Sautéed Chicken Thighs with Soy Glaze

This is the first recipe that I made from my new How To Cook Everything cookbook. After I read the introduction and techniques sections, I found a recipe to try. As I had some fresh chicken thighs in the refrigerator, I found the perfect recipe: Sautéed Chicken Thighs with Soy Glaze is on page 397 in the poultry section.

The recipe gives two options; marinating for two or more hours or just cook the chicken. As it was later when I started dinner, I passed on the marinating step and went right to cooking. I mixed the sauce as specified in the cookbook: 1/2-cup soy sauce, 1/3-cup plus two-tablespoons water, two-tablespoons honey, and 1/2-teaspoon ground ginger.

I really like the cookbook as it lists the primary ingredient (which you may not have in your pantry) and then lists a suitable replacement: 1/4-cup mirin (sweet rice wine) or two-tablespoons honey plus two-tablespoons water. I didn’t have the mirin on hand or any fresh ginger root, so the provided substitutions were very handy.

I prepared the one-pound of boneless skinless chicken thighs by drying them with paper towels, and then I cut the chicken thighs into about one-inch cubes. I gave the chicken pieces a very light sprinkle of salt and pepper and set them aside. I heated my large non-stick pan for several minutes on medium-high then added about a tablespoon of grape seed oil. Once the oil heated, I added the chicken thighs pieces into the pan to cook for about eight minutes while occasionally stirring.

When the chicken pieces were brown, I removed them from the pan reduced the heat to medium and poured the soy mixture into the pan to heat. Once it simmered for several minutes, I added the chicken pieces back into the pan to heat.

At this point, I though the dish looked wimpy, so I grabbed four of the larger mushrooms (mini portabella), cut them into chunks, and tossed them in to the pan with the chicken to heat. After a couple of minutes, everything was ready to eat.

I served the chicken thighs with mushrooms over brown rice with some raw carrot sticks on the side. We enjoyed the meal, but thought there was a little too much salt from the soy sauce. Next time I will only add 1/3-cup of soy sauce, then a splash of white wine to make up the difference in the liquid content. The mushrooms made a great addition to the meal and next time I may add a few more items to the mix: bamboo shoots, mini-corn, peppers are all potential additions.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell