My Five Spice Chicken

I love momo. Steamed ones, of course. I love that moment when you bite into a soft, fluffy momo and juices squirt out and then the flavours of the filling spread through your mouth.  So, there I was for my plate of steaming momos with that fiery sauce at Hamro Momo, my favourite among the three iconic momo places on the Suburban Hospital Road in Calcutta. However, my friend who was with me is not a huge fan of momos…blasphemy? Yes I know….but he is a dear friend. So he wanted something else. I have never had anything other than momos there so I didn’t really know what to order. So we sought help. The guy who had come to take our orders said that he could whip up something special for us, something which was not on the menu supposedly…a roast chicken.

I was a little apprehensive at first but what the guy brought us was delicious, divine. Boneless chicken pieces in a hot, sweet and sticky sauce. It was finger-licking good. I have gone back a few times after that, not for the momos but for that roast chicken, I don’t know though why he called that so. But then the availability of that dish depends on the availability of that guy so I decided I will have to try and replicate that dish or at least trump up something close, and I did.

Here it is though this time around I have used chicken on the bone. 

My five spice chicken

Ingredients:

 Chicken – 1 kg

Garlic Paste – 2 tbsp

Onion Paste – I cup

Vinegar – 2 tbsp

Soy Sauce – ¼ cup

Chopped parsley – ½ cup

Chopped dry red chillies – according to taste

Five spice powder – 1 tbsp and  a pinch

Salt to taste

Sugar – 1 tsp

Honey – 1tbsp   (or according to taste)

Corn flour – ½ tbsp

Oil

Method

Marinate the chicken with vinegar, onion paste, garlic paste, soy sauce, salt, a little sugar, chopped red chillies and five spice powder. Keep for 2 hours, at least.

Heat oil in a pan. Toss in the chicken along with the marinade and cook until chicken is tender. Turn up the heat and the sauce reduces and caramelizes a little. Add a little corn flour diluted in water and the honey at the end. All this while keep the heat high. The sauce has to caramelize well. 

Take it off the heat and dig into it. Goes well with steamed rice too.