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Sweet Soy Sauce Glazed Chicken
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Sweet Soy Sauce Glazed Chicken

Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time35 mins
Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

  • 2-3 lbs Chicken (we usually use 5 drumsticks, 2 breasts)
  • 2 tbsp avocado oil
  • 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds for garnish
  • 2 green onions, sliced for garnish

For the sauce:

  • 1 tsp avocado oil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 tbsp ginger, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp tapioca starch for thickening
  • 1 tbsp water for thickening

Instructions

Prepare and cook the chicken:

  • *The day before* Pat dry and salt your chicken. Place in a ziploc bag overnight. (see note)
  • Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
  • Heat a cast iron skillet with avocado oil. When the pan is hot (when you flick water onto the pan, it should sizzle), sear the chicken breasts and drumsticks, 4 minutes per side.
  • When the meat is well seared, place the cast iron in the oven. Bake the breasts until they reach an internal temperature of 150 degrees (about 17-20 minutes), and the drumsticks until they reach 165 degrees (about 20-25 minutes).

While the chicken is baking, prepare the glaze:

  • In a small sauce pan, stir fry the avocado oil, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes over medium heat for 1 minute, or until fragrant.
  • Add soy sauce and coconut sugar. Stir well to combine and melt sugar.
  • In a small bowl, dissolve tapioca starch with water to create a slurry.
  • Bring the soy sauce mixture to a simmer. While stirring the sauce, add the slurry. With a few stirs, you should see it start to thicken. Remove from heat and limit stirring.

Glaze the chicken:

  • When there is 10 minutes left of baking, use a brush to add the glaze to the chicken. Return chicken to the oven to finish cooking.
  • When the chicken is completely cooked, remove and serve with rice, sesame seeds and green onions!

Notes

  • If time allows, salt your chicken the night before. I never did this (as I'm not a huge salt fan) until I read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and learned the science behind it. Through the process of osmosis, salt actually dissolves proteins into a gel, allowing them to absorb and retain water better as they cook. This leaves you a greater margin of error for overcooking chicken, which is the worst. Mind. blown.
  • If you have a large enough cast iron, you can sear and bake the chicken in the same pan. If not, you can use an additional baking pan to finish cooking the chicken in the oven.
  • We typically cook the chicken breast to 150-155 degrees in the oven. We remove it, and let it rest for 5 minutes, allowing it to cook through. We've cooked breasts to 165 in the oven, and ended up with dry chicken.