I love nothing better than cooking a ridiculously simple meal with a handful of ingredients and then getting that seriously happy ‘OMG my food is lush’ feeling when I clear my plate. This dish of chicken thighs with soy sauce, honey, some garlic and ginger is the one.
As there are so few ingredients used to make the chicken, it’s really all about the cooking technique: the chicken thighs are semi- steamed/boiled in the soy sauce and honey. This cooking method makes the chicken so flavoursome and unbelievably tender that you can cut it with a fork. I use this same steaming/boiling cooking technique to make Iraqi style chicken thighs flavoured with green cardamom.
I always have garlic and ginger in the fridge, soy sauce and honey are permanent fixtures in the cupboard, so all I need to buy is the chicken and thighs are a bargain.
Dressing the noodles with a little soy sauce, sesame oil and finely sliced spring onions was a revelation. My husband (who is Hong Kong Chinese) made these noodles for me years ago and I couldn’t believe how good they tasted. I had always thought that you needed to add loads of different Chinese sauces to make noodles taste fabulous. My husband taught me to ‘lightly dress the noodles with soy sauce and sesame oil as if you were dressing a salad’ – pure genius.
My husband also showed me that the tastiest and simplest way of preparing pak choy is to steam and then drizzle with oyster sauce to add some salty savouriness and that’s it!
Miraculous ingredients: Clearspring dark or tamari soya sauce, Clearspring sesame oil
Chicken with soya sauce, honey, garlic and ginger
Ingredients
500g skinless and boneless chicken thighs
4 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce (Clearspring is the best)
2 tablespoons sesame oil (Clearspring is the best)
2 garlic clove finely minced
5cm piece of fresh ginger finely grated
Noodles
250g udon noodles (I use Clearspring udon noodles)
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
4 spring onions finely sliced
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds to garnish
Pak choy
2 pak choy quartered
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
Method
Put the chicken thighs into zip lock freezer bag with 4 tablespoons of honey, 4 tablespoons soy sauce, the grated ginger and garlic. Seal the bag, squidge everything together and place in the fridge to marinate for a minimum of 10 minutes (if you have time, marinate for ½ hour).
Once the chicken has marinated for at least 10 minutes, place in a large saucepan with a tight fitting lid. Turn the heat to medium and cook until the liquid starts to simmer and then turn the heat down to low and put the lid on. Cook the chicken thighs for 7 minutes on one side, lift the lid and turn the thighs to cook for a further 7 minutes on the other side and put the lid back on. Once the thighs are cooked, take the lid off and turn the heat to high for 2 minutes so the honey and soy sauce can thicken a little bit.
Serve with noodles or steamed rice.
Preparation time 4 minutes, marinating time 10 minutes, cooking 15 minutes, serves 4