Marinated and Baked Forbidden City Chicken
Curry, cinnamon, ginger and soy soak into baked chicken breasts for a savory-sweet main with warm spice and glossy pan juices.
Prep 20 min · Cook 40 min · Total 4 hr 40 min · Makes 4 servings
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 3 T peanut oil or canola oil
- 1/2 – 1 tsp. Curry powder
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ginger puree
- 1 tsp. garlic puree
- 3 T sweetener of your choice, see notes, or use brown sugar if you prefer
- 3 T soy sauce, gluten-free if needed
- 1 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 2 T chicken stock
- Sliced green onions for garnish, optional
Directions
- Warm the oil in a small pan for about 1 minute, then take the pan off the heat. Whisk in the curry powder and cinnamon, then the ginger, garlic, and sweetener of your choice. Pour in the soy sauce, lemon juice, and chicken stock, and stir everything together until the marinade is smooth and well mixed.
- Trim away any visible fat and tendons from the chicken. Cut small slashes across each chicken breast, spacing them about 1/2 inch apart from one end to the other, so the marinade can work its way in.
- Put the chicken into a Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over it. Let it marinate in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
- When you’re ready to cook, lift the chicken out of the marinade and set it top side down in a glass or crockery dish, not metal, that you’ve coated with nonstick spray. With a pastry brush, coat both sides of the chicken using the marinade left in the bag, keeping the remaining marinade for one more brushing.
- Let the chicken sit out while you heat the oven to 325F/162C. Once the oven is ready, slide the dish in and bake for 20 minutes.
- Take the dish out, flip the chicken so the top side faces up, and brush it with the marinade you held back in the plastic bag. Discard any marinade that is still unused now. Return the dish to the oven and bake for 10 minutes more.
- After 10 minutes, pull the chicken out again, brush it with the marinade that has gathered in the pan, and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until the chicken is lightly browned and firm to the touch without feeling hard. Don’t let it go too long, or the chicken will dry out. Serve hot.