gluten-free | dairy-free
This savory sweet chicken is naturally gluten-free and dairy-free—chicken thighs in a velvety caramel-soy sauce, adapted from Bon Appétit’s caramel chicken, served with sautéed bok choy and rice. The sauce is deeply flavored and the bok choy makes it a complete meal. Victoria’s go-to for breaking out of the same-old-chicken-thigh rut.
We eat a lot of chicken. Coming up with different ways to cook chicken is always a challenge, and when I came across the recipe for Caramel Chicken on the Bon Appetit website, I was thrilled. The ingredients were different than most chicken recipes I usually find, so I was very excited to make it. I was not disappointed at all. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
After making it exactly like the recipe stated, I made it again and changed a couple of things. I mainly added bok choy and rice as side dishes to make it a complete meal.
The flavor profile leans toward Asian, but I would not say it is an Asian dish. Just a nod to Asian cuisine. The sweet and savory flavors are well-balanced and give what could be a boring chicken thigh dish great complexity. The sauce is velvety smooth with a richness you will love. It is so good, you may want to make extra. I know I am going to do just that the next time I make this recipe.
Some cooking points:
- Be patient when browning the chicken. You really want to achieve a golden brown color on both sides of the chicken thighs, and if you don’t, you will diminish some of the flavors.
- Also, be patient when thickening the sauce, and don’t be afraid to increase the heat to keep it at a medium boil to help it thicken.
Bok choy (Chinese cabbage) is not the most popular vegetable side dish, and I hope that after you make it, you will see why it should be a more frequent guest at dinner.
Now, go eat something amazing!
Gluten-Free Savory Sweet Chicken with Bok Choy and Rice
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The Ingredients
The Rice
- 2 cups white rice, Jasmine or your favorite white rice
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 cup water
- pinch kosher salt
The Chicken
- 2 1/2 lbs chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
- 2 tbsp Healthy Harvest Sunflower Oil
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, light
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, unseasoned
- 2 slices ginger, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup tamari sauce, gluten-free of course!
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 scallions, sliced thinly
- Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste
The Bok Choy
- 1 bunch bok choy, chopped
- 1 tbsp tamari sauce
- 1 tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread
- Kosher salt and pepper to taste
The Process
Mise en Place
- Gather all your ingredients.
- Peel the garlic cloves. Peel and slice the ginger. Slice the scallions. Chop the bok choy.
- Measure out the Earth Balance and tamari for the bok choy.
- Measure out the brown sugar, rice vinegar, chicken stock, water, and tamari sauce
- Season the chicken, on both sides, liberally with kosher salt and pepper.
- After you finish all your prep, get the rice started. Make the rice using half water and half stock. This will result in much more flavorful rice. Bring the water and stock to a boil. Add a pinch of kosher salt and the rice. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. White the rice is cooking, you will get started on the rest of the meal.
Cook the Chicken
- Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat until the oil is hot and shimmering. If all your chicken does not fit in the pan, add half the chicken, skin side up, and cook, without moving, until the underside is golden brown and crisp. Be patient!! Flip and cook the other side until golden brown. Transfer chicken to a plate and if cooking in two batches, use the same cooking and transfer process with the rest of the chicken. Remove the fat left in the pan.
Make the Sauce
- Add a 1/2 cup water to the pan, scraping up the brown bits left by the chicken. Add the brown sugar and stir to dissolve it. Continue stirring until the sauce thickens and becomes a deep amber color.
- Add the rice wine vinegar, carefully, and continue stirring. Add ginger, chicken stock and tamari and stir. Season lightly with Kosher salt and ground pepper.
- Add back the chicken, skin side up. Add in the garlic cloves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
Cook the Bok Choy
- By now, your rice is done. Keep it warm on low until you serve it.
- While the chicken is simmering, you can cook the bok choy. It won't take long so you may want to wait until you have about 10 minutes of cooking time left on the chicken simmer.
- Heat sunflower oil in a skillet on medium and when hot, add the bok choy. Season with Kosher salt and ground pepper. Saute the bok choy until it begins to soften. Add the tamari and Earth balance and reduce to low. Keep on low until time to serve.
Thicken the Sauce
- After the chicken has simmered for 20-25 minutes, remove it from the skillet. Bring the sauce to a boil and cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Once the sauce is thickened, remove the garlic cloves, add back the chicken and coat all sides in the sauce.
Garnish and Serve
- Garnish the chicken with scallions.
- Plate with rice and bok choy and enjoy!