Easy spicy chicken thighs

 When chicken is on sale, I can't resist. This is an easy way. 

Ingredients: 

• Chicken thighs. I used 5 of the skinless bone-in ones. Use whatever's on sale!
• Rice flour, about half a cup. If you don't have it, use cornstarch. If you don't have it, use flour. 
• An egg.
• Chili sauce, about 2 Tablespoons (see note*)
• soy sauce, about 1 tsp
• salt (optional, but c'mon)  and pepper
• cooking oil, about a tablespoon -- enough to cover the bottom of the pan you are using
• water or broth or wine or beer, about half a cup -- enough to cover the bottom of the pan to about 1/2 inch.

Implements: 

Cast iron "chicken fryer" or Dutch oven or other burner-to-oven vessel large enough to hold the number of chicken thighs you are using, but see note**

baking sheet or a platter

2 pie pans or wide bowls or one of each

Procedure

Salt the chicken. Or not. Add pepper, or not.

Put the rice flour in one  or pie pan and the egg and soy sauce in the other.*** Mix the egg with a fork. Dip each chicken thigh in the egg mixture, then in the rice flour, and transfer to the baking sheet/platter.

Set the oven to 375F. 

Heat the oil in the cast iron pan over high heat. When it's hot, add the chicken thighs, in two batches if necessary to avoid crowding the pan. After about 5 minutes, check for brownness and if it's there, flip them over for another 3 or 4 minutes. (If you have to work in batches, I'm fine with putting the browned ones back on the baking sheet where the raw ones were because they are going to be cooking at 375F.)

Put all of the browned chicken pieces back in the pan and spoon in the chili sauce and whatever liquid you have chosen.

 Put in the oven, which should have hit 375 by now. Set timer for 30 minutes. If you are going to serve with rice or noodles, this would be a good time to prepare them. 

Notes: 

 * I used Chili Garlic sauce that is apparently "Vietnamese style," but there are dozens of kinds of garlic sauce, ranging from sweet and mild to hot. Start mild unless you know you like fire. You can always add hot sauce. If I were using regular sweet chili sauce, I would probably add garlic to it at least.

**If your skillet isn't ovenproof (sometimes handles aren't) or your ovenproof casserole dish isn't suitable for stovetop cooking, you could actually cook the chicken right on the baking sheet. Careful with the water, though -- you might not be able to use as much, therefore you will have less sauce at the end. 

***I use rice flour, if I have it, or cornstarch, which I always have, because it produces a lighter "breading," more like tempura. Also, it's less messy than the flour-egg-breadcrumb breading that one typically uses on fried chicken. You do you.
 

 

Clearly, you could add any number of veggies to this, including onions and bell peppers, or even cashews.