If, like us, you love keeping up with food trends, you’ll have heard of Sriracha. While it’s the latest craze to take the food world by storm, it’s actually been around for a while!
It’s a hot and spicy source, bright red in colour and made combining red chilli peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt.
It features heavily in Southeast Asian cooking, particularly in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, and works well in chicken dishes — for example, chicken wings recipes or thighs as we’ve used here.
The spicy sauce is believed to have originated in the Thai city Si Racha in the 1930s, where it was invented by a humble home cook, Thanom Chakkapak. Because her family and friends enjoyed dishes made with it so much, she was persuaded to sell it.
The sauce evolved further when Vietnamese immigrant David Tran arrived in America in 1975. Just like Chakkapak, Tran began producing and selling traditional Southeast Asian spicy sauce, using an old Thai recipe. His sauce took off first in America and is now known and loved around the world.
It can be used as a dipping sauce for any kind of finger food and can be complemented by creamy sauces such as mayonnaise or sour cream sauces.
Use it to add a kick to soups, stews and noodle-based dishes.
Try it as a marinade or coating for meats, as we’ve done in this recipe.
And you can even add a dash to drinks such as tomato juice or Bloody Marys for a spicy kick!
Why choose chicken thighs?
Sriracha is so versatile, and among the many ingredients it works with are chicken thighs.
Thighs are an underrated cut of chicken, often overlooked in favour of breast meat, drumsticks or whole chicken.
The darker meat of chicken thighs is more moist and flavoursome and works really well with this sweet and spicy dish.
Perfect for parties, a platter of chicken thighs looks impressive and can be served with other finger food such as potato wedges, coleslaw and other salads.
And make sure you always choose free-range chicken for the tastiest meat. Selecting chicken reared with the freedom to roam is the ethical way to shop. That’s why all our meat at Church Street Butcher is free- range and has no added hormones or antibiotics, so all you get is pure, tasty food!
The perfect way to enjoy juicy chicken thighs is loaded with the contrasting spicy and sweet flavours you’ll find in this dish.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg free-range chicken thighs
- 3 tablespoons Butter (unsalted)
- 1 tablespoon Ginger (freshly minced)
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1⁄4 teaspoon Smoked paprika
- 1⁄4 teaspoon Ground cloves
- 4 tablespoons Honey
- 6 tablespoons Sriracha
- 1 tablespoon Lime juice
Instructions
- Heat your grill to medium-high.
- Place the butter in a small saucepan. When it’s melted, add the garlic and ginger and stir until their aroma is released (around 1 minute).
- Add the paprika, honey, cloves, lime juice and Sriracha. Stir well and simmer for around 5 minutes.
- Pat your chicken thighs dry and season with salt and pepper.
- Spray your grill with cooking oil and place the thighs on the grill, skin side down to start with. Grill for 4-5 minutes on one side, then the same amount of time on the other.
- Continue cooking, turning the thighs over at regular intervals until the chicken is cooked. (This will take 25-30 minutes.)
- Brush the chicken thighs with the spicy glaze before the last 5 minutes of cooking time and continue to grill.
- Remove from the grill and serve.
Your local and online free-range butcher!
Did you enjoy learning about this dish? Keep an eye on our blog for more recipes for chicken wings, thighs and other cuts of free-range meat available from Church Street Butcher.
We’re your local and online butcher where you can buy the freshest, ethically reared and free-range meat, whether you’re looking for chicken, beef, lamb or pork.
Pop and see us here at Church Street, or take advantage of our free home delivery service for orders over $80 to Brighton and surrounding suburbs.
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