Fast & Easy

No, the title of this post is not my old High School Nickname. It is referring to my requirements for recipes and cooking. With a three month old who loves to be held, and does not love to sleep, it's difficult to spend too much time in the kitchen without some serious tantruming (can it be called a tantrum if she's only 3 months? Probably not...) So here's a recipe I discovered that was so super easy, and very tasty. It's similar to a curry. I was able to get all the ingredients at Walmart, except the fish sauce I had to get at the local Smith's. (My experience looking for fish sauce at Walmart went something like this: "Do you know where the fish sauce is?" "Fish sauce? You mean soy sauce?" "No, I mean fish sauce. Fish. Sauce." "Oooh! Fish sauce! Yeah! You want Tartar Sauce?" "No. Fish sauce. Saucey. Fishy. Not soy, not tartar. Fish. Sauce." "Is it like a fish rub to rub on the fish?" "No. It's a fish sauce, you put it in things to cook with." Yeah for Walmart workers and their "no education required" job descriptions.)   

Honey Garlic Lemon-Chicken 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour, 7 minutes

Yield: SERVES 2-4 as a Main Entree

Ingredients:

·         6 to 10 chicken drumsticks, skin left on (I just used chicken breasts, no skin, and still tasty)

·         juice of 1 lemon

·         7-8 cloves garlic, minced

·         2/3 cup liquid honey

·         1/4 cup fish sauce

·         1/2 cup coconut milk

·         1-2 fresh red chilies, minced, OR 1/3 to 1/2 Tbsp. dried crushed chili (from the spice aisle)

Preparation:

For my original Thai Lemon Chicken recipe (with lemongrass), see: Thai Baked Lemon Chicken.

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in a flat-bottomed baking dish (I use a glass lasagna dish). Make sure chicken pieces are not piled on top of one another.

2.    Place remaining ingredients together in a bowl or measuring cup, stirring well to combine. Pour this sauce over the chicken. Turn chicken pieces several times to coat. This chicken can be baked immediately OR left to marinate for 30 minutes (or up to 24 hours).

3.    Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, turning pieces once halfway through. When done, chicken will turn a dark reddish-brown and be very tender. If still pale in color after an hour, continue baking another 10 to 15 minutes, or until desired coloring and tenderness is achieved.

4.    Serve immediately together with plenty of plain steamed rice. Fresh coriander/cilantro and thin lemon slices can be added as a garnish. The sauce from the baking dish is excellent spooned over both chicken and rice. ENJOY! I'm inherently lazy, so I didn't do any of the extra garnishing or marinating. And it was still THUPER DUPER good!