Sunday, June 12, 2011

DIY Food Recipe: Caramelised Chicken Cutlets

I am a lazy cook. I dont like to cook things that are too fussy or needs alot of preparation in general. 

However I love to eat and kinda sick of cooking the same chinese stuff over and over again. So tried a new western recipe - Caramalised Chicken Thigh Cutlets. Takes about 20mins to prepare in advance and another 20mins to cook.



Ingredients

- 2 teaspoons veg oil
- 4 chicken thigh cutlets skin on (800g)
- 1 medium red onion, sliced thinly
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
- 1/4cup (55g) brown sugar (I usually put less than this. it's up to individual preference)
- 1Tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander

Cooking steps

1. Preheat Oven to 200/180 degree cel. fan forced
2. Heat oil in frying pan, pan fry chicken till brown on both sides. Then place chicken in baking tray to bake (uncovered) for another 2-5min till cook through.




3. At the same time, heat clean pan. Reuse a small amount of the oil (previously used to pan fried chicken) and cook onion, garlic stirring until onion softens.
4. Add the sugar and sauces. (I personally will add a little water just to dilute it alittle if you are not using a non stick pan) Stir and cook for another 3 mins or so ( or until you visually see that onion has soften to the level that you like. Some like it more crunchy while like it really soft)
5. Return chicken to pan with coriander. Turn chicken to coat in sauce mixture.

Serve.


Personal Note: (What the recipe doesnt tell you)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- You can choose not to panfried the chicken till its brown. I just pan fry for about 5-10mins depending on how large the pieces are.

- I just panfried without oil in a non stick pan till the chicken fat is suitably melted before I chuck it into the oven. I personally would prefer Light olive oil instead of peanut oil.

- Always, always cook with the skin side first. The skin acts as an insulator preventing your meat from being cooked too quickly.

- Neither do I bake till the chicken is fully cook as instructed by recipe. Rather I had it baked till about almost cooked (i think 5 mins is a good gauge). The reason is that the chicken still need to undergo more heat cooking when mixing with the sauces. This way, the cutlet will not be tough from being overcooked. At least if its under cook (baked) , easy breezy, just stick it on the pan with sauce longer:P

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