Everyday Food (June 2012)
We could name dozens of things we love about getting food magazines each month, but toward the top of that list would be new ideas. Whether it's a tip, a new kind of cuisine, or a product that we've never heard of, we love being exposed to things in the food world we otherwise wouldn't see.
And we especially love when this deals with new ingredients, or new ways to use ingredients that we may not always consider.
This recipe for Sticky Orange-Glazed Chicken Thighs is a great example of that. It incorporates an unusual ingredient that may surprise you.
Personally, we never buy the stuff. (In fact, we never buy orange juice unless guests are coming and we're planning to serve breakfast or brunch. We do, however, buy other citrus concentrates to make a certain potent summer potable.) And perhaps because of that, we've never considered using it as an actual cooking ingredient in the kitchen.
But Everyday Food has changed that with their feature on ways to incorporate orange juice concentrate into your cooking. There's a delicious-looking Braised Fish with Orange and Soy, as well as some classic summer Creamy Orange Pops. But we made a beeline for the Sticky Orange-Glazed Chicken Thighs.
In this recipe, the concentrate is combined with ketchup, brown sugar, Worchestershire, vinegar and hot sauce to make a sweet, tangy sauce. Once it's applied to baked chicken thighs, it creates a wonderfully flavorful glaze. It's like an orange take on barbecue sauce.
The sauce is marvelous on the chicken thighs, but the best thing about it is how versatile it is. We've already used the leftover sauce on salmon (which was heavenly), as an add-in to some whipped sweet potatoes (which was fantastic), and as a finishing sauce on a steak (which, how could you go wrong??).
And because this recipe didn't use the entire can of concentrate, we froze the leftover o.j. in ice cube trays. We're already thinking about adding it to vinaigrettes and other impromptu sauces we make for summer grilling.
Do you have other ideas for using juice concentrates in the kitchen? Please share them!
Sticky Orange-Glazed Chicken Thighs
Everyday Food
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(This photo: Everyday Food)
INGREDIENTS
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup thawed orange juice concentrate
1 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
4 teaspoons white-wine vinegar
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons hot sauce
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with rack in upper third. Season chicken with salt and pepper and arrange, skin side down, on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until deep golden brown and cooked through, 45 to 50 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine 1 teaspoon salt, juice concentrate, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook until mixture has thickened, 18 to 20 minutes.
Heat broiler. Transfer chicken to a large bowl, add glaze, and toss to coat. Drain off fat from sheet. Return chicken to sheet and broil until sauce is bubbling and chicken is dark brown in spots, 1 to 2 minutes.
