After a busy day at work and coming home trying to figure out what’s for dinner often relegates us to either doing take out or some sort of processed food for dinner. I’ve developed this pan-seared chicken with ponzu sauce recipe that has become our family favorite week after week. It only takes 20 minutes to go from fridge to table especially if you’ve already pre-made the dipping sauce. Even if you have to make the sauce, you can do it without adding time to the clock. I’ll show you how!
What I love about this dish is that the chicken is crispy on the outside yet tender on the inside and the sweet and tangy sauce with the fresh aroma of citrus and the sharp notes of the onions brings a perfect compliment to a bowl of fluffy white rice. Of course, you can cut out the carb by tossing it with fresh greens and would still make a wonderful dish.
Although I use chicken with skin, there are no other fats in this recipe and the oil is mostly rendered through the cooking process (a lot of oil comes out actually) and the end result is a crispy chicken that is juicy and not greasy at all.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless chicken thighs with skin on
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp white pepper
Ingredients for ponzu sauce
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ¼ cup red onion finely chopped
- 2 stalks of green onion shredded
- ½ tsp instant dashi (optional)
Directions
Once you have all your ingredients out on the table, you can start the timer. If Chopped can do it in 30 minutes and Iron Chef takes 60 minutes, this simple to do dish, including plating will only take 20 minutes. Granted, that does not include the time to cook rice or prep the salad and it does not have a ‘special ingredient’ other than chicken.
Minute 1-2: Remove the chicken from the packaging and cut away the extra fat. Season with salt and white pepper on both sides of the chicken.
Minute 3: Find a pan big enough to fit all 4 pieces of the chicken and place the chicken skin side down on the cool pan with no oil. PRO TIP: As the cool pan slowly warms up, it will render fat from the chicken to help brown it. If the pan is already hot, it would actually sear the skin which makes it harder for fat to escape. Turn the heat to medium and slowly cook the chicken.
Minute 4: While the chicken is cooking, let’s prepare our sauce. First finely shred or slice the green onions and place them in icy water to give it an extra fresh crunch. Then in a separate glass bowl, add all the ingredients for the ponzu sauce and mix until sugar has completely dissolved.
Minute 8: By now the fat should be nicely rendered into the pan. Turn the heat up to high and let it brown the chicken skin for about 3 minutes.
Minute 11: It’s time to flip the chicken over so the skin is on top. To speed up the cooking process, cover the pan with a lid and let it cook on high heat for 5 minutes.
Minute 16: Since the chicken is now sitting in steam / heat, the skin needs to be browned again. Remove the cover, flip the chicken to the skin side down and pan fry for another 2 minutes. PRO TIP: If you have a lot of oil in the pan, it’s ok to dump out some of the oil so it doesn’t splatter as much as you brown the chicken skin.
Minute 18: Remove the chicken and let it rest for 1-2 minutes
Minute 19: Cut up the chicken and sprinkle green onions over the chicken. Add the onions to the ponzu sauce.
Minute 20: Serve chicken with ponzu sauce as a dipping sauce.
- 4 boneless chicken thighs with skin on
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp white pepper
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ¼ cup red onion finely chopped
- 2 stalks of green onion shredded
- ½ tsp instant dashi (optional)
- Season chicken with salt and pepper
- Place chicken in a cool pan skin side down and cook on medium heat to render the fat (about 5 minutes)
- Turn up the heat to high and continue to pan fry the chicken until golden brown (another 3 minutes)
- Flip the chicken over and cover the pan and cook the other side for another 5-7 minutes
- Flip the chicken to be skin side down again and brown for 2 minutes to crisp up the skin
- Mix the ingredients for ponzu sauce
- Shred green onion and keep in cold water for 5 minutes
- Sprinkle green onion over chicken
- Add the chopped onions in the ponzu sauce
- Either drizzle ponzu sauce over chicken or use as a dipping sauce
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