Easy Unforgettable Honey Chicken for Rosh Hashanah
This delicious recipe brings me right back to my childhood dining room table. Three generations sat around a table whose length seemed to grow with each passing year. The younger generation listened intently to the wisdom of the older generation, and the grandparents kvelled (Yiddish for feeling happy & prideful) at the site of the children excitement of life and dreams of what was yet to come.I distinctly remember that during each and every holiday, I would look around the dinner table and say my own little prayer: “Please G-d, please let all whom are with us tonight around the holiday table, be with us next year too.” What an opportune time to mention my little childhood prayer, as it is on the holiday of Rosh Hashana itself, the Day of Judgement, that all is decided by the One Above. “On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed”. This awe-inspiring phrase comes from the iconic High Holiday prayer “Unesaneh Tokef” in the Machzor, the special prayer book used during the Yomim Noraim, the 10 Days from Rosh Hashana until Yom Kippur.In the synagogue, we pray that we will be judged favorably and in the kitchen, we hope the same. There is no doubt that this classic honey chicken dish will be judged favorably and will garner the highest accolades. Your prize will be the empty dinner dishes when everyone is done enjoying this holiday main course. It’s so delicious, you’ll hope there will be leftovers for a snack the next day.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken (3-4 pounds cut into 8 pieces)
- 3 large carrots
- 1 onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- Rinse chicken and pat completely dry.
- Line a shallow baking dish with aluminum foil or parchment paper for easy clean up.
- Peel and cut carrots into quarters.
- Peel and cut onion into eights.
- Add them to the baking dish.
- Add chicken on the vegetables.
Honey Mixture
- Peel and cut garlic cloves in half.
- In a large bowl, whisk together garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil, honey, soy sauce, water, salt and pepper.
- Pour honey mixture over the chicken.
- Cook around 40 minutes. The inside temperature of the chicken should be 165F. Here is a great thermometer.
- Halfway through cooking, baste the chicken and then continue cooking.
- Optional: When the chicken is completely cooked, pour any remaining liquid into a saucepan. Reduce to thicken and pour over chicken.
Notes
When it comes to cooking chicken quarters, the recipe possiblities are endless. Come up with your own chicken recipes using seasonings that you love. And cooking the chicken with bones helps retain its moisture making it juicy and delicious. It is also less expensive than deboned chicken, making it a more frugal dinner recipe and better for those who want to budget food costs.
