Ginger Chicken & Caramel Anything
Over the holidays, my aunt who was visiting from Washington showed me how she makes a classic caramelized pork, the main steps of which are essentially the same for most claypot style dishes, including ginger chicken. There was nothing truly groundbreaking in her demonstration, and in fact, my mom has showed me many times how to do the exact same thing. The difference, however, is that my aunt took the time to measure everything out. And, given how many times I’ve tried and failed at caramelizing, I decided to also use the opportunity to get my caramelization game right.
Up until now, my caramel sauce technique has been extremely finicky. Most of the time, it comes out light and slightly under-flavored after I completely burn the initial attempt. After some repeated practice, I noted a few important takeaways:
- Watch it carefully as it cooks quickly once the sugar starts to melt (between the 3 and 4 minute marks). I notoriously try to multi-task in the kitchen but turning away for even a few seconds once the sugar starts to melt can result in a burnt batch.
- Cook on high heat undisturbed, but note that different pans heat differently. I found that with a Caphalon or dutch oven, I should turn the heat to medium/high. However, in an All-Clad, medium heat was more appropriate to prevent burning.
- The sauce should start to look a little burnt, but throw in the shallots soon after. Otherwise, if the shallots are thrown in while the sugar is still a golden brown color, the resulting dish will be a lot more mild (not bad, but not as flavorful or punchy).
I hope that breaking down the technique and the ingredient proportions will be helpful to others who may not have mastered caramelization yet. You may even end up rethinking ever ordering these kinds of dishes again in restaurants given how simple and delicious it can be coming from your own kitchen.
The recipe given below is for ginger chicken. However step 2 alone can be used to create caramel (aka claypot) anything (pork chop, fish, shrimp, etc).
Ginger Chicken
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-2" pieces
- 2 medium shallots, sliced
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 3 inches one inch wide piece of ginger (or equivalent size), cut into match sticks. If cooking for children, reduce by 1/3-1/2 because kids sometimes complain the ginger is spicy.
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
Marinade
- 1/8 cup fish sauce
- 1/8 cup sugar
Instructions
- Marinate chicken with fish sauce and sugar. Refrigerate.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil with 1/8 cup sugar on medium high heat in non-stick pan or medium heat for stainless steel pan. Once sugar starts to turn dark brown at edges (about 4 minutes), give it a quick stir and add shallots. Cook shallots for 2 minutes or until softened and has absorbed color.
- Add ginger and cook for another 2 minutes until slightly softened.
- Add chicken and 1/4 cup fish sauce. Cook off for about 15 minutes until liquid has evaporated.