Honey Soy Ginger Baked Chicken Bento

Honey Soy Ginger Baked Chicken Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today's chicken is a little different from the usual shoyu chicken, but the ingredients are the same. I used the recipe from the Mom 100 Cookbook by Katie Workman, which caught my eye because the photographs that accompany the recipes are very cool. They look messy and a little sloppy, just the way most meals look in my house. Plus, she shows variations for folks (like for those who prefer less spicy, etc.) Anyway, here's Katie Workman's version:

Honey Ginger Soy Chicken Recipe (from The Mom 100 Cookbook by Katie Workman)

1 cup of honey, at room temperature
3/4 cup of low sodium soy sauce (I substituted coconut aminos and it tasted okay)
1/2 cup very finely minced or grated fresh ginger (from about one thick 4-inch piece)
1/4 cup minced garlic (8 to 12 cloves)
2 chickens, 3 to 3 1/2 lbs. each, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 8 pieces each
5 scallions, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces, from the white to about halfway up the green (optional)

Whisk everything except the chicken and scallions together, and add to chicken. Marinate a few hours or overnight. Arrange chicken in baking pan and scatter scallions on top. Bake the chicken in a covered baking pan at 350F for 30 minutes. Uncover, turn chicken, increase temp to 375F and continue to bake 30-40 minutes longer. Serve with pan sauce.

It was kind of sweet, but a nice balanced combo with the garlic, ginger and shoyu. The kiddos liked it a lot. I sent a few pieces to school with TinySprite, atop a bed of furikake rice, surrounded by corn off the cob and a broccoli tree. The upper tier of the panda donburi bowl holds peaches, strawberry, grapes, homegrown tomatoes and a steamed Okinawan sweet potato.