It’s Sunday and we’re only three left in our house, me, my dad and my brother. My mom and sister is in Batangas since Friday night to attend our family reunion. Well, I’m too tired to travel and decided to rest this weekend.
Cooking something special this Sunday is a must. It’s family day anyway. Combining fruits in a savory dish is something unusual in our home. The only dish we adds fruit is the pork hamonado. So, adding lychee and mandarin orange in roasted chicken to make it Baked Lychee and Mandarin Orange Chicken is something different. This Baked Lychee and Mandarin Orange Chicken recipe is inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s recipe of Harvest Chicken with Grapes and Olives.
Ingredients
1/2 kilo Chicken
Salt
Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
7 pieces Black Olives
1 piece Onion
1 Can Lychee
1 Small Can Mandarin orange
1 Bunch Parsley
1/2 cup Reserved Mandarin Orange Juice
1/2 cup Reserved Lychee Juice
pinch Salt
pinch Black Pepper
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 225 degree Celsius. Clean chicken and remove clotted blood and excess fats and pat dry. Generously season the chicken with salt and pepper (don’t be shy).
2. Heat the skillet and add the olive oil. Brown the chicken, skin side down first and turning them over once, roughly around 5 – 7 minutes.
3. Transfer everything in a baking pan. Add the olives, onion, lychee, mandarin orange and parsley and pop in the oven for 20 minutes. (After sometime, the sweet aroma of the caramelizing onion started to filled our kitchen.)
4. Switch off the oven and remove the chicken. Scoop out the chicken juice and return the chicken in the oven to keep warm.
5. In a skillet, add the chicken juice, mandarin and lychee juice, salt and pepper. Simmer and reduce to 1/4 cup.
6. Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon the reduced sauce over the chicken.
HOW DOES IT TASTE?
The Baked Lychee and Mandarin Orange Chicken is sweet and savory. You could actually taste the natural sweetness from the lychee and mandarin orange. The caramelized onion also adds a distinct sweetness and spice to the dish. To maximize the full flavor of the dish, I suggest combining chicken, caramelized onion, lychee and mandarin orange in one scoop (spoon). The flavors of the fruits, caramelized onion and the chicken complements each other well.
For this recipe, I used chicken breast, since it’s the only chicken part available in our fridge. I thick using chicken wings or legs will make the dish more flavorful because of the more fats in it (more fats means more flavors). Also, be generous in seasoning your chicken with salt, the sweetness of the fruits will help to balance the flavor.
