Dinner tonight: Honey mustard baked chicken with long grain and wild rice

This was a late "Hey I have some chicken I should use, what can I do?" idea that I did a little internet research on. Spaghetti Monster bless allrecipe.com because the reviews there have gotten really good. Very insightful commentary really gives a lot of information about what's good and bad about a recipe, and seeing how two dozen people modify a recipe and what their results were gives a lot of information about what is really important about a recipe and why it's structured the way it is. Really good stuff and I am a much better cook because of this wealth of information. Kudos to allrecipes.

After doing a bit of research, I found a honey mustard chicken recipe that had many raves and had a really interesting twist: curry powder. In particular, one review suggested a bit of garam masala, and having tasted both I thought that sounded fantastic.

Honey Mustard Curry Sauce

• 1/4 cup melted butter


• 1/4 cup spicy brown mustard


• 1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard


• 1/4 cup honey


• 1 tablespoon curry powder


• 1/2 tablespoon garam masala


• 1 teaspoon salt


• Garlic to taste (I like garlic, so there was lots)

Whisk all ingredients until smooth.

Baked chicken with sauce

• Chicken pieces.

I happened to have chicken thighs and drumsticks available in the freezer. Many reviewers used boneless skinless chicken breasts. I am sure they are fantastic, but they are going to be a little more sensitive to being overcooked. I would use more butter and very carefully monitor temperature when cooking white meat chicken. Since I used dark meat, I felt comfortable not monitoring the temperature. It can overcook.

I laid out what turned out to be, after I thawed it out, 6 thighs and 10 drumsticks across two baking dishes. I split the sauce equally between them, used a brush to ensure they were completely coated and left the rest in the bottom of the dish. Covered both with foil and baked at 350 degrees for one hour. Removed the foil, basted the chicken with the sauce and then broiled for another 15 minutes.

Many of the recipe comments suggested serving this on a bed of long grain and wild rice. Given the Indian accent to the dish, long grain definitely appealed, and I liked the idea of wild rice for texture. Conveniently I have some wild rice sitting around that I've had for...a long time. It'd been sitting for so long in part because my last attempt to cook it failed miserably. This time, I prepared. You'll want to start the rice a little bit before your 1 hour timer goes off.

Long grain and wild rice

• 2 cups long grain rice -- such as basmati


• 1 cup wild rice


• one quart container of chicken stock


• Spices to taste. In my case: Tarragon and thyme seemed like a nice complement to curry (and tarragon is probably the herb I reach for most often with rice, and thyme is a very close second). And a pinch of salt.


• A teaspoon or so of butter or some other oil

This is your basic pilaf, but the two grains must be cooked for different lengths of time. Start by melting the butter in a saucepan, and then coating the wild rice in the butter and cooking for a couple of minutes. You can tell it's ready by the lovely aroma the wild rice gives off when it's good and warm. Add in the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to the barest simmer you can manage, cover and let this go for 25 minutes.

Then add the white rice and spice. Stir and cover. Set your timer for 15 minutes. When finished, let cool, then fluff.

I served this with a random frozen vegetable on the side -- in this case peas and carrots -- but any vegetable you find appealing is nice here, I think. We like peas a lot because the little one loves them.

Result

This was freakin' fantastic. I was worried it would be too mustardy. It was not. I was worried it would be to curry-y. (Not a word, I know). It was not. I was worried it would be too sweet. It was maybe on the edge, a little less honey would probably be okay next time. Or as Pamela suggested, maybe use coconut milk which would create a completely different experience. Still. Awesome. Totally awesome. a+++++++ would buy again.