The Guild Fanucci

Faheud’s Cookbook, Page 12
Mongolian Chicken {or Pheasant}
© 2004 George Reed

Ingredients to acquire:

• 1 jar sushi ginger. Not raw root. If you buy raw root, get it 2 months in advance cause you have to pickle it and age it. Sorry.
• 1 jar hot Chinese mustard. The goopy mustard. Not powder. Ever try to put powder on a bratwurst?
• 1 jar sweet plum, duck sauce. The critical thing is not so much plum, but the sweet duck sauce. They use several herbs that are key. Yes, you could get the herbs and prepare a tincture–but remember its Faheud’s Easy Decadence Cookbook.
• 1 lb honey
• ¼ lb butter [salted] Don’t even ask if you can add the salt to unsalted butter, or I am sending you to be an insurance adjuster in Trimaris (May their lands dry out soon).
• 1 clove
• equivalent of 1 or 2 chickens [can be whatever assortment of pieces] Don’t panic, this is a forgiving recipe and extra sauce will never go to waste.
• 8-12 large peaches, peeled and sliced, or 1 bag flash frozen
• 1 bottle strawberry zinfandel

Wash, dry, and arrange chicken in deep, glass baking dish. The pieces may argue over who gets the long side of the dish, but I find brandishing a rolling pin restores order quickly.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. If your oven runs hot or whatever, use a thermometer. 350 degrees greatly increases the chance of acquiring carboli armor, and greatly reduces the wonderful way all the flavors mix into something entirely unique.

Melt butter over medium heat. In a saucepan. If you try to hold it while it melts, its amusing to others, but not all that fortunate.

When butter is all melted, add the jar of honey. Yes, it’s a lot. It’s best that way, really. The whole point of decadent cooking is, well, decadence.

When the honey and butter starts to boil up you add 1 cup of strawberry zinfandel. Add it before the honey and butter reach the top of the pan or you will have a festive occasion not involving tasty food. See previous comments about amusing–yet unfortunate–results

After the mixture is simmering again, add—mixing away lumps–the mustard, then the plum sauce, and then the ginger. Add a clove and bring to a simmer. And I really do mean just 1 clove. They do not play and work well toether, and in larger quantities will perform a horrific and irreversable coup de chicken. It’s just not pretty.

Once simmering, add the sliced peaches and remove from heat. Do NOT cook the sauce til the peaches are done. This is a crime in several states, I am sure.

Pour the lovely sauce all over the unsuspecting chicken. It has no idea what’s coming and may complain a bit. Disregard its moaning as you are really improving its estate.

Cover the dish either with foil or a lid, tightly.

Cooking time varies depending on if you do boneless breasts or whole pieces. For whole pieces, at room temperature, its about an hour to an hour and ten minutes.

Do not use frozen chicken. While this recipe will not re-create the famous Chicken-Alaska disaster of AS XX, its still not particularly appetizing.

When the chicken is done—only clear juices from within and the complaining has stopped—remove from the oven. Take the peaches out and serve separately as a side dish.

Good side dishes—aside from the peaches—include buttered noodles, peas, glazed carrots, spinach salad.

Bad Side Dishes - Rice Pilaf. Don’t do it kids. Really. I’m just sayin

Hot French bread will not go amiss either.

If you can manage to save any, the peaches are amazing chilled.

The sauce will be better on the second day, and works VERY well over boneless pork loin, or pork chops. To re-use the sauce, just heat slowly