Ugli Chicken . . .

My kids are wanting me to buy all sorts of interesting things at the grocery store lately.

Things like "ugli" fruit. Aptly named isn't it?

It improves slightly upon opening. The aroma is pure sunshine though! Like a tart orange . . . a lemony orange . . .

So I said to myself . . . "Self! Listen up! We are making chicken . . . chicken with citrus . . . and soy . . . and HERBS don't forget the herbs!"

I thought . . . that doesn't really sound like anything I've heard of before . . . Then I heard "Self! That's ridiculous! It will have a small Thai influence! The Thai love salty, sweet, bitter, hot, sour stuff!"

I thought . . . okay . . . why am I always so rude to myself?

I need a doctor . . .

Let's go ahead and get started on a marinade!

I used a whole tablespoon of coriander seed that I crushed up a little with the handle of my citrus reamer. In the end I wished I had just used the ground stuff. Those hulls are a little . . . chewy . . . to eat.

Copious amounts of garlic are always good!

Soy sauce!

Now to juice that ugli fruit . . . it was amazingly easy!

It was so squishable!

Look at the juice that came out of it! I had to switch bowls!

New bowl! No wonder I now run the dishwasher twice a day.

Chop up some green onion! I recommend you do it smaller than this. Then you don't have to rinse off the marinade before you grill the chicken.

Mince up some cilantro! The tinier it is the more the flavor will soak in.

A little basil . . .

Some mint for freshness!

Toss 'em all in! Now I'll tell you. This stuff is tasty just like it is! You could skip that whole marinade thing and just grill some chicken breasts or whatever your normal way and just toss the chicken in this after it was cooked and really please people! In fact I plan to do that with some chicken breasts soon! It's herbaceous, garlicky, salty, sweet, and sour in one big bowl!

Or, be like me, and get yourself a nice pan full of chicken thighs . . .

 . . . and throw your marinade on. Let it sit in it for several hours. Please disregard the chunky greenery. It's much better if you make it smaller if you're using it as a marinade.

Cook it over "indirect" heat. After 45 minutes it'll look like this. The juice and soy make for some good color! But what if you want an orangey crust? Then you'll want a little glaze for the end.

I took some orange marmalade.

Added a little complexity . . .

Then I made it spreadable with some soy sauce.

Mix it together until its sort of syrupy.

Glaze your chicken and cook it another 10 minutes or so. If you didn't have carmelization before . . . you will now!

Oh, it's too pretty to eat!

Maybe not . . . It's salty and sweet. There's a gentle undercurrent of citrus with a pop or orange on the crispy skin. The herbs add a gentle complexity to the interior meat.

The herbs would of been stronger if I had minced them tinier so they could cling to the chicken through the grilling! You might want to save some and toss them on the chicken after it's cooked.

Ugli Chicken

8 chicken thighs

for the marinade/dipping sauce*
1/2 cup ugli fruit juice, from 1 ugli fruit**
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 large cloves garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
3 green onions, chopped finely
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped finely
1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped finely
2 Tbsp mint leaves, chopped finely

for the glaze, mix together
2 Tbsp orange marmalade
1/4 tsp Asian 5-spice powder
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Mix marinade ingredients together and pour over chicken. Marinade covered in refrigerator for 4-6 hours. Grill chicken over indirect heat for 40-45 minutes and then glaze and cook for 10-15 more minutes.

To make glaze, mix marmalade and spice powder together. Thin with soy sauce until you get a syrupy mixture you can spread with a brush.

*if you wish you can skip marinating the chicken and just use the marinade as a sauce for the chicken after it's cooked. This would be ideal for chicken breasts. For safety reasons you can't use the marinade for both!

**if you don't have an ugli fruit mix orange juice and lemon juice together until you have something that pleases your palate.