Sticky Chicken

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...It has been a day. At the moment my kitchen looks like the scene of a bloodbath. Today was the day I set aside to put-by strawberries and rhubarb, and the various shades of red adorning my counters attest to that. By the time dinner rolled around, I didn't feel much like cooking a big meal, so, I fell back on an old family favorite, Sticky Chicken. The dish, which was named by one of my daughters, is a pantry meal that literally takes minutes to prepare. It can be grilled or broiled and when it is paired with appropriate sides, it is a dish your friends and family will really enjoy. The recipe is very straightforward and my only caution is to watch it carefully once it has been glazed. It chars easily. I do hope you give this simple dish a try. Here's the recipe.

Sticky Chicken...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite


Ingredients:
1/3 cup orange or lemon marmalade
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
1-1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder
8 to 10 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 2 lb.), trimmed
1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon sesame seed, toasted
2 teaspoons finely shredded orange or lemon peel

Directions:
1) Place marmalade in a small bowl and microwave on HIGH power for about 45 seconds, or until it can easily be stirred. Add vinegar, honey, lime juice, mustard, ginger and five-spice and stir to combine.
2) To grill: Grill chicken on rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals for 12 to 15 minutes or until chicken is done (180 degree F), turning once and brushing with marmalade mixture during the last 4 to 5 minutes of grilling. (For gas grill, preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium; cover and grill as above.)
3) To broil: Place chicken on rack of an unheated broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from heat for 12 to 15 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink (165 degrees F.) turning once and brushing with marmalade mixture during last 4 to 5 minutes of broiling.
3) Combine parsley, sesame seed, and orange or lemon peel in small bowl.To serve, place chicken on a serving platter. Sprinkle with the parsley mixture. Makes 4 to 6 servings.










One Year Ago Today: Sloppy Joes
















Two Years Ago Today: Hawaiian Banana Bread

















Three years Ago Today: Morning Glory Petal Bread

Lime Marmalade - Blue Monday

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...We are going green this week and will be featuring recipes that are environmentally friendly or use ingredients that are green in color. This has been a difficult growing season for small farmers and gardeners in the Pacific Northwest. A late spring delayed planting. Heavy and persistent rain, accompanied by hail and high winds, damaged crops once they were in the ground. As a result berries, fruits and vegetables were late to market and their quality is poor. I normally do a lot of preserving at this time of year. Truth be told, there's not much worth putting by this season. The flavor of the blueberries is marginal and blackberries are not sweet enough for my purposes. Local corn and tomatoes are just now starting to come to market and colder nights have pretty much assured that my tomato plants are going to have gorgeous foliage but set no fruit. All of that means I have time to play and experiment in the kitchen. Today's recipe is a playful experiment that turned out well. The original recipe came from the Los Angeles Times nearly two decades ago. I held on to it because it seemed easy and required so few ingredients. As it turns out, it's a great recipe and I recommend it to those of you who like marmalade. Limes, thanks to our local warehouse stores, are abundant and inexpensive, and, for that reason, I decided to use them in this recipe. You can of course use lemons or grapefruit, as long as they can be very thinly sliced. Since no pectin is added to this recipe, a candy thermometer would be most helpful in determining if the fruit has cooked long enough to set. Even then, it is best to use your "eye" to conduct a sheeting test before pouring the mixture into sterilized jars.



This diagram might help. Sheeting syrup looks like this when it drops off a spoon.


I hope you'll give this recipe a try. The lime marmalade is wonderful with crumpets, muffins and scones. It can also be use to make a great marinade and sauce for chicken. Here's the recipe.

Lime Marmalade...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of the Los Angeles Times 1992

Ingredients:
3 cups thinly-sliced unpeeled limes
1 cup thinly-sliced lemons, unpeeled, seeded
3 quarts water
9 cups granulated sugar

Directions:
1) Combine lime and lemon slices and water in large kettle. Bring to boil and boil 20 minutes, or until peels are tender.
2) Drain, reserving liquid. Measure liquid, adding enough water to make three quarts. Return liquid to kettle with fruit and sugar. Bring to boil and cook rapidly until mixture sheets off spoon or to 221 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Pour boiling hot into hot sterilized jars and seal. Yield: 6 to 8 half-pints.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Orange Fennel Marmalade - My Man's Belly
Golden Marmalade - Drick's Rambling Cafe
Rhubarb, Tangelo and Cardamom Marmellata - Luna Cafe
Kumquat Marmalade - Recipe Girl
Fig Marmalade - Gourmet Recipes
Seville Orange Marmalade - David Lebovitz
Meyer Lemon Marmalade - Simply Recipes
Balsamic Onion Marmalade - One Perfect Bite

This post is being linked to:
Smiling Sally - Blue Monday

Morning Glory Petal Bread - Blue Morning Glories for Blue Monday

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I found this sport of a Heavenly Blue Morning Glory in the far green house of an obscure nursery that Bob and I found when we moved to Oregon. The twice retired giant who runs the place won't sell it to me. It was his mother's favorite flower, so each year he captures seeds to propagate and produce vines worthy of her memory. This edgy man now shuffles with stooped shoulders as he goes about his tasks. He's a decorated combat veteran who returned home to raise a family and mind the family business. Age took his wife and mother. Combat took his son. His gardens still remain. I've been privileged to see them. The trellis in the garden behind the house is smothered by artfully twisted, climbing vines overlain with the heavenly blue flowers I so want to be mine. Protected by a willow planted the year his boy was born and engulfed in the fragrance of the rose hedge his wife tended, we have our coffee and repeat the game we've played for years. I ask for seeds I know I won't receive, but learn more each year about this gentle man and his passion for this quiet spot and the land that he has turned. Some folks buy headstones, he propagates flowers and tends the earth. I suspect his family would love the monument he's created for them.




One of life's simple pleasures is morning coffee in the garden. It's made sweeter still with a crusty baguette or sweet pastry. Morning Glory Petal Bread is perfect for breakfast in the garden. It's a wonderful flower shaped confection whose petals are sugar dipped biscuits that are pulled apart for eating. It's assembled rather than made and it's one of my secret weapons for company breakfast or brunch. The recipe first appeared as Orange Marmalade Coffee Cake in the 1999 Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. I urge you to play with this recipe until you're comfortable with amount of fat and sugar you are using. I've altered the original recipe to use a soft spread that tastes like butter. I also reduced the amount of marmalade used in its preparation. As to sugar, I've used a combination of golden brown and granulated sugar but have not cut back on the original measurement. My changes to the base recipe appear in red. I urge you to try this when you need a special dish for breakfast or brunch. It takes 5 minutes to assemble and its absolutely delicious.

Morning Glory Petal Bread...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
1/2 to 2/3 cup sweet orange marmalade
2 tablespoons (or more to taste) chopped walnuts
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup golden brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 (approximately 12 ounce) cans of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup melted soft spread (i.e. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)

Directions:
1) Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-inch Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray. Set aside.
2) Spread marmalade in bottom of Bundt pan. Sprinkle with walnuts.
3) Melt soft spread and place in a small bowl. Combine sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl. Separate biscuits, dip each into soft spread, dredge in cinnamon-sugar and place, standing up, evenly around the edges of Bundt pan. Drizzle any remaining soft spread over biscuits and sprinkle with any remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.
4) Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until top is a deep golden brown. Cool on a pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto a platter and serve immediately. Yield: 8 servings.

I'm send this to Smiling Sally for her Blue Monday event.

It will also go to Color Outside the Lines for Share A Garden Sunday.