Single Malt Chicken! It’s a very strange name but believe me this is the juiciest packed with flavours chicken you will ever eat!
Let’s talk about Single Malt Scotch Whiskeys for a moment. There is a famous quote by Sir Winston Churchill, “The water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add whiskey. By diligent effort, I learned to like it.” I remember the first time I had single malt, (was a long time ago when I was quite young) I remember adding a lot of water so I could bare drink it but as I grew old as Mr. Churchill said I did learn to like it.
I don’t drink bourbon or blended whiskeys. I love and really enjoy my Single Malts from Scotland. There are some specific ones me and my husband enjoy and some of them are Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Askaig. But since I moved to Singapore I have almost stopped drinking it, as I don’t enjoy it as much as I did in Japan in cold weather.
Fast forward to this recipe, a few weeks ago I had some leftover marinated chicken in the freezer but I didn’t want to make the same old grilled chicken. This is how I came up with this Single Malt Chicken.
I was thinking of adding wine but my husband isn’t a big fan of wine flavoured chicken and I didn’t have wine all I had was some Ardbeg, which has the most amazing smokey flavour and deep taste! I decided to make the chicken with it and tell you what, it was fantastic. I also took a bit of the chicken, it was smokey, juicy and delicious.
To make this chicken, you need to marinate the chicken at least for 8 hours the longer the better. And you need to add smokey single malt like Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Laphroaig 10 or Talisker as it is the star ingredient of the dish.
I served this chicken with pearl couscous but you can serve it rice as well.
Ingredients for Marination (Serves 3):
- 6 chicken drumsticks
- ½ cup fresh coriander
- ½ cup fresh mint
- 2 thai red chillies
- 1 tbsp groundnut or peanut oil
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tsp lime zest
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
Instructions:
Marinate the chicken in the above mentioned ingredients at least for 1 day. The longer the better.
Ingredients for cooking:
- 2 small onions finely sliced
- 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 tsp or to taste red chilli powder or cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp clove powder
- ½ tsp ginger and cinnamon powder
- ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
- ¼ tsp powdered jaggery or sugar
- 1 cup smokey single malt
- ¼ cup water
- Salt to taste
- Mint and coriander for garnishing
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tbsp butter
Instructions:
Heat oil, add onion and sauté for 10 minutes on a low flame till it becomes golden.
Add in the chicken and fry till brown. Add in the spice powders, salt and butter, coat the chicken well.
Add ½ cup single malt and sauté on a high flame and add water. Cook till the chicken is almost done.
Add in the rest ½ cup single malt in and cook till it evaporates.
Garnish with coriander and mint.
Serve with rice or couscous.
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