Food Lust People Love: Sticky Coffee Chicken

This sticky coffee chicken has a lot going on, from the fresh brewed coffee and the balsamic vinegar to the thick honey and the ripe tomatoes. You don’t really taste a definite coffee flavor but it does add a wonderful smokiness that enriches the sauce.

Food Lust People Love: This sticky coffee chicken has a lot going on, from the fresh brewed coffee and the balsamic vinegar to the thick honey and the ripe tomatoes. You don’t really taste a definite coffee flavor but it does add a wonderful smokiness that enriches the sauce.

Food Lust People Love: This sticky coffee chicken has a lot going on, from the fresh brewed coffee and the balsamic vinegar to the thick honey and the ripe tomatoes. You don’t really taste a definite coffee flavor but it does add a wonderful smokiness that enriches the sauce.

If you’ve been reading along here for a while, you know that I am a coffee drinker/lover from way back. One of my earliest memories is waking up at my grandmother’s house in New Iberia, Louisiana to the smell of her dark roast. Gram never was a very good sleeper so she was often up when it was still dark, puttering around in the kitchen. Her house smelled delightfully of wood polish and mothballs and rose soap. But in the morning, it smelled of coffee. She would heat milk in a small pot and add some coffee and sugar for a hot drink we called coffee milk. Café au lait.

When my girls were young, I knew that caffeine was not the best thing to give children but how could I deprive them of something so wonderful? We were living in France at the time so I found a decaffeinated instant coffee with chicory (yes, like New Orleans blend) that I mixed in their warm milk in the morning. Cajun children will have coffee milk!

I also love to cook and bake with coffee. You might have seen my rump steak with coffee-wine-balsamic glaze or the salted caramel macchiato muffins that made me write poetry or perhaps even my Liquid Cocaine muffins. Those guys are addictive, no kidding.

Love Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk? You’ll love these muffins that come with a pictorial tour of Vietnam as well. I like cold coffee too! How about some creamy coffee ice cream or coffee concentrate, perfect for making iced coffee quick and easy.

The list goes on but I’ll stop here to tell you that this week my Sunday Supper family is celebrating coffee as an ingredient because International Coffee Day is nigh. If you love coffee like we love coffee, you’ll want to scroll down and check out the list of wonderful recipes we are sharing. But first, make some sticky coffee chicken.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 lbs or 900g chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup or 240ml brewed coffee
1/2 cup or 120ml water, plus more as needed
1/4 cup or 60ml balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup or 60ml honey
1 large ripe tomato
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
10-12 baby plum tomatoes, whole (Mine weighed 8.8 oz or 250g.)

To serve:
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
Freshly grated lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
Whatever fresh herbs you’ve got – basil, parsley, thyme, etc. All work well to give this dish a lovely fresh lift.

Method
Lightly season your chicken thighs with salt and pepper.

In a large oven-proof skillet, pan fry chicken in olive oil, skin side down, for about five minutes, or until lightly golden.

Turn the chicken thighs over and turn the fire off, leaving the chicken in the pan for now.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Chop your one large tomato and measure out your other ingredients.

Remove the chicken to a plate and spoon out most of the oil in the skillet, leaving behind a tablespoon or two.

Add in the chopped tomato, coffee, water, honey, balsamic vinegar and tomato paste to the skillet, along with your crushed red pepper flakes.

Bring to the boil and cook at a low boil for about 5-7 minutes or until the tomato disintegrates and the sauce has reduced and thickened.

Remove from the heat and add the chicken back into the pot, skin side up. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and tuck the baby plum tomatoes in and around the thighs.

Pop the skillet into the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes. Check it at 15-minute intervals and add a little more water if it’s going dry. I added 1/2 cup or 120ml about 15 minutes in and then a splash more at half an hour.

When the chicken thighs are cooked through, remove the skillet from the oven. Sprinkle them with the lemon juice, lemon zest and some chopped fresh herbs before serving.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our event manager, Shelby of Grumpy's Honeybunch and our host today, Wendy of Wholistic Woman for all their behind the scenes work. Check out all the fabulous coffee recipes our Sunday Supper tastemakers are sharing today.

Beverages