Recipe Tuesday: Hoisin Chicken Tray Bake

Sometimes, you just need comfort food: something easy, warming, filling and tasty.  This is one of those dishes.  I don’t remember how I discovered the recipe.  It may have popped up in my FB feed, in an ad for the Australian magazine “New Idea”.  Certainly, they’re the source of the original recipe, although I can no longer find it on their website.

This is my variation.  The original recipe did not have added vegetables or mixed grains, nor did it use whole chicken legs.  It used thighs, which are fine but a whole leg is more tasty, more sustainable AND gives you more bones for the stockpot later.  I’ve given quantities for both.  Our butcher charges £3.99/kg for legs, so approximately £1 each.

Ingredients

4 whole chicken legs (or 4 large thighs, or 8 supermarket thighs)

1 heaped teaspoon Chinese 5 Spice

1 cup basmati rice and 1 cup bulgar wheat (or 2 cups of either)

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen sweetcorn

4 cups chicken stock (ie. 1 litre chicken stock)

4 tablespoons hoisin sauce (aka 1/4 cup measure)

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons fresh ginger paste (or 1 inch grated fresh ginger)

1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes, cut into 1-2 inch chunks

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Season the skin-side of chicken with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with five spice.
3. Heat oil in a large, flameproof, roasting pan or stew pot over a medium to high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down. Cook for about 5 to 6 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove chicken.
4. Meanwhile, combine stock, sauces, peanut butter, garlic and ginger in a large jug. Mix well.  (See note below)
5. Add stock mixture and rice to same, hot pan. Stir through the frozen peas and sweetcorn.  Bury the sweet potato chunks around the pan, under the rice.  Arrange chicken over rice. Bring to boil. Remove pan from heat. Put on the lid or cover tightly with foil.
6. Cook in a moderate oven (180C) for about 40 minutes, or until rice is tender and chicken is cooked through. Remove pan. Stand, covered, for 5 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.

Notes:

• There will be leftovers!  There will certainly be enough rice for a stir fry, later in the week.  If you don’t want that, halve the quantities of rice, bulgar wheat and stock.
• The bulgar wheat adds additional protein and fibre.  (It has 8 times the protein and 4 times the fibre of brown rice.)
• You can use either crunchy or smooth peanut butter.
• Nobody has a large enough jug for step 4.  Mix everything that you can with enough stock to fill the jug, and add the remainder of the stock later, at step 5.

- Pam