Caramelized Ginger Chicken with Sticky Rice and Scallion Oil

I get annoyed when you’re reading a food magazine or a cookbook and the picture of the food looks amazing, but when you make the dish (even if you follow the recipe exactly) it looks nothing like the picture. I like my food to look good. I love the golden brown of a perfect chicken thigh; the perfectly defined black grill marks contrasting against the bright flesh of a yellow peach; the unctuous woven basket of a mound of Chinese noodles. Usually, when food looks good, it tastes good, too, as many of the features that we find aesthetically pleasing about food also serve as symbols that the food was properly cooked (if a piece of chicken has pale yellow, rubbery looking skin, that doesn’t exactly bode well for its taste). So I was both a bit annoyed and a bit worried when the chicken I made looked a bit pale and lifeless, nothing like the glossy, burnished chicken leg in the magazine I got the recipe from.

Sometimes, though, a recipe will surprise me and I get reminded that looks will always be second to flavor where food is concerned (especially where comfort foods are concerned). The chicken was tender and flavorful, getting a nice saline flavor from fish sauce and soy sauce, sweetened by brown sugar and honey, and cut with vinegar and chiles and tons of ginger, along with garlic, shallot and scallion oil. The thighs, which were roasted then finished in a pot with the sauce, was ladled over a soft, fluffy bed of sticky rice, mixed with more scallion oil. Sweet, spicy, and delicious.

Caramelized Ginger Chicken with Sticky Rice and Scallion Oil

Adapted from a recipe by Food & Wine

Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes (30 min active)

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
• 4 whole chicken legs
•  1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 4 medium shallots, very finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
• 1/2 cup minced peeled fresh ginger
• 3 serrano chiles, very finely chopped
• 2  cups sushi rice
• Salt

Method

• In a large, shallow baking dish, stir 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar with 2 tablespoons of the fish sauce until the sugar is dissolved. Add the chicken legs and coat them thoroughly with the marinade. Let the chicken stand at room temperature for 2 hours or refrigerate overnight. Preheat the oven to 450°. Roast the chicken legs in the upper third of the oven for about 15 minutes, until they are browned

• In a small saucepan, heat the vegetable oil. Add the scallions and cook over high heat until they sizzle, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat

• Meanwhile, in a medium enameled cast-iron casserole, combine the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar with 1 tablespoon of water and cook over moderately high heat, stirring a few times, until bubbling, about 3 minutes. Gradually stir in 1 1/2 cups of water, then stir in the remaining 1/3 cup of fish sauce along with the soy sauce, vinegar, honey and half of the scallion oil. Bring to a boil and simmer over moderately high heat until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the shallots, garlic, ginger and chiles and simmer over moderately low heat for 5 minutes

• Discard the chicken skin and nestle the legs in the sauce in the casserole. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, basting the chicken a few times, until cooked through; add a few tablespoons of water if the sauce gets too thick and dark

• Meanwhile, cook the sushi rice according to the package directions. Season with salt and  spoon the remaining scallion oil over, stirring gently. Serve the chicken with the sticky rice