Monday, March 11, 2013

748 - Garlic Chicken In Coke Sauce

Some time ago, I bought a cookbook from the Coca-Cola company that featured recipes that use Coke.  I've very slowly been working through the book.  Many of the recipes are old and from an age when people didn't worry about calories and cholesterol, let alone using Coke as a base ingredient. 
 
Since I have already posted a couple of Coke recipes and food items, people have been asking me to post some more.  I rarely drink Coke anymore, and if I do, there will be rum or maybe rye in it.  The other day, my wife discovered in the back of the fridge a partially-consumed bottle of Coke that had gone flat, which is perfect for cooking. 
 
I can't just publish the Coke recipe here on JSVB, but what I can do is show you what I did, and also show the changes I made to update the recipe:
 
 
GARLIC CHICKEN IN COKE SAUCE
 
 
1 breast of chicken per person (or 3-4 skin-on thighs or drumsticks)
garlic spice
1/8 cup flour per chicken breast
1/8 cup corn flake crumbs per chicken breast
1/2 cup Coke per chicken breast
1/2 cup chicken broth per chicken breast
2 tb butter
 
Pre-heat your oven to 350.
 
The first step is to create a dredge for the chicken.  Combine the flour, corn flake crumbs and garlic spice in a large flat dish.  You can substitute bread crumbs for corn flake crumbs, but I find the corn flake makes a richer-tasting dredge.  Garlic spice can be anything garlicky, from using fresh crushed garlic cloves (1 per breast of chicken, or to taste), to using garlic powder (1 tb per breast of chicken or to taste), or my favourite: Johnny's Garlic Seasoning, which is an all-purpose garlic powder.  Avoid using garlic salt, which is too salty. 
I drew a smiley face in the dredge!
 
Moisten the chicken pieces with a little water and roll them in the dredge until they are all covered.  Melt the butter in a pan under med-hi heat.  Fry the chicken pieces in the hot butter until browned on the outside- you do not cook the chicken all the way through!  Simply fry for a couple of minutes until the coating turns golden, then flip the pieces and do the same to the other side.  Remove the pieces into an oven-safe casserole pot.
 
Mix the Coke and the chicken broth.  You can use storebought broth, or make your own either from scratch or by using bouillon.  Pout the liquid into the pot with the chicken.  The pieces should be swimming in liquid.
 
Place the pot in the hot oven and bake without a lid at 350 for two hours.  That's it!  At the end, there will still be a lot of liquid, but it will thicken into a very tasty soupy gravy.  Remove the chicken from the liquid and serve with vegetables.  You can serve on rice or quinoa, or I would recommend broad egg noodles.  If you pour the gravy on top, you could top the dish with sliced fried mushrooms. 
 
Baked Coke dishes tenderize meat.  The chicken will be so sweet and tender you can eat it with a spoon.  The flavour is rich and remarkably full.  The garlic will be toned down by the long cooking stage, and its flavour blends well with the chicken and Coke.  I ended up drinking some of the gravy, it was so good!  Maybe I just crave the caffeine.  The flavour reminds me of coc au vin, but without wine or alcohol. 
 
After two hours at 350, the baked chicken swims in rich brown Coke sauce.  Yum!