Honey Soy Chicken

I love chicken pieces baked with honey & soy sauce. It's my favourite thing to have with rice & stir fried vegies...with all those pan juices made into a sauce that goes over it all and flavours the rice. Mmmmm, yum. The other night I was looking for a stronger flavour hit. You'd probably get that with Tamari sauce (a wheat free soy sauce), but that's super expensive, so I decided to try using Kecap Manis ~ a sweet Indonesian soy sauce. It's thicker and darker than the regular soy sauce I buy. If you scroll down to Indonesian soy on this wikipedia article, you'll see what the bottle looks like.

All I can say is WOW! I should've been using the kecap manis well before now. The flavour was more intense and perfect. Exactly what I was after. The colour of the chicken was amazing ~ a dark gleaming burnish, and lots of pan juices to make that sauce!

Honey Soy Chicken

Chicken Leg Pieces ~ enough for your family
2 spoonfuls of honey
ketcap manis (about 1-2 tablespoons)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/375F.
   
2. Place the honey in a bowl ~ an ordinary cereal bowl will do.
3. Add the kecap manis. It pours very slowly, so mix as you go, until it goes a really dark colour. Add some regular soy sauce to thin the mixture out if you want to.
4. Brush the chicken pieces with the honey soy mixture and place skin side up in a greased glass baking dish.
5. Bake for 45-60 minutes, brushing with pan juices after the first half hour of cooking.

To make a sauce to go over rice, you just pour all the pan juices at the end of the cooking time into a saucepan and add about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of water. Mix about 1-2 tablespoons of cornflour with some water into a smooth loose paste and add to the saucepan. Place on a medium heat and stir continually until it boils and thickens.

This chicken also goes really nicely with salads. Perhaps a potato salad, my Asian salad or a crisp garden salad. Perfect if you want something for guests ... even without the sauce.