Chicken Five Ways: Breasts with chili, garlic and ginger
Chicken is one of P’s favorite dinners. We like to roast a whole bird about twice a month, usually on a Sunday afternoon, occasionally with the Zuni Cafe bread salad — one of the few complicated recipes I have mastered. I am a Judy Rogers devotee, which means I salt the chicken three to four days in advance, shove some rosemary under the skin and let the anticipation build.
But lately I realized I’d gotten into a chicken rut. I was always either roasting a bird or chopping it up for fajitas, neither of which seemed very inspiring. And maybe it’s because of the recession and chicken is cheap, but all of a sudden I was seeing great chicken recipes everywhere. Food and Wine. The Splendid Table. A big Dining section cover in the New York Times.
Photo: Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times
Melissa Clark, whose column I love, said the sauce for this dish was “so pungent and enticing that had the cooking gone wrong, I would have been happy eating that sauce on raw chicken.” Sounds fabulous. Newly inspired, I grabbed a pair of Bell and Evans chicken boobs and deemed this the first recipe in my “Chicken Five Ways” mini-project.
I must confess, though: it was a bit of a fail. This chicken was really spicy, even though I cut some of the jalapeño and replaced it with half a (milder) pasilla pepper. The basmati rice sat too long in the rice cooker and some of it got … weird. Like webbed. The chicken got cold really fast, I didn’t have any fish sauce, and I misread the directions and spooned the SAUCE over the chicken instead of the broth, which made it even spicier. (Oops.)
But! I did try the chicken on salad the next day with a re-purposed dressing made out of the soy sauce/brown sugar I had left over, and it was darn good. The toppings seem like a lot, but trust me, they’re necessary (and you can mix them in to the next-day salad for extra oomph).
My version (not as pretty as the NYT)
Chicken Breasts with Chili, Ginger and Garlic Sauce
From the New York Times Dining section, Jan. 13, 2010. Adapted from Zak Pelaccio.
Serves 4.
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, 8 ounces each
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 5-inch-long piece fresh ginger root, peeled
- 8 fat garlic cloves
- 4 jalapeño peppers (less if you’re a wimp, like me)
- 1 quart chicken broth (vegetable broth worked fine)
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce (I skipped this)
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice, more to taste
- Cooked rice, for serving
- Sesame oil, for drizzling
- 1 bunch roughly chopped basil, for serving
- 1 bunch roughly chopped cilantro, for serving
- 1 bunch thinly sliced scallions, for serving
- 1 cucumber, thinly sliced, for serving
Directions:
1. Cut each chicken breast in half crosswise and season with salt and pepper. (Careful! I nearly chopped my thumb.)
2. Slice about an inch of ginger root into thin rounds and place in a large pot. Coarsely chop remaining ginger and place in a blender. Thinly slice 2 garlic cloves and add to pot. Coarsely slice remaining garlic and add to blender. Thinly slice (AND SEED) 2 jalapeño peppers (OR LESS) and add them to pot. Halve remaining peppers, discard seeds and coarsely chop flesh; place in blender.
3. Add broth to pot and bring to a simmer. Let cook for 10 minutes. Add chicken pieces to broth and let liquid come back to a simmer. Immediately turn off heat, cover pot and let sit for 10 minutes. Cut into a piece of chicken to test for doneness. If it is not done, bring broth back to a bare simmer, then turn off heat, cover and let sit for an additional minute or two.
4. In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce and brown sugar until sugar mostly dissolves. Set aside. To the mixture in blender add fish sauce and lime juice along with 1/4 cup broth from pot. Puree, if necessary adding a little more broth to help mixture move in blender. Taste and add a pinch of salt and more lime if needed.
5. When chicken is done, transfer to a cutting board and slice. Remove garlic and pepper from broth and discard, if you like. To serve, heap rice in 4 shallow bowls and top with chicken slices. Spoon several tablespoons broth over chicken and rice, then drizzle with sweet soy sauce and sesame oil. Sprinkle on the herbs, scallions and cucumber. Serve garlic-chili-ginger sauce on the side; have additional sesame oil and sweet soy sauce on table for more drizzling.
