Connie’s notes
I’ve cooked so many variants of this dish. The citrus juice has varied from lemon to lime to calamansi juice. There were times when the chilies were omitted and there were versions where the chicken was cut into small pieces and tossed with julienned vegetables. They were all good but this one requires the simplest preparation. And all you need is a frying pan to spread your chicken fillets in a single layer.
The sauce is made with equal amounts of calamansi juice, honey and fish sauce. Use that as a starting point. Taste the mixture and decide if you want it more tangy, more salty or more sweet, and add more of whichever ingredient whose taste you want more pronounced.
Ingredients
- 500 grams skin-on chicken thigh fillets (1.1 pounds)
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
Sauce
- ¼ cup calamansi juice
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons minced ginger
To serve
- cooked rice
- finely sliced scallions
Instructions
- Press the chicken fillets between stacks of paper towels to remove surface moisture.
- Set the stove on HIGH and heat the cooking oil in a pan.
- Arrange the chicken fillets in a single layer, skin side down, and cook until the skins are lightly browned. Flip to brown the opposite sides.
- Stir together all the ingredients for the sauce with a quarter cup of water.
- Pour the mixture over the chicken and bring to the boil.
- Cover the pan, set the heat to low and cook the chicken fillets in the sauce for 10 minutes, flipping them over halfway through.
- Uncover the pan, turn up the heat to HIGH and continue cooking the chicken fillets, flipping them every minute, until the sauce has thickened and reduced.
- Scoop rice into shallow bowls, arrange a chicken on top, drizzle in some sauce and garnish with scallions.
20-minute soy calamansi chicken
