Soy-Sesame Chicken Thighs with Pan Sauce Recipe

When I was a child, my mother’s signature dish was chicken rubbed with soy sauce and sesame oil, topped with a rich sauce made from the drippings. She served it with steamed Calrose rice, a shower of sliced ​​scallions, and halved hard-boiled eggs on the side. It was a dish from his childhood, something that my great-grandmother Emily, who arrived from the Philippines with my great-grandfather Anthony in the late 1940s, just after World War II, made frequently.

Like many other immigrants, my great-grandparents went to great lengths to assimilate into American culture, even going so far as to change their last name from Sartout to Ogilvie – an American-sounding name they picked out of the phone book. While food was one of the ways they stayed connected to their culture, the way they ate also changed, as many ingredients available in the Philippines were much harder to find in supermarkets in Seattle, where they settled.

I never had the chance to ask my great-grandmother about this beloved dish, as she passed away before I was born. My mother suspects that the meal was inspired by the Filipino flavors that my great-grandparents missed so much, but adapted to use affordable and readily available ingredients at the time. My great-grandmother’s original recipe requires only five ingredients: chicken, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch and water. (Seattle was, and still is, home to a large Chinese immigrant population, which is part of the reason these ingredients were so readily available back then.) Although my version of the dish is almost unchanged from the one my mother ate 50 years ago, I like to season the finished chicken to taste with a touch more salt and a dash of light soy sauce, which I think makes the dish even more delicious.

Opt for dark soy sauce

The first step is to rub the chicken with dark soy sauce and sprinkle it with a small pinch of salt. I prefer dark soy sauce, which is slightly sweeter and thicker than light soy sauce. Its viscosity allows it to adhere well to meat, and the condiment gives the chicken an intense umami flavor and deep caramel hue. In addition to the dark soy sauce, I lightly season the chicken with salt, just to make sure it is well seasoned. If you have time, you can let the chicken rest, in the refrigerator and uncovered, for up to 24 hours, which will result in even more tender, juicy and well-seasoned meat. That said, if you are in a hurry – which is always the case! – don’t hesitate to cook the chicken right away. You will always get perfectly flavorful chicken.

Sesame oil makes chicken skin crispy, golden and delicious

Sesame oil is the other key ingredient in this dish, and it is applied to the chicken after the skin has had time to dry in the oven. There’s a reason I don’t coat chicken in soy sauce and sesame oil at the same time: oil and water don’t mix, and in my testing, I found that adding both at the same time simply caused the oil from the chicken to slide to the bottom of the pan. However, after about 15 minutes in the oven, the chicken skin dried out slightly, allowing the oil to adhere to it. As the chicken continues to cook, the sesame oil helps the skin become golden and crispy, while flavoring it with the aroma of toasted sesame.

Prepare the sauce properly

My mother always used half a chicken cut into pieces, but I prefer thighs, which are harder to overcook and, thanks to their higher fat content, yield more cooking juices, which is crucial for making a delicious pan sauce. Once the chicken is cooked, I remove the meat from the pan, then stir in a slurry of cornstarch to thicken the drippings into a velvety sauce. You can season it with a touch of regular or light soy sauce, or just add salt. If you want, a pinch of MSG wouldn’t hurt either, as would a dash of fish sauce.

For a while when I was in high school, we ate this meal at least once a week – and I was completely sick of it. In fact, before writing this recipe, I hadn’t eaten this chicken in almost 10 years. But when the cravings for comfort food hit me hard in early fall, my mother suggested I revisit her family recipe. Making this chicken myself reminded me how delicious it is, and I now understand why we ate it so often for dinner: With just a handful of ingredients and 10 minutes of active prep time, you’re well on your way to a comfortable and satisfying meal.

I never met my great-grandparents and I’m not particularly close to my mother’s side of the family, but I always felt connected to them and to my own Filipino ancestors through the food my mother prepared for me. For my mother, this chicken brings back memories of her own childhood and for me, it simply tastes like home.