Chicken w/ Asian BBQ Sauce

Happy New Year everyone! 2010 will be big for me, hopefully. A few resolutions:

- be a nicer person. I'm somewhat known as a brash and straight forward person. I don't normally take "feelings" into consideration. I know this is sometime a bad and a good thing, but I'm working towards improving on just being "nicer" and more approachable.

- cook a 5 course dinner for friends. I've wanted to do this for a long time, and I think I've got enough solid dishes that I can actually pull this through. Look for this when it starts to get warmer!

- get a new car. This I'm in the process of doing right now. It's just so hard finding something to stick with and in my price range.

- expand my cookbook collection. Right now I've got about 5 or 6 solid cook books. I want more. And I plan on getting more vintage cookbooks and anything I can get my hands on.

- get accepted to pharmacy school. With my application in since the beginning of October, I still haven't heard anything. The only correspondence I've received is that "we are reviewing other applicants/application and when we get to yours we'll get back to you." Who says that?!?! Come on people, am I in or not? Patience is a virtue, I suppose.

That's just a few things I want to do in 2010. I hope to accomplish them all, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Anyway, this Chicken would not even be close to being as good if it weren't for the bbq sauce. It's amazingly tasty!


Ingredients:
Adapted from Food & Wine's November Issue - "Chicken Drumsticks w/ Asian Barbecue Sauce"

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Chine 5-spice powder
1 whole chicken (about 3 lbs)
salt and pepper
3/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons minced ginger
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon sesame oil
sesame seeds (optional)

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

Mix the vegetable oil and the 5-spice powder in a small bowl. Lather the chicken up with this stuff. Get it nice and shiny. Then season the bird with enough salt and pepper to your liking. Place the bird on a rack in a roasting pan. Roast for a total of an hour, turning once in between, but just make sure it is cooked through, depending on the size of your bird.

While that's in the oven, you can prepare your sauce. In a food processor, combine the hoisin sauce, chili sauce, rice vinegar, chicken stock, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and a dash of salt and pepper. Combine until nice a smooth. You'll have small bits of ginger and garlic, but that's okay. Transfer the sauce to a small saucepan and simmer until it thickens just a bit, for about 5 minutes.

Periodically through the roasting period, brush the sauce onto the chicken. Turn over chicken about halfway through, and continue to brush on sauce.

Let chicken rest for about 10-15 minutes after removing from the oven. Carve accordingly and plate. Top with toasted sesame seeds.


I really loved this dish. It makes me never want normal barbecue sauce again! There are just so many flavors singing in your mouth when you bite into this juicy chicken! I served it with a simple sweet potato and cranberry casserole which was just delicious and paired well with the chicken. Enjoy!