Ginger-Soy Chicken Thighs with Scallion Rice

It's time for another quickie entree! This time, we're tapping Cooking Light's immense library, where we found Ginger-Soy Chicken Thighs with Scallion Rice (Cooking Light, Nov 2010).

You'll notice that our ingredient line-up is sparse, with a solid pantry-staple-to-fresh ingredient ratio. Although this dish wasn't advertised as a budget meal in the November issue, it certainly can be pulled together with very little cash. Combined with the relative quickness with which this dish can be assembled, we've got some serious recipe virtues tonight.

Call us snobs, but we've decided we're not big boil-in-bag rice people. We've tried it a few times now, and we tend to find it a little mushy. For the sake of authenticity, we used it per the directions; if we make this again, we'll probably go back to our standard basmati.

After getting the rice going, it's time to cook the chicken. If you're using a pan that lacks non-stick properties, be sure to take your chicken out of the refrigerator ten minutes before you're ready to cook it. Allowing it to come closer to room temperature will generally prevent it from sticking to your pan.

Next, the chicken is removed from the pan and the remaining ingredients (ginger preserves, soy sauce, and garlic) are added to the pan and boiled for 2 minutes until thickened to form a sweet, tasty sauce. The chicken is dunked back into the sauce to coat, and then it's chow-time!

We enjoyed this dish for what it was: quick and easy to prepare. It's not winning you any awards, and it's probably not the kind of dish you make for company, but it is good and a good change of pace from your normal routine.

Also exciting was the opportunity to discover a new ingredient tonight: ginger preserves. The preserves, which we found in the "jams and jellies" section of our grocer, lent a subtle sweetness to the dish, and we're excited to find other recipes that use them. Three cheers for learning!