Chinese Chicken Traybake with a Tropical Twist

This Chinese Chicken Sauce works well with baked chicken wings, chicken thigh cutlets or breasts, or a whole baked chicken. I generally bake the meat as per usual until half cooked, pour off most of the fat and then cover with the sauce and cook until the meat is cooked and the sauce has glazed.  It is important to watch it towards the end of the cooking time so that the sauce doesn't burn. This was a firm family favourite when the children lived at home and is still on the holiday menu repertoire.

 I hadn't cooked my Chinese Chicken recipe for a long time, and then our daughter called me the other day to tell me she had cooked it for her fiance, and he loved it.  She always enjoyed it when I made it at home. So here it is, and I'm so pleased I revived it from the exact original recipe. I've called it a traybake as that is what it is, however in the 90's we just called it Chinese Chicken. So easy and so tasty.

The ingredients seem simple I know, but if the balance is wrong it just doesn't taste right. If you feel like cooking something tasty and easy to try this weekend, that won't break the budget, this would be perfect.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

8 chicken thigh cutlets
4 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoons white wine or Chinese wine
1 tablespoon Rice wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder, or crushed fresh garlic to taste (I like a few cloves)
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder or 1 sliced large red chilli
2 tablespoons low salt soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon mango chutney (I use my home made batch, the Tropical influence)

Method:

Preheat the oven to moderate.

Place the chicken cutlets in a baking dish, skin side up and pour enough water into the dish to cover the base.



Bake the chicken cutlets for about 20 minutes or lightly browned. A lot of the fat should have been cooked out of the chicken and be in the base of the pan, and the water evaporated. the chicken skin will be lightly coloured. The chicken should only be half cooked.

Pour most (3/4) of the fat out of the dish.

Pour the chicken marinade over the chicken covering each piece well and place back in the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, remove the baking dish from the oven and baste the chicken with the sauce. The sauce will have thickened and will coat the chicken nicely.

This isn't really burnt, looks darker in the photo and was delicious

Place back in the oven, and if your oven is a hot oven reduce the temperature to 170 degrees, and be careful that the chicken doesn't burn, although the crispy bits in the dish and on the chicken are delicious.

Serve with boiled rice and Asian stir fried vegetables or even a fresh Wombok salad.

It's hard to believe it's Friday already. It's been a week of gardening and spring cleaning, a little rain, and now we have a couple of guys in our courtyard digging a hole for a large white post to be installed which will support a shade sail. That will be a nice addition for our Tropical Summer.

Thanks for dropping by everyone and I hope you all enjoy a relaxing weekend.

Pauline

Chinese Chicken Traybake is an original recipe by Pauline @ happyretireeskitchen.