Sweet Furnace Chicken

A co-worker (S/O to Tonte) was very excited about some honey chicken a friend of his had served at a party. I could imagine what it would taste like and it sounded interesting. Luckily for me, she gave a mutual friend a few pieces and I got to try a piece and Tonte was not wrong. It was a sweet and savory treat that made your mouth confused. As lovely as it was, I felt I figured out the mystery too easily and after discussions with “Madame” we decided it needed a layer of sneaky heat. On my 24th birthday, we tried it out and it came out great. So as usual, I decided to share the recipe with you guys.

Ingredients

Serving size : 4 servings.

1. 1kg Chicken thighs
2. 1 bulb of garlic and 1 rhizome of ginger
3. 5 medium sized onions
4. 1/2 bottle each of both white and red wine. The red wine should preferably be a Merlot of at least 5 years old. (Optional )
5. 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper
6. 1 teaspoon salt
7. 2 tablespoons of chicken seasoning(I use Knor)
8. 2 ground bay leaves
9. 150ml of honey
10. 1 teaspoon curry and ground chili flakes.
11. 20 habanero peppers(Preferably green in colour)

Pre-Prep

• Clean the chicken and cut them into preferred sizes and place in a deep bowl that can hold about 3 litres of liquid.
• Pour the red and white wine over the chicken and let it sit for 12 hours.(This step is optional. Typically white meat ie chicken should go with white wine. But I personally like the effect of tannings , which are found in red wine, on chicken. I use it primarily to tenderize the chicken so that I do not have to over cook it. For various reasons, wine may not be ideal for certain people and hence you can omit this step entirely.)
• After 12 hours in the wine, pull out the chicken into another bowl.
• Blend 8 habanero peppers, 4 onions, half a bulb of garlic, half a rhizome of garlic, ground bay leaves, ground black pepper , salt and chicken seasoning.
• Pour the blended mixture over the chicken that was pulled out of the wine and stir till all the pieces are well covered with the blended mixture. Set this aside to marinate for another 12 hours.

Lets Cook

• Pour the chicken into a saucepan and add 1 litre of water. Place the sauce pan on a heat source that is set to high.
• Allow chicken to boil on high heat for 15 minutes then turn the heat down and allow it to simmer for another 30–45 minutes.
• While the chicken is simmering away, we need to make the furnace part of the glaze. There are two ways we can go about this. First option, place the rest of the habanero peppers, 3 cloves of garlic, half a rhizome of ginger and a whole chopped onion into an earthenware grinding bowl and grind till you have a half rough half smooth habanero paste. Second option, place the same ingredients into a blender and pulse 10–15 times with as little water as possible.
• With the option where you use an earthenware bowl, leave the paste in the bowl and set it aside. With the blender, pour the paste into a bowl and set aside.
• Now for the sweet part, place on high heat, 200ml of water into a saucepan till it boils. After it boils, add to the boiling water, 100ml of honey. Stir as you pour in the honey into the water and allow to boil. Add 1 teaspoon of chili flakes and curry powder to the boiling solution and allow to boil for a further 2 minutes but do not stir. When you notice the color of the solution beginning to darken, add half a teaspoon of salt to the solution and allow to boil for a further 5 mins.
• Take the saucepan off the heat and allow to cool. This is not the traditional sticky glaze(I find that terribly annoying) but rather a light glaze. So you will realise the glaze is rather “watery”.
• Now to making Sweet Furnace. If you used an earthenware bowl, place that on medium heat and add the cooled glaze. If u used a blender, place the glaze back on the heat and add the pepper paste. In both cases , allow it to come to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Sweet Furnace is primed and ready. (Your kitchen should be smelling like a savory honey comb by now.)
• Now that we are done with the glaze lets get back to the chicken. Place a saucepan about 3/4 full of oil(Canola or Sunflower) on high heat. The oil should be as hot as possible to enable a quick seal of the chicken. We don’t want any of those beautiful juices leaking into the oil. Fry for 3–6 minutes or until it just turns golden brown.
• Remove the fried chicken from the oil and place in colander to drain the excess oil. While the chicken pieces are still warm, place them in a bowl and drizzle (to your taste. I usually use 3 ladles) sweet furnace over them. Toss the chicken till you have even distribution of the glaze. Cover with foil and allow to sit for 30 minutes.
• Before you serve, Drizzle more sweet furnace over the chicken pieces and toss. Chop into smaller pieces to serve as an appetizer. Leave whole and serve with a side of mashed potatoes or jasmine rice. In fact, you can use it in anyway you deem appealing to you palette . Don’t forget to serve with extra sweet furnace (For those who like their pepper BLAZING HOT).