Chicken in Black Sesame Sauce

This is an ancient recipe tweaked to fit current times. The dish uses black sesame for the base of the sauce, that is packed with nutritional goodness to protect liver, kidney and blood production. It’s sweet and peppery flavours are both comforting and warm to the stomach. The nutty aromas create an almost carefree, blithe atmosphere that can nurture anyone back into high spirits after a hard day’s work. The results are best when the chicken is marinated accordingly. As such this recipe does require a bit of pre-planning and prepping. However, the cooking process is pretty straight forward and is easy to follow.

Ingredients

• ½ kilo boneless chicken
• 2 tablespoon black sesame
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 2 green chillies
• 6 cloves garlic made into paste
• 1 inch ginger made into paste
• 6 shallots diced finely
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar (or molasses sugar)
• Salt to taste

Directions

• Mix chicken, garlic, ginger and salt in a bowl. Marinate for 2 hours.
• Heat oil in pan and once oil is hot add the sugar or molasses into the oil. Let it caramelised a bit and then add the onions.
• Cook the onions till they caramelise, then add the chicken. Let it cook.
• In the meantime blend sesame, pepper and chillies into a fine paste (use 1 to 2 tablespoons of water)
• Once chicken turns brown just slightly (but still juicy), add the sesame paste and let it thicken (add a bit of water if needed but not more than 2 or 3 tablespoon).
• When chicken is almost done the sesame paste will start to cover and stick to the chicken.  Oil too will start to separate. At this point the chicken is ready and you can dish them out on a plate.  

Serving note: Serve with plain white/brown/red rice or bread.

Happy Cooking!