Glazed Five-Spice Chicken: It’s What’s for Dinner.

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My family and I, like many people, eat a lot of chicken dinners. Chicken can be repetitive. Chicken can be boring. Chicken can also be aromatic, complex, and comforting. Glazed Five-Spice Chicken is the latter. Plus, this is an easy chicken dinner that bakes in just under an hour! All the prep is done the day before, so all you have to do is bake it the day you wish to eat it.

Before I started The At-Home Test Cook, I had just finished my culinary certification program, and knew I needed a project to keep the momentum in the kitchen going. Also, I was really sad that class was ending. It was so fun, and came at a time in my life when I really needed it.

Anyway, I looooooooove a good cookbook, so I thought “I’ll cook through an entire cookbook! That will keep me busy!” I picked Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. A few weeks into the project, I realized what I really wanted to do was start this blog, so I abandoned ship on cooking through an entire book, but it got the gastronomical ball rolling. Its abandonment was not Salt Fat Acid Heat’s fault. In this case, it truly wasn’t them, it really was me. If you also love cookbooks, run, do not walk to this link and get yourself a copy of this book! It’s a masterwork, filled with detailed descriptions of both the technique and science behind the basic tenants of cooking. Samin also manages to put so much heart into her writing, that you feel like she is in your kitchen helping you along. It’s just great, and I do intend to try many more recipes by Ms. Nosrat.

Glazed Five-Spice Chicken comes from Salt Fat Acid Heat, and Samin in turn got it from David Tanis. What’s so brilliant about this dish is the fact that it is very simple to put together, but the payout is so complex and beautiful.

The Path to Chicken Enlightenment

You start by making the marinade, which was tons of flavorful heavy-hitters like soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and Chinese five-spice powder, of course. It’s always a good sign when even the raw marinade smells good. Then you pour your marinade over the chicken inside a resealable plastic bag, and let it sit overnight in the fridge. This recipe is especially well-suited to dark meat, due to its high cooking temperature. I used drumsticks and boneless skinless chicken thighs.

The next day, you take the chicken out of the fridge, pour it in a 9×13 baking dish, and bake it at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. You crank the heat up at the end and bake an additional ten minutes. When I first read the recipe, I though the chicken would definitely overbake, but no! Such is the magic of dark meat poultry. It comes out sticky and shiny and wonderful. The first time I made this, my older daughter ate 4 large drumsticks and a thigh. She’s 4.

Chinese five-spice powder is made up of star anise, Szechuan peppercorns, fennel, cinnamon, and cloves, so as the chicken bakes, your house starts to smell like spice heaven. Mark thinks it smells like fall (enter cloves and cinnamon), but of course this dish is perfect to make any time of the year.

Serve Glazed Five-Spice Chicken with jasmine rice and a tangy salad, and let the people feast! Be warned though, whomever you serve this too will probably smooch you. They won’t be able to help it, probably.

When you make this, take a picture and tag me in it! @athometestcook