablespoonful of olive oil and remaining seasonings and mix well.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a dutch oven pan. Lightly coat chicken in flour mixture then place about 4 pieces of chicken in pan and fry for about 4-5 minutes per side until chicken is golden brown. Do not crowd the pan are you will steam the chicken. You have to do this in batches. Repeat the process, adding more oil if needed after each batch. Transfer chicken to a oven proof casserole dish.

Add all the vegetables minus the garlic to the pan, cook for about 5 minutes, add the garlic, cook 1 minute more. Add chicken broth to the pan and scrap all the bits up from the bottom of the pan.

Pour the vegetable, broth mixture over the chicken. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil, add the Asian sauce and bake 10 more minutes, then broil for 5 minutes.

Serve with sticky rice.