Traditional Caramel Chicken
Cookbook Used: BBC Australian Good Food Magazine (September 2010)
Mine doesn’t look that appetizing. It’s because I didn’t take the caramel to a deep amber colour. I was too afraid of it burning! It still tasted good though.
When I think “caramel chicken”, my mind conjures up images of chicken nuggets being dipped or coated in a caramel or butterscotch sauce. I’m sure a few other people were imagining weird things like that when I mentioned I was making it for dinner the other night! Luckily, it was nothing all that weird, but it certainly was wonderful!
If you are planning on making this, make sure you take the caramel to a deep amber colour to get a nicer looking dish.
We both enjoyed it. But I would probably say it was a tad too sweet, even for me. Mrs_Kan said she has been cooking Bill Granger’s recipe for 5 years! So I must give that a go one day soon.
Traditional Caramel Chicken
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
600g chicken breast fillet, cut into 2.5cm pieces
200g snow peas, trimmed, halved diagonally
1 red onion, cut into wedges
1 birdseye chilli, sliced to serve
steamed rice, to serve
1. Mix fish sauce and 1/2 cup water in a bowl.
2. Place sugar and 1/3 cup water in a frying pan on medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil and cook, swirling occasionally, for 5-8 minutes, until a deep amber colour. Remove from heat. Slowly add fish sauce mixture. Swirl pan to combine.
3. Add garlic and chicken. Season well with freshly ground pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes, until chicken is almost cooked through. Add snow peas and onion and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and sauce thickens.
Serve with sliced chilli and rice.
Serves 4.
Honey @ honeyandsoy
I half imagined a sweet rather than a savoury dish too, for a second! Would be lovely with fresh chilli… yum!
Iron Chef Shellie
Yes, I should have remembered some fresh chilli but I forgot until it was too late! 🙁
penny aka jeroxie
I did imagine caramel popcorn chicken!
Iron Chef Shellie
haha ..mmmm?
AmandaP
Found you via Tasty Trix and I have to say this sounds delish! I might give it a go next week using Tofu instead of the chicken…yummy!
Iron Chef Shellie
Oh awesome! I’m sure it would work great with tofu!
Hannah
I can’t help thinking you’re rather brave! Sure, the bulk of what I eat everyday is made of sugar, but I’ve never matched it with meat in such a quantity before!
Iron Chef Shellie
haha, thanks! I would have never thought to match it with meat either.
Anna Johnston
Interesting recipe, I’m a bit the same & tend to err on the side of cautiousness too when using sugar to caramalise, but this would taste great I bet.
Iron Chef Shellie
I must learn to be more brave with caramel. I think I’m scared from the first time I made creme caramel and it was burnt.
Leah
Oh yum this looks great! but I would’ve been far too scared to use 1/2 cup sugar. I procrastinate with the amount of sugar I use for baking!
I wonder I could make something similar but vegetarian?
Iron Chef Shellie
Oh you shouldn’t think about how much sugar is in baking!! hehe
Try with tofu as AmandaP suggested above!
Lisa
I love chicken with a sweet kick. This sounds delicious.
Iron Chef Shellie
Same! or sweet and sour 🙂
Heidi - Apples Under My Bed
I’ve never heard of this dish, and it looks so delicious! I will have to try it soon. Esp as my man is next to me, so he will make sure it happens 🙂
Thanks for the recipe!
Heidi xo
Iron Chef Shellie
lol, hope you both enjoy it!
Conor @ HoldtheBeef
Haha, I thought of nuggets smothered in hot caramel sauce too. From one of those pump action dispensers 😀
Yours actually looks delicious, despite your false claims of crap photos!
Iron Chef Shellie
Oh yay, I’m not the only one who thought that! 😛
Sophie
MMMMMMM,..a lovely classic caramel chicken!! I so much love easy yet tasty recipes like this!
You have a cool foodblog!
Many greetings from Brussels, Belgium to you!