Japanese Mum's Chicken

JustJanS's Note:

We have a Japanese girl Tomoko living with us, and tonight she and I cooked a Japanese dinner for us and her friends. She phoned her mum Toshiko in Japan for this as it's her favourite recipe, and I wanted to share it here. It's simple and soooo good, and Tomoko who is only 16 did such a good job of cooking this, then translating the recipe to English for me. *The liquid will thicken to a glaze if you are patient. It just takes a bit of time. If you feel your chicken is cooked (and going to over cook) remove it before going on to reduce the liquid. Same thing, if you must use breast meat, remove it (so it doesn't dry out) and continue reducing the liquid . If you do it this way rather than thickening with cornstarch you will get a richer glaze and not need to add stock or broth instead of the water. It just takes patience. AND NOTE! A glaze is sticky and coats the meat, this is NOT a sauce.

• Total Time: 45 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 8 chicken drumsticks , skin on (the skin is important for flavour, and is so tasty to eat!)
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1⁄3; cup soy sauce
• 2 ½ tablespoons sugar
• 1 garlic clove , peeled and bruised
• 1 small hot chili pepper , slit open, seeds removed

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients in a saucepan over a high heat.
2. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes.
3. Remove any scum that rises to the surface.
4. Increase the heat, turning the drumsticks frequently in the liquid, and cook until the liquid has reduced to a sticky glaze.
5. Arrange the chicken on a serving platter, remove the garlic clove and chili from the liquid, and spoon the glaze over.
6. NOTE It's a glaze rather than a sauce, so there's not a whole lot of it.

Reviews

[KristieKatz]

For those who want EXTRA SAUCE/GLAZE read here! I wanted to serve the chicken over rice but I wanted it to be saucy. I doubled the ingredients and did 10 drumsticks BUT I threw it all into a crock pot. I didn't want to have to stand over the stove so the crock pot was great! I let it cook for 4 hours on low, and next time I would throw in some thighs and maybe even breasts. There was sooo much extra sauce, that it almost needed more chicken. My husband and kids loved it, the sauce is delicious even by itself over rice! The crock pot made the chicken so tender it was just falling off the bone. I eventually did take all the meat off the bone, put it over the rice and spooned the sauce over..YUMMY! Definitely a recipe that will stay with me forever, I even posted the recipe from this site onto my Facebook status as "Tonights Dinner!"

[evelyn/athens]

I'm here to rave about this recipe too! This is nearly always what I look for in a 5-star recipe - maximum flavour derived from minimum effort - and the effort for this recipe is practically nonexistent. I skillet-toasted some sesame seeds and sprinkled these over the chicken pieces before serving. Steamed rice and oven-roasted brussels sprouts were the yummy others. One thing I might do next time though, if I have a bit more time, is to brown the chicken pieces first - just to get a bit more attractive colour.

[Sackville]

What a wonderful, easy meal! This definitely falls into the "finger lickin' good" category for me. I followed the directions exactly and had no problems at all making this. I served it with basmati rice, green beans and baby corn. There was enough leftover glaze from the chicken to drizzle over the rice. Next I plan to try this with chicken wings. Thanks Tomoko and Toshiko for a truly outstanding recipe :-)