I just love Oriental honey chicken recipes. Years ago when I lived in LA, I used to love to go to Chinatown. I loved to see the Peking ducks hanging in the windows and smell all the wonderful smells. My business partners and I would often go for Dim Sum at lunch time and what a treat that was. Everything was one dollar! They would bring around the carts and we would just point at what we wanted. I’m always reminded of those happy times when I make this recipe. The honey and soy give the chicken a glazed mahogany color reminiscent of many dishes in Chinatown. Since the flavors are definitely Oriental, I like to make some sort of special rice with this. I like to dress it up with some golden raisins, toasted almonds, green onions – whatever sounds good on that day.
For this honey chicken recipe, we are going to use a nice big roasting chicken – maybe around 6 pounds. While we are preparing our chicken, the oven should be preheating to 400 degrees. We are going to be using one of the lower oven racks, so arrange that first.
First, make the glaze. In a small bowl, mix together 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 2 teaspoons ground ginger and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Set aside 1 tablespoon of this mixture to use at the end of this baked chicken recipe.
In a large baking pan, place 4 quartered carrots and 1 quartered onion. Place a rack on top of the veggies and put the chicken on the rack. Rub the soy mixture in the little bowl all over the inside and outside of the chicken and roast is for 15 minutes. You may need to add a few tablespoons of water if your pan juices start to brown too quickly. Now reduce the oven to 350 degrees and roast for 30 minutes more. Baste the chicken after the 30 minutes and cover it with foil. We will then continue roasting for another 1 1/2 hours – basting every 30 minutes.
Set the chicken on a carving board and cover it loosely with foil. Take the veggies out of the pan and add 1/2 cup of chicken stock to the pan juices and bring to a simmer while scraping the pan.
Strain these juices into a saucepan and skim off as much fat as you can. Now is the time to add that little bit of honey and soy that we set aside earlier. Bring this to a simmer and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serve with the carrots, onions and some nice side dish of rice.
Enjoy one of my favorite honey chicken recipes - Honey-Glazed Oriental Roasted Chicken!
