Sweet chicky chick

 

I sent Anne this photo tonight, of me tea, as per usual. She said she had to have the recipe right away. So I've got right on it, which is unlike me as I'm very slack. But this was so nice it spurned me on to get out of my (brand new, v plump sofa) and tippy tappy type this up. You may thank me once you have tried it in payment of cake.

The inspiration for this came from Fay Ripley's What's for dinner? book which, like her first book, Fay's family food, is often a go to book for me. If you can get a copy from the library do take a look.

Fay's description: "A sweet sticky treat that actually makes my kids love me more. In fact, I fear they would be slightly indifferent to me if this dish was not regularly on the menu..."

Whoa says I! I'll have me some of that. With your egg fried rice you suggest Fay? Why not. However, my eyes popped out of my head when I saw the sugar content of the sauce. Holy Moly! 100g!!! Even for my children's ridiculously sweet teeth that's pushing it. I knew I could make this with less sugar and it still have that Chinese sticky sweetness. So thank you Fay for the inspiration but here's my dentist friendly version.

 

Serves 2 adults and 2 small people

 

1 pack of skinned, boned chicken thighs cut into bite sized chunks (about 400g)

5 spring onions finely chopped

3 crushed garlic cloves

small plop of grated ginger

50ml light soy sauce

100ml chicken stock

Blob of tom puree

40g light brown sugar

1 heaped teaspoon honey

25g sesame seeds.

1 tbsp cornflower

 

Heat over to 200c fan.

Fry the spring onion and chicken in a little oil till the chicken is slightly brown, add the garlic and ginger and fry for another minute. Transfer to a baking dish and pour over soy. Add the stock to the frying pan and heat for a minute and scrape around all the goodies from the chicken. Pour the stock into the dish and plop in the ketchup put dish in oven for 15 minutes. Add the sugar, honey and seeds and cook for another 10 minutes. By this point the sauce will still be quite thin. Add the cornflower to  25ml of water and dissolve. Pour this into the dish and stir. Another 5/10 minutes and your sweet chicky chick will be sticky and unctuous.

 

Winner winner chicken dinner

 

Suffice to say, nothing could make my children love me more so they weren't overly impressed by this but they aren't used to these sorts of flavours (I have one rice hater and one that chews meat for hours on end no matter how tender). I will make it again though and will make them love it. As I and the other half did.

 

 

Siân