No one besides the chef can ever figure out the secret ingredient in this dish. It’s carrot juice as the title gives away, of course, but you don’t need to tell! The subtle sweetness of the carrot juice and cider combines with the rich taste of the dark beer (non-alcoholic beer works just as well) and the fresh grated ginger and makes this sauce outrageously delicious!! Enjoy to your heart’s content, literally!
PS: Watch my cooking class video on how to make this recipe!
Carrot Cider Chicken
*for maximal taste, it is best to grind whole coriander seeds freshly in a coffee grinder, but you can also use pre-ground coriander.
Servings 6 -8
Ingredients
- 8 organic free range chicken thighs, skin removed
- 1/2 cup organic 100% carrot juice
- 1/3 cup organic 100% apple cider
- 1/2 cup dark beer of your choice or non-alcoholic beer
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 Tbsp fresh minced ginger
- 2 whole cloves of garlic thickly sliced
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 ⁄3 cup organic pastry flour soft wheat
- 3 ⁄4 tsp salt
Instructions
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Preheat oven 375 F
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Rinse and pat dry the chicken and lightly salt (less than 1/8 tsp); place flour on a flat plate and dip each piece of chicken on both sides; discard extra flour.
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Drizzle olive oil in a large skillet that can also go in the oven (it needs to be deep enough to hold 2 cups of liquid), over medium/high heat and briefly sauté the floured chicken on both sides long enough (4-5 minutes) to brown slightly but leaving it uncooked (the crisp golden top will come later as it bakes in the oven).
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Place the chicken on a plate and set aside.
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Grate fresh ginger and sauté in the same skillet for a few seconds.
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Add sliced garlic, cider, carrot juice, beer, ground coriander and salt to the skillet with the ginger and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for a 2-3 minutes.
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Place the slightly sautéed chicken back in the baking pan and spoon the carrot cider juices over it to cover it and place in preheated oven for 30 minutes, uncovered.
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Turn each piece once and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until the sauce is thick and golden and the chicken almost falls off the bone!
Beer generally has malt-barley in it which is not gluten free. I am gluten sensitive and my daughter has celiac disease. Does anyone know of a beer that is gluten free?
I found your site after watching the Awakening from Alzheimer’s videos. I loved all of it, and I truly appreciate Cuisinicity.com. Thank you!
Good question Francine!
I suppose you could use hard cider. I have never tried it but it’s similar enough in taste that it may well work perfectly for you! I found an article with a taste test of various brands: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/the-best-hard-cider-brand_n_1949105.html?slideshow=true#gallery/255534/2 I hope this is helpful to you and A BIG WELCOME to the cuisinicity table! 🙂
I, too, am gluten sensitive. Can the beer be left out rather than substituted? I just discovered your site after listening to your husband speak about his new book on Dr. Murray’s food summit this week. Great site!
Hi Samara, you can always try to leave out the beer and increase the other liquids to make up for it but I don’t know what the savor will be, as I love it just the way I have it! It’s worth a try or you can also my apple prune chicken which is also lovely and has no beer! https://cuisinicity.com/apple-prune-chicken/ Enjoy!
Thank you for your reply! I made this tonight, and it was SO delicious! My family loved it and definitely wants it in the regular rotation. Not only did it taste amazing, it made the house smell wonderful! I wound up using a gluten free dark ale. Thank you for this recipe and for this website! I look forward to exploring and making more of your recipes!
Samara, YAY!!! I am delighted to hear that! I am so glad you persisted and found a way to make it work for you! I love your enthusiasm! 🙂
Hello Catherine,
This is my third post on this recipe…guess we like it! We have made one slight modification that we think adds a little something extra. We replaced the ww pastry flour with almond meal/flour. Can’t remember why we made the change initially but it is now our go-to option! Dies this then make the dish gluten free? I read one of your commentors asking about a gluten free version.
PS Yet again I am having trouble with the hearts thing. Must be “operator error” so definitely a 5 hearter!
Hi Cristine,
Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with the hearts! Feel free to email me: donna@sixpll47.sg-host.com, and I will see if we can solve the problem together.
Looks sumptuous! Thanks.
Thank you RTS!! Wait ’til you taste it!! 🙂
My family is gluten free and was wondering about coconut flour as a substitute?
Susette,
Is your family gluten free because you are sensitive to it? If so, the answer is not that simple, in this particular recipe, coconut flour does not work. In others you can substitute it partially but you have to combine it with other gluten-free flours and it all depends on the texture and taste you are after.
I do not go out of my way to make gluten-free recipes, only because my family is not sensitive to gluten and I prefer to use wholegrains because they are nutritious and optimal for our health. Having said that, you will find a lot of recipes on cuisinicity that happen to be gluten free (using quinoa, black rice, no flour etc…) but you’ll just need to search for them by writing in the tag “gluten-free”. Most of them will come up, not all, as I do not necessarily label recipes as such, if it’s obvious that they do not require any gluten. I hope this is somewhat helpful! 🙂
I’ve used almond meal/flour with great success
excellent!
Hi Catherine,
I made this tonight and used organic chicken breast tenders instead of thighs. It was absolutely delicious! Thank you!
