Day 14: Candied Chicken

I was thinking as I was on my way to get more charcoal that at the rate I'm going through coals, I'm going to need to take out a loan to buy charcoal. :) I'm kidding, but I really should keep track of how many bags I go through this year. I just opened bag #3. I hope as I get better that I'll waste fewer coals. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Anyway, I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner, and nothing I had planned sounded good. So, I went to the trusty cookbook put out by my church's women's group. The recipe is called candied chicken. I have no problem cooking anything with the word "candy" in it. This recipe didn't disappoint.

Candied Chicken

12" dutch oven

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders

3/4 cup water

1 c. brown sugar

2 T. mustard

1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 cup diced onion

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. salt

Coat chicken in Italian bread crumbs and flour. (I used equal amounts of both.) Heat vegetable oil in your D.O. I used about 30 coals. You want the oil nice and hot so the coating on the chicken will be nice and crispy. Fry the chicken in oil until it is golden brown and crispy. Drain any excess oil from the dutch oven. While the chicken is cooking, mix remaining ingredients and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Pour over the chicken. (I took the chicken out when it was cooked, drained the extra oil and made the sauce in the same D.O. Then I put the chicken back in and turned it to coat it with sauce.) Bake for 30 minutes with 8 coals on the bottom and 12 on top.

The Finished Product

What I Learned

I've been talking to a friend, and I decided to try her method for coal placement. It is pretty similar to what I have been doing, but it seemed to make a difference. She uses the 2/3 rule. That is to double the size of your dutch oven to determine how many coals to use (12" oven =24 coals, 10"=20 coals, etc.), then put 1/3 on the bottom and 2/3 on top. I am still using the same number of coals, there are just fewer on the bottom and more on top. I'll keep trying it and see which method works best.

The Review

This recipe was fabulous! Just to look at the ingredients you would think you were going to make a meatloaf or something. Ketchup, mustard and Worcestershire are not what I would think to put over chicken. But I have to tell you---it worked! It was delicious and sweet and tangy. There wasn't one piece of chicken left, which is too bad because I think it would have been great on a salad the next day. The only change I would make is to add some garlic to the sauce just because I really love garlic. This one gets an A.