Thai Barbecued Chicken

justcallmetoni's Note:

For some unknown reason I recently purchased tamarind nectar on sale. Of course, I then needed a recipe to prepare with it. Originally found on the Internet on the National Chicken Council website, this is my adaptation. While presented to be made with chicken quarters, it also works well with boneless skinless chicken breasts. While quite flavorful, this is not spicy so adjust the red pepper flakes to taste.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 chicken legs
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 cup cilantro , stems and leaves roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon white pepper or 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 large garlic cloves , chopped
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup tamarind juice (or nectar)
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• ½ cup light coconut milk
• ¼-1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

1. Place cilantro, garlic, fish sauce, turmeric, pepper, red pepper flakes and salt in food processor or blender. Blend 45 seconds; add tamarind nectar and blend 1 more minute. Add coconut milk and blend 1 minute.
2. Pierce chicken with fork to also mariade to seep. Arrange chicken in bowl in single layer or in a resealable bag and pour marinade over, making sure it goes under skin. Cover, refrigerate and marinate at least 2 hours or overnight.
3. Remove chicken from marinade and place in single layer in baking dish; brush with marinade. Pour remaining marinade in small oven-proof container and place both chicken and marinade in 350 degrees.
4. If using bone-in parts, bake for oven for 25 minutes.
5. Remove chicken to prepared charcoal grill, skin side up, about 6 inches from heat. Cook, turning and basting with heated sauce, about 10 minutes per side or until brown and fork can be inserted in chicken with ease. Alternately, you can complete this step in your oven broiler on low.
6. If using boneless-skinless breasts, bake in oven for 20 minutes. Remove chicken to prepared charcoal grill, about 6 inches from heat. Cook, turning and basting with heated sauce, about 5 minutes per side or until brown and fork can be inserted in chicken with ease. Alternately, you can complete this step in your oven broiler on low.

Reviews

[Baby Kato]

This was a really tasty chicken dish. It was perfect paired with white rice. This chicken was moist, tender and oh so flavourful, the marinade was well spiced and delicious. It was snowing and raining here today, so I baked it in the oven, it was perfect. Thanks so much for sharing this lovely treat.

[Hey Jude]

We loved this chicken! I skipped the step where you bake it in the oven as our weather was too hot and I wanted to cook everything outside. I just marinated the chicken, as the recipe states, then plopped the chicken on the grill and heated up the remaining marinade in a small saucepan and basted the chicken with that. As for the tamarind...I had tamarind concentrate and wasn't sure how to proceed but after reading the instructions on the bottle, I decided to use just a teaspoon of the concentrate along with about 1/3 cup of water. The chicken tasted great so I suppose that was the right way to go. It had a slightly spicy kick to it and an interesting color from the turmeric. Fun recipe! Thanks for posting this toni!