Sweet soy chicken (Sanjeev Kapoor/Food Food)

Sweet soy chicken – Sanjeev Kapoor’s – Food Food

Chicken flavoured with soy sauce and brown sugar. Served with rice. Vegetarian variant towards the end.

This was aired on Sanjeev Kapoor's Teen Patti show on the Food Food channel this week. I intend to convert this to vegetarian fare by replacing the chicken breasts with oven grilled vegetable cutlets. In which case the marinating time can come down to around 20 minutes from 3-4 hours. 

Preparation Time: 2-4 hours

Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes

Serving : 4

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken breasts	4
Dark soy sauce	1/3 cup
Brown sugar	1 1/2 tablespoons
Ginger	1 1/2 inch piece
Salt	To taste
Olive oil	1 tablespoon
For the rice:
Cooked rice	2 cups
Chicken stock	½ cup
Butter	8 teaspoons
Red chilli flakes	2 teaspoons
Honey	1 tablespoon
Sesame seeds (til)	1 tablespoon

Cooking Steps:

Mix ¼ cup dark soy sauce and brown sugar in a bowl. Grate the ginger and mix well into the soy sauce.

Sprinkle a little salt over the chicken pieces. Dip them one by one in the soy mixture and transfer to a zip lock bag. Pour the remaining marinade over the contents and seal the bag. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Heat olive oil in a non stick pan, place the chicken pieces in it and cook on medium heat. Turn sides for even cooking.

Preparation for the rice:

In a wide bowl, add chicken stock, salt, butter and red chilli flakes to the cooked rice and mix well. Heat for 5 minutes in a microwave oven.

Back to the chicken, add remaining soy sauce to the pan and cook until the chicken is tender.

For serving:

Place a ring mould on a serving plate, pack some of the rice into it and press lightly. Similarly use up the remaining rice. Remove the ring mould gently.

Drizzle honey over the chicken and mix. Place the chicken on a chopping board and make a few slits on each piece. Place them on the rice, drizzle the sauce remaining in the pan over, sprinkle sesame seeds and serve hot.

My vegetarian variant while trying to stay with flavours used in the original dish:

Mash together boiled potatoes and blanched veggies of your choice. Add bread crumbs and salt to taste (optionally red chilly paste). Shape into medium-sized patties and marinate in the soy mixture for about 20 minutes. Cook the remaining soy sauce in a pan separately for about 7-8 minutes. Grill the patties in an oven once the rice is readied as above. Drizzle the cooked sauce and honey over the patties and place on a serving dish aside a portion of rice.