A touch of sweet and a touch of heat make chicken thighs sing, served with rice and slaw, for a perfect crowd-pleasing meal in 40 (ish) minutes.
Sweet & Spicy Glazed Chicken & Rice with Slaw
Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: 45 min. Serves 4.
Ingredients
For the chicken:
3 lbs chicken thighs 5 tablespoons sweet* (such as maple syrup, honey, duck sauce, etc.) 5 tablespoons spicy (such as sriracha, hot sauce, spicy mustard, etc.) 2 1/2 tablespoons fat, such as melted butter or oil 1 tablespoon of minced garlic or white scallions (can also add both) 1 teaspoon salt Optional: 1 tablespoon minced ginger Fresh mint for garnish
*Note: Depending how spicy your ingredients are, you may want to add 1 part more sweet and 1 part less spicy. Slaw: 2-3 crunchy, cold veggies such as: 1 cup shredded red cabbage 1/2 bulb fennel 1 jicama or apple sliced in matchsticks 1 tablespoon oil (canola or olive) 2 tablespoons vinegar (red, white, apple cider, champagne, etc.) 1 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt Optional: chopped fresh mint, fennel fronds, scallions or thinly sliced red onion Rice: 1 cup long grain such as basmati rice 1 1/2 cups water 1 teaspoon of salt
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a baking dish with foil. Place the chicken thighs in the dish, drizzle with 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil or melted butter and season generously with salt and pepper.
2. Mince your aromatics such as garlic, scallions and ginger, if using. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, prepare the glaze by adding 1 tablespoon of oil and the minced aromatics. Heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
3. Add your sweet element and spicy element to the pan. For my recipe pictured above, I used Frank's Red Hot and maple syrup. Whisk in to combine and heated through about 2 minutes.
4. Pour half of the glaze over the chicken thighs, and return the remaining half to the heat, cook until thickened and reduced by half. Place the baking dish with the chicken into the oven.
5. For the rice: DO NOT skip this step: Rinse 1 cup of white rice under cold water in a strainer basket or bowl.
6. Add the rinsed rice to a small saucepan with a tight fitting lid. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and stir to combine. Heat over a high flame until boiling, reduce to lowest possible flame, put the lid on and set a timer for 18 minutes, DO NOT lift the lid. (Sorry for all caps, but seriously, I know it's tempting to peek and want to fluff the rice. Fluffing is fun. Fluffing the rice comes later, I promise).
7. While chicken roasts and rice cooks, prepare the slaw. You can use whatever crunchy, cold ingredients you have, like cabbage, carrots, celery, etc. I used red cabbage, jicama (root vegetable that tastes like an apple and a radish had a baby), and fennel. Thinly slice the veggies and put them into a bowl.
8. Dress the slaw with a tablespoon of oil, 2 tablespoons vinegar, a pinch of sugar and salt. Toss to combine, garnish with mint and scallions or thinly sliced onions.
9. Check on the chicken, with an oven mitt, tilt pan an spoon the glaze over the thighs. If the glaze is getting too thick, add a tablespoon of water to thin out. Continue to roast the chicken, which should cook for about 40-45 minutes total.
10. Once the timer is up on the rice, turn off the flame and leave the lid on until you are ready to eat.
11. Have another look at the chicken and spoon the glaze over one last time before setting the broiler to high and broiling for the last 5 minutes.
12. Remove the chicken from the oven and serve with the leftover glaze. Garnish with green part of scallions and mint. Plate with slaw and rice - fluff the rice (I promised!) before serving.