Soy & honey chicken with chilli & ginger

Juicy roasted chicken thighs are taken to the next level here with a soy and honey glaze that’s packed with red chilli, ginger and garlic. The fantastic flavours of this roasting glaze muddle with sweet red onions and juicy plums during cooking, and the result is a succulent, extraordinarily flavoursome tray roast that’s both exciting and comforting.

This dynamite dish is great served with simple steamed rice, and some braised red cabbage tossed with a little tamari and rice vinegar or lime juice. The flavours within the tray roast are so powerful and balanced that simple sides are the way to go here.

Vegcentric.

Meat’s a treat! While the overwhelming majority of recipes here are veggie or vegan, a little high welfare animal protein once a week is okay in our book.

Read more on what a vegcentric diet means here.

Prep time: 15 mins.

Cooking time: 50 mins.

This recipe serves 4.

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Ingredients:

• 4 small red onions

• 4 plums

• 1 red chilli 

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 large thumb ginger

• 4 chicken thighs 

• 2 star anise

• 2 tbsp sesame oil

• 4 tbsp tamari / soy sauce

• 2 tbsp runny honey

• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar / rice vinegar

• ½ tsp sea salt

• 4 spring onions, optional

• 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, optional

• Brown rice, to serve

• Red cabbage, to serve

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and remove the chicken thighs from the fridge. Trim away and scraggly or unwanted bits if needs be.

2. Line a roasting tray, skillet or oven-proof serving dish with baking paper. Choose something which can hold all the ingredients snugly in an even layer.

3. Peel the red onions and slice into half-moons, roughly 6-8 per onion depending on size. Halve and de-stone the plums, then slice into half-moons, roughly 6 per plum. Slice the red chilli into rings, peel and finely slice the garlic, and peel the ‘matchstick’ the ginger. If you prefer to mince the ginger with a microplane that’s fine too. Combine all of these ingredients in a large mixing bowl along with the chicken thighs and 2 star anise.

4. In a small bowl whisk together the sesame oil, tamari or soy sauce, honey, vinegar and salt; pour this over the chicken etc. and toss well to coat evenly.

5. Tip everything onto your lined oven tray and make sure the chicken sits skin side up and is suitably exposed.

6. Roast in the middle of the preheated oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove from the oven and baste the chicken with roasting juices, then return to the oven for a further 20 minutes. 

7. While the chicken is roasting you have time to prepare any side dishes you may like to serve - rice? braised red cabbage? simple steamed greens with a squeeze of lime juice?

8. Served in warmed bowls and top with sesame seeds and some sliced spring onions if you wish.