Chicken thighs in a caramelized-ginger sauce over steamed white rice, ready to eat with my metal chopsticks.
It turned out so very well last time when I altered the cooking method slightly, I had to make the dish again just to make Rodney stop begging. Since I had about 3.4 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, it more than covered the bottom of my biggest skillet. With that much chicken to play with, I increased the "browning" time to about 5 minutes on each side as the thigh quarters were so crowded.
And it was fantastic. The pepper, both crushed red and black, were evenly distributed throughout and enhanced the appearance of the slightly seared pieces. The ginger sauce was more of a caramel that lent stickiness and excellent flavor without being too wet and well, saucy. I don't care for stuff that is overly sauced.
I've come to a conclusion: my ultra-creative improvisation made this recipe perfect for us. Further experimentation is now discontinued. Rodney and I both love how this tastes, the heat isn't too much and best of all, it doesn't cause Rodney to run to the nearest bathroom upon consumption to alleviate his poor intestinal tract.
Ha, I said nearest bathroom as if we have more than one. Isn't that cute?
Now that the chapter on this Ga Kho/Vietnamese Chicken in Caramel-Ginger Sauce is officially closed, let's recap the progression:
- Beginning with a recipe from my Cooking Pleasures magazine, I started with this where I, like a crazy person, used breasts each time I made it -- never again
- Spied a recipe for Ga Kho, Vietnamese for Caramelized Chicken, by the Ravenous Couple and tried it, causing the first recipe to be questioned as Vietnamese at all
- Disgruntled by Rodney's reaction to the Ga Kho, went back to the original recipe using whole boneless, skinless thighs
- And then it came to improving the original recipe's cooking method, where we are today.
Looks pretty good Mena
ReplyDeleteThanks! You should see it person -- photography in a dark kitchen does no justice.
ReplyDelete