Outrageously delicious is right!!! Lunch was gone in 15 minutes and the whole family loved it! I dared to cook this dish even on such a hot day like today because I had some nice organic chicken that had to be used, no regrets! Thank you Catherine for sharing your ingenious skills. Can’t wait to make another recipe of yours! Merci!
YES!! I LOVE IT! Kamila, Thank you so much for your beautiful enthusiasm! It makes it all worthwhile!! 🙂
Made this last night for the second time and it was so good! Looking forward to leftovers tonight!
YAY Cristine!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
We loved it! My husband requested it again this week. I have never used carrot juice and didn’t know what else to use it in so I threw it in the stew I made later in the week. I also made your delicious chocolate cake for my chef son-in-law and daughter this weekend and we all loved that too.
YAY Arlene!!!! I am so happy that your whole family enjoyed my recipes! It doesn’t get any better than that for me!!! 🙂
I freeze left over carrot juice, apple cider, grated ginger and beer in the quantities listed in the recipe so I have everything I need except the chicked on hand and ready to go. Works great
Haha Donna, your secret is safe with me!!:) Thank you so much for the 5-star rating!!!
I’m definitely not giving away your secret here, Catherine! The men in my life love this dish and I don’t want to spoil it with the truth that it includes carrot juice! Thank you for yet another 5-star recipe 🙂
This sounds delicious. We raise our own meat and I am always looking for nutritious meals with lots of flavor. This will definitely be on the menu this week.
Wonderful Arlene! Let me know how you like (love!) it when you do, OK?
Made this dish for the second time…so good! Be sure to make enough for left overs!
For some reason my heart rating isn’t working so I’m saying five hearts!
YAY Cristine! Your hearts are inscribed in mine!!
This was the first recipe I made of yours and it came out perfect as is, no adjustments necessary. I don’t usually have dark beer on hand but happened to have some left over from some gathering. Also, we’re getting away from white flour and am so glad to see real-life adaptations with ‘soft white’ and whole wheat.
Wendy, it’s wonderful! No adjustments, at all, is the best comment I could get! I couldn’t be happier about it!
Made this for my family the other night, it was delicious! Definitely a keeper:)
Wonderful, Kristin!
This sounds delicious and would definitely try it.
But I was wondering if this serve as appetizer, entrée or dessert?
Cos im wondering if this would be satisfying by itself
Star, I don’t even know why you would think of it as a dessert!!! It’s definitely an entrée! You can serve it with any side dish of veggies, oven roasted, sautéed or grilled. Mashed potatoes is especially yummy with this dish because you can sop up the delicious sauce.Absolutely a wonderful dinner!
Catherine
I have always done a lot of the cooking but I recently retired and now I do all of it! My wife attended a seminar given by your husband which she really enjoyed and brought us to your website. So tonight I cooked this dish for dinner. I was skeptical about the combination of ingredients (I was born and raised in the UK, so what can I say?), but the end result was absolutely delicious. As I ate it, I felt that the carrot, apple and coriander were like the three corners of a triangle and complimented each other so well. I did improvise a little and added a hint of paprika (I love pepper) but otherwise was faithful to the recipe. And most importantly my wife loved it.
Can’t wait to try more of your recipes. thank you so much!
Richard,
That makes me so happy!! I love this dish too! In fact, I am making it tonight for family night. I love your added touch with the paprika too–YUM!! Thank you for your lovely feedback, I appreciate it always. Welcome to Cuisinicity!
Catherine
I love your food so delicious and easy to do!! and the best is the first quality ingredients , taste and health together!! thank you and congratulations Catherine you inspire me!!
Thank you so very much Violeta! You made my day!!!!
As I was preparing and cooking this recipe, my kids kept asking me: “is it ready yet, is it ready now – followed by, well then, WHEN is it ready….?!” It’s great being the center of attention for awhile this way…. It gives me reason to ‘pause’ a little and read the instructions a little more carefully, just so I can get it right. :>)
How does that Carly Simon song go: something about “anticipation is making me wait,” and yet although they waited, they were not disappointed in the result. And so, yes, these are the good ole days….
Yet another home run, Catherine – and there’s plenty of leftovers too for lunches tomorrow because I have made a double batch! Sure enjoy being in Cuisinicity’s wheelhouse so I can hit a few of these home runs too, myself. The kids LOVED it! Now that my kids are happy, I can go for a run with my dog, Casey.
Thanks, Catherine!
John
Hahaha John, I LOVE that song!!! Anticipaaaaation….!These are indeed the good ole days! You are the best!! Thank you for this!
Oh my word! I love cooking with beer…and drinking beer…and pretty much anything beer – related. I’d like to say that I stop short of bathing in the stuff, but I once read that beer is good for the hair and even gave that a try one time (and by “one time” I mean “three times”). This looks DELICIOUS – I am definitely making this sometime this week!
I’m going to go ahead and give it 5 hearts because, statistically speaking, I know that will be my rating 🙂
Hahaha Sara, you made me laugh!!!Thank you for your heartfelt enthusiasm! I can’t wait for you to try this one then, although beer is not exactly the star ingredient here–it will not disappoint–SOOOOOO DELICIOUS!