Quick and Easy: Sweet-and-sour Chicken with Garlic

Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal

Perfect this chicken sauté and you'll have a wide range of dinner choices — complete with sauce you make.

Heat a thin layer of fat in a wide skillet large enough to hold the meat in a single layer without crowding. Heat over high heat for a minute or so, then add meat. Use a fork to move the pieces around for a minute to help prevent sticking. Add a little liquid, cover and simmer gently until the meat is cooked.

The liquid can be a meat broth, wine, a thin condiment, a sweet vinegar or fruit juice. The flavorful cooking liquid, augmented by the meat juices, creates a delicious sauce — think of it as pan gravy.

The flavorful liquid in our chicken dish comes from a little honey and vinegar to make a sweet-sour sauce. Substitute apricot preserves for the honey or lemon juice for the vinegar, if you like. If you're fresh out of garlic, make this chicken dish with crushed red pepper flakes, or grated fresh ginger, or powdered ginger.

Serve this dish with green beans sesame (below).

• 4 to 8 chicken thighs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Pat chicken thighs dry. Heat olive oil in a wide skillet or pan wide enough to hold all the chicken in a single layer. Heat over high heat for on minute.

Add the chicken thighs skin side down. Brown for two or three minutes, then turn the chicken over. Add garlic and cook two or three minutes more.

Reduce heat to low. Add honey and vinegar and stir briefly between the chicken pieces to combine.

Cook 30 or 40 minutes, or until cooked through.

Serves four.

Green beans sesame: Rinse and trim green beans. Fill a wide skillet with 1/2 inch of water. Bring to a boil, then add green beans. Turn the heat down to simmer, cover and cook five minutes, stirring twice. Drain the beans in a colander; plunge into ice water; drain and dry. Wipe the skillet dry.

Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and 1/4 cup sesame seeds. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until seeds are golden. Add the green beans and two or three shakes of soy sauce.