Two Chefs, A Little Lady and Liam Bruce: Aubrey's sticky chicken

Sometimes inspiration presents itself and other days it just doesn't. Today I was completely inspired with Asian flavours and an entire meal concept. I had purchased this bag salad over the weekend from Costco. Bok Choy, Broccoli Slaw and different cabbages. It comes with a sesame soy vinaigrette and salted peanuts.

It screamed out for sticky, tangy, sweet, pieces of chard-like chicken. All I had was a bag of 7 chicken thighs so I thought serving this sliced over the salad would be a great way to stretch it as well.
I laid out all of my flavours. Apple cider vinegar, Hoison, Saracha, Soya Sauce, Lime, fresh ginger, Fresh garlic and scallions. I added about a 1/4 cup each of hoison, soya sauce and apple cider vinegar to a bowl and whisked it up with chopped garlic, chopped scallion, shaved ginger, lime zest, juice from half of a lime. I added about a 1 tbsp of saracha, not wanting to make it too spicy for Aubrey. I tasted this; it packed a punch but that is what you want in a marinade.

I poured this in my Ziploc bag of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I let this marinade for maybe 10 minutes. I heated my pan with olive oil lining the bottom of my cast iron pan. Making sure it was hot but not yet smoking I shook the excess marinade off of them as I laid the chicken thighs; what would of been skin-side down in the pan. I left this for a good 4 minutes; trying to get a good char and sear on them. I lowered my heat to about medium high. I flipped them and then lined the perimeter of my pan with some of the marinade so that it could reduce. I added a touch of honey to this and transferred my pan to my 375F convection preheated oven for about 15-18 minutes; tossing them in the pan every few minutes.

I pulled my chicken apart with the tongs and made sure each piece was coated generously.

While the chicken was in the oven I decided to quickly make mashed sweet potatoes. I had peeled and diced up a sweet earlier in the week and froze it. It was getting a bit soft and I didn't have a use for it so instead of wasting it I just threw it in the freezer. This came it handy; I added hot water to a pot and added it in. I brought it to a boil and once it was fork tender I drained the water and mashed it up with a little butter, chopped cilantro, grated ginger, salt, pepper and greek yogurt.

Aubrey kept on asking for more and more and more chicken!

Jeff dubbed this dish; "Aubrey's sticky chicken". They both said this recipe would have to be made again. It was super simple and super satisfying. I hadn't defrosted the chicken at 4:50pm and we were eating by 5:20pm!