This is the third time that my daughter, Alex, cooked brown sugar and garlic chicken, and she has been tweaking the recipe forever. Inspired by an an oven-cooked recipe from Damn Delicious, the oven part was ditched since the first time that Alex cooked this dish.
In this third version, three tweaks. First, the chicken fillets were better seasoned. Lemon pepper seasoning instead of plain salt and pepper. Alex makes her own lemon pepper seasoning but you can use store-bought. The amount you will need may vary though depending on how much salt there is in the mix.
Second, the butter was first flavored with garlic before the chicken fillets were browned. Without wasting a single ingredient, the fried garlic that had added so much flavor at the start of the cooking made a lovely garnish.
Finally, the lime juice. Well, that really transformed the dish. What was originally a pretty-looking and texturally rich chicken dish became something bold and wildly rich.
Full recipe below
Brown sugar and garlic chicken
Ingredients
- 10 large chicken thighs fillets - about one kilogram in total weight
- 3 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning
- 6 cloves garlic
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- juice from one lime or lemon
- mint leaves - thinly sliced
Instructions
- Rub lemon pepper seasoning on the chicken thigh fillets and leave to marinate in a covered container in the fridge overnight.
- Peel the garlic and thinly slice.
- In a thick-bottomed frying pan, melt the butter over low heat.
- Spread the garlic slices in the hot butter and cook slowly until browned and crisp. Scoop out the fried garlic and set aside.
- Turn up the heat to medium-high.
- In the remaining butter, arrange the chicken thigh fillets, skin side down, in a single layer. Leave to brown the skins for a few minutes.
- Flip the chicken fillets and brown the opposite sides.
- Scoop out the chicken fillets and set aside.
- Into the pan, pour in the honey and stir in the oregano, thyme and basil.
- Return the chicken fillets to the pan.
- Cover the pan tightly, set the stove to the lowest setting and cook the chicken slowly for about 20 minutes or until cooked through.
- Arrange the chicken fillets in a bowl.
- To the pan drippings, add the lime or lemon juice. Stir to loosen bits sticking to the pan.
- Drizzle the contents of the pan over the chicken then sprinkle in the fried garlic and mint leaves.
- Serve the brown sugar and garlic chicken hot with rice or bread.
