chicken mewn saws oren-mwstard

You are probably thinking either I fell asleep on the keyboard, or, am stuck with a keyboard with more w's than normal, right?

Well, the name is D's creation. I made this dish for him, going purely by what he was in the mood for (even though I wasn't), and since I didn't really have a name for it as I wasn't following any particular recipe, I let D name this dish. Which, as you can see, was not such a smart idea, as he chose to name it in Welsh :-)

Simply put, the name of this dish translates to chicken with a sauce orange-mustard.

Which says it all, basically. D had this beer-mustard sauce he wanted to try, and was in the mood for chicken with citrus/orange flavor, and that's how this dish came about.

Basically, D thawed a few frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, and brined them overnight, then chopped them to bite-size pieces. I had chopped up some green chilies, garlic, capers finely and let D embed this in the chicken pieces, and let them sit while oil was heating up.



Ingredients
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
2-3 green chilies, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 Tbsp small capers, finely chopped
1 cup fine rice flour (more or less)
1 cup oil for shallow-frying (more or less)

For the sauce:
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 medium tomato, sliced thin
1-2 serrano chilies, sliced thin
¼ cup beer-mustard sauce (or, dijon mustard)
1 medium orange, juiced fully, (save some orange zest for garnish)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar (optional)
1 tsp cayenne pepper powder
2-4 Tbsp tomato sauce (adjust to taste)

Preparation

encrust the chicken pieces with the capers, chilies, garlic mixture

heat the oil in a medium shallow pan

dredge the chicken pieces with some rice flour, just enough to counter the moisture - just sprinkle the flour and toss gently

heat the oven to 250°F and keep a sheet pan handy

shallow fry the chicken pieces in small batches, turn them around so they get browned and cooked evenly; drain and transfer to sheet pan and leave it in the oven till all the chicken pieces are fried, and the sauce is ready — I usually have a small meat thermometer handy and pull the largest piece out of the oil and check its temperature - if it is about 165-170°F I am happy :-)

sauce: once the chicken are all fried, in the same pan (remove any excess oil), add the onion, tomatoes and chilies, sauté a bit, then add the rest of the sauce ingredients, adjust to taste and let it thicken

transfer a portion of the sauce to a serving bowl - to ensure that chicken doesn't get too soggy; add the chicken pieces to the rest of the sauce in the pan and stir well to coat; if it feels too dry, add more sauce as needed

Serve warm with jasmine rice, with the extra sauce on the side.