No picture here, I’m afraid. Forgot, I’m sorry. But I’ll take one next time, which will be pretty soon, judging by the reaction to the first installment.

This is best served in a large soft roll, with a dollop of slaw on the side, a mound of sautéed potatoes, and a bottle of Ben’s cider (if you can persuade him to give you one).

Serves 5 reasonably hungry people. Adjust amounts according to numbers, obviously. 2 chicken thighs each is great.

Ingredients

  • 10 chicken thighs
  • 4 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 100ml balsamic (or wine) vinegar
  • Cubic inch of fresh ginger
  • 2 tsp hot chilli sauce (or fresh chillis if you prefer)
  • 5 big cloves garlic
  • 2 stalks lemongrass
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • Salt to taste
  • 4 tbsp honey (or less, or more, to taste)
  • Handful of fresh coriander
  • 2 red onions
  • Oil for frying

Method

  1. Bone the chicken thighs. Plenty of YouTube videos if you don’t know how. Just don’t slice your fingers. Use the bones, skin, and attached bits of meat for stock.
  2. Slice the chicken into little-finger-sized strips.
  3. Prepare the lemongrass. You need to discard the bottom inch or two, the green wavy stuff at the top, the harder outer layers, and the core. There’ll not be much left. Sorry. Again, check YouTube if you don’t believe me. But really, trust me on this – you don’t want stringy bits in your chicken. Then chop it as finely as possible.
  4. Blitz the soy, vinegar, ginger, chilli, garlic, and lemongrass in a blender. Mix into the chicken and marinade for up to about 24 hours. If you don’t have that long, even just an hour or two is better than nothing.
  5. Drain the chicken thoroughly, keeping the marinade (it’s gonna be a sauce on a few minutes).
  6. Fry the chicken in a little oil until it’s medium to well done. You don’t want spongy, sloppy chicken. It needs to have bite and a bit of chew. As juices start to appear in the pan, drain them off and add them to the marinade. Once it’s done, put it in a bowl and pop it in the oven to keep warm.
  7. While the chicken is frying, blitz the marinade, coriander, pepper and salt in the blender. Put it in a small pan, and boil vigorously, adding any extra juices liberated from the chicken as you go. You want to reduce the volume by about half. This is gonna be the sticky sauce.
  8. Once the sauce is reduced a bit, add the honey a bit at a time. Don’t go crazy – you can’t take it out if you add too much. It wants to be a bit sweet, but not sickly. Test the taste and consistency of the sauce by dropping a bit onto a cold plate and tasting it. Once it’s the right taste, stop adding honey. Once the cold sauce is the consistency of runny honey, stop boiling and mix it into the chicken. It should be roughly the consistency and appearance of the black tar-like stuff people use to fix potholes in the road.
  9. Slice and fry the onions, and add them to the chicken-and-sauce mix.
  10. Dollop a generous spoonful in a large soft roll, and sink your teeth in.