Honey Soy Chicken with Pineapple Cucumber Salad
Serves: 4 to 6
This Honey Soy Chicken takes a few minutes to prepare for a delicious and no-fuss weeknight meal, and is perfect served with a refreshing Pineapple Cucumber Salad.
Ingredients
For the Honey Soy Chicken:
- 1 kg (2 lb) chicken drumsticks &/or chicken thighs, with skin on
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- 3 cm (1 inch) ginger, peeled & roughly chopped
- 100 g (½ cup plus 2 tablespoons) runny honey
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) soy sauce
- 1 red chilli, optional
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
For the Pineapple Cucumber Salad
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1 large cucumber
- ½ small pineapple
- sea salt
To Serve
Instructions
For the Honey Soy Chicken:
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F)(without fan).
- Line a large baking tray with foil for easier cleaning up later.
- Using a sharp knife, cut a few incisions into the chicken pieces on the diagonal.
- Place the chicken pieces into a large ziplock freezer bag.
- In a food processor, blend together the garlic, ginger, honey, soy sauce, red chilli, sesame oil, and fish sauce (see Kitchen Notes below if you do not have a food processor).
- Pour the marinade over the chicken in the ziplock freezer bag.
- Give everything a good mix to make sure all of the chicken pieces are well coated in the marinade.
- I recommend leaving the chicken to marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (a few hours would be ideal), but if you are in a rush, you can skip the marinating time altogether.
- Place the chicken pieces on the roasting tray and pour over the marinade.
- Bake the chicken for 45-60 minutes, or until they are bronzed and golden. During this time, turn the chicken over once or twice so that it can brown on all sides. And while you are in the kitchen, you may as well put on a pot of steamed rice to make the meal more substantial.
- Once the chicken is ready, remove the tray from the oven and sprinkle the chicken with the toasted sesame seeds.
For the Pineapple Cucumber Salad:
- Place the thinly sliced red onion in a salad bowl with the lime juice to steep for 5-10 minutes.
- Halve and de-seed the cucumber, before chopping the cucumber into large bite-sized chunks.
- Peel and chop the pineapple into similar-sized pieces as the cucumber.
- Add the cucumber and pineapple to the steeped onions and toss everything to combine.
- Season with sea salt just before serving.
Kitchen Notes
- MAKE-AHEAD TIPS
To prepare the chicken ahead of time, simply place the slashed chicken pieces into a large zip-lock freezer bag and add the marinade. Close the bag and make sure the chicken pieces are well-coated. For extra reassurance against leaks and stinky spills in the fridge, I would double-bag the chicken before putting it into the fridge, where it can be kept for 1 to 2 days. Before you cook the chicken, bring it to room temperature first by leaving the unopened bag on the kitchen counter for 20-30 minutes. - USING A GRATER
If you do not have a food processor, simply grate the garlic and ginger into a bowl, and stir through the rest of the marinade ingredients. - USING CHICKEN WINGS
This recipe also works great with chicken wings. Depending on the size of the chicken wings, they may need less baking time. - RECIPE CREDIT
Recipe adapted from Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook by Rachel Khoo - OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer's handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.