Sweet and Sour Chicken

Name: Sweet and Sour Chicken
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 10 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients: 500g chicken (bone-in, skin-on; i used 4 drumsticks); 1/2 small onion; 6 garlic cloves; 125ml dry white wine; 250ml orange juice; 1/4 teaspoon cumin; 1 pinch ground cinnamon; 1 pinch ground cloves; salt

April 10, 2014

Chicken Simple Recipes Meat Dishes

A recipe where nothing interesting happens until the last 5 minutes, when the magic begins. The sweet taste comes from the sugars in the orange juice, cinnamon and cloves, while the sour taste comes from the wine and orange. Garlic and cumin tie these flavors together. I recommend using drumsticks or wings (without tips).

Ingredients

500g chicken (bone-in, skin-on; I used 4 drumsticks)
1/2 small onion
6 garlic cloves
125ml dry white wine
250ml orange juice
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
salt

Servings: 2

How to prepare sweet and sour chicken

Put the chicken in a spacious pot (the meat should be in a single layer if possible; I used a Dutch oven). Add the orange juice and wine. Add water only as much as needed until the chicken is almost covered (I added 200ml more, but it depends on the pot used). Add the cinnamon, cloves, cumin and 3 crushed garlic cloves. Add the remaining whole garlic cloves, onion cut into large pieces and a little salt.
Put the pot on heat and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid, turn the heat to low and simmer until the meat is done (a fork goes in easily; about 45 minutes for drumsticks). Until now nothing spectacular happens in the pot, the chicken just simmers and a pleasant aroma comes from the pot (see photo 2).
When the meat is tender, remove the lid and continue cooking over medium heat until the liquid has reduced almost completely (about 30 minutes). Check occasionally to see the liquid level.
When there's only about 1 finger of liquid left in the pot (see photo 3) you can taste it - you'll see it's already syrupy and aromatic. Now the magic begins...
Turn the heat to low and continue cooking while stirring more frequently. At some point the sauce in the pot becomes concentrated, like jam - keep cooking and stirring so it doesn't burn. The "jam" will coat the meat, glazing it, taking on a beautiful orange color. You'll see the fat collecting on the bottom of the pot (it's the fat from the chicken, which is why you need to use bone-in, skin-on pieces) and the chicken starts to brown (see photo 4; I removed 2 drumsticks so you can see what the sauce looks like on the bottom of the pot). Continue frying (it's frying now, because there's fat in the pot) turning the chicken on all sides to get a nice color. The sauce now has a dark orange color because the sugars in the orange have caramelized. When you see the first signs of burning on the bottom of the pot (a sign that the sauce has caramelized enough) stop - the chicken is done.
At the end, the chicken should have a pleasant orange color with traces of browning, and be glossy and sticky.