A chicken breakthrough?
I just cooked the best chicken dish I've made yet, and I haven't even gotten to the better chicken I bought recently---this was with the supercheep water-bloated Aldi chicken.
I knew it was do or die on that chicken because it would have gone bad soon. Fortunately I already had cooked rice in the fridge so I could focus on the chicken. I didn't want to do anything to complicated, so I knew I was just going to sort of steam the chicken on the stovetop the "normal" way, but I also knew that I would probably like it more if I let it cook significantly longer than I have been. 25 mins instead of like 15. I haven't used a lot of the sage I bought a few days ago, so I also knew I wanted to use that.
What I wound up doing was rinsing the drumsticks, drying them off, salting them, peppering them, garlic powdering them, searing them in butter, and then pouring chicken stock and a good splash of apple cider vinegar in the pan and closing the lid. Pretty typical. Except the garlic powder is new. Huge time saver when I want garlic flavor (which I always do) without chopping half a head of garlic (which I tolerate for the blissful end it leads to, but do not strongly desire per se).
At first I said, once the chicken is done, I'll take it out, deglaze with just a little Shaoxing, then put a bunch of butter in the pan and throw my minced sage in with it; meanwhile I'll heat up the rice in butter in another pan. But I decided to flip that. I made the sagey butter in the other pan, and when I took the chicken on of its pan when it finished cooking, I deglazed, poured about half that sauce on the chicken on the plate, then threw a little butter and the cooked rice that I wanted to reheat. I stirred it around until the rice was hot, slightly buttery, and coated in the remains of the chicken sauce. I put that on the plate next to the chicken, and poured the sagey butter over everything.
Right before the rice went in the pan in foreground
It was DELICIOUS, finally, with no asterisks! I enjoyed every bite, and could have served it someone with a straight face. I must have been undercooking my chicken a little before. Oops. Whatever I did it totally took away or masked that "something's a little weird" taste I had been having. The sage was so lux. I am so delighted.
A happy Mothers Day to all mothers who read this (like mine <3 )!