Tamarind-Glazed Chicken Thighs

Tamarind paste and fresh orange juice create a lively, sweet/sour, caramelly, smoky glaze for roasted chicken thighs. Recipe below.

TAMARIND’S INTERNATIONAL APPEAL is what caught our eye first. The tamarind tree is native to Africa, but is now grown all over Asia and in Mexico. According to The Spruce Eats, the dark, sour, sticky paste made from its fruit is a common ingredient in Thai, Indian and Mexican cuisines, as well as Vietnamese, Latin, and Caribbean cooking. Here, it teams up with orange juice to bring a bright, citrusy freshness to oven-roasted chicken thighs.

Tamarind paste is inexpensive and readily available. A little bit goes a long way, and it has an incredibly long shelf life—we’re already looking at other ways to cook with it. Also according to The Spruce Eats, “the thickness and strength of tamarind paste vary widely depending on which brand you use. If the paste is runny, you will need to add more to achieve the right flavor. Taste-test your recipe to achieve the right sweet-sour balance, adding more paste or more sweetener until the desired flavor is reached.”

In addition to the tamarind paste and orange juice, onion, ginger, crushed red pepper and honey (to balance the tamarind’s sourness) create the glaze for the chicken. A garnish of orange zest, sliced scallions and torn mint leaves adds to the freshness of this deliciously complex dish.

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Tamarind-Glazed Chicken Thighs

Tamarind paste and fresh orange juice create a lively, sweet/sour, caramelly, smoky glaze for roasted chicken thighs. Adapted from The New York Times.

Course Main Course, Poultry

Cuisine Asian-inspired

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds total)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger (or fresh ginger paste in a tube)
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/2 cup orange juice, squeezed from fresh oranges, if possible
• zest of an orange (if using fresh oranges)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1+ tablespoon tamarind paste (see Kitchen Notes)
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• some fresh mint leaves, torn
• cooked rice, for serving

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400ºF. While oven is heating, pat chicken thighs dry with a paper towel and season generously with salt and black pepper.
• Heat olive oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat and add thighs skin side down. Cook until nicely browned, about 6 to 8 minutes. Reserve a generous tablespoon of fat from the skillet. Turn the chicken thighs skin side up and transfer skillet to the oven. Reduce oven heat to 375ºF and roast chicken for 20 minutes.
• While the chicken roasts, make the glaze. Heat the reserved chicken fat to a medium saucepan over medium-high. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened. Add the ginger, crushed red pepper and 1/2 cup of water, bring to a gentle boil and reduce the heat to medium.
• Scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the orange juice, honey and tamarind, and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes, until glossy and reduced. As it simmers, taste to see if it needs more tamarind—add just a little at a time until you get the right balance of sour and sweet.
• Pour the glaze over the chicken and return to the oven to roast for an additional 12 to 15 minutes, until the skin is caramelized and the sauce is slightly thickened.
• Serve with rice and garnish with the orange zest (if using), scallions and mint.

Kitchen Notes

How much tamarind paste? Again, per The Spruce Eats, the thickness and strength of tamarind paste vary widely depending on which brand you use. Start with a tablespoon when making the glaze and add more as needed to get the sour/sweet balance you like. We used about 1-1/2 tablespoons of our brand.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. This charming, bird-covered antique platter has seen plenty of action here at Blue Kitchen. Marion covered its fascinating story in the Kitchen Notes of this post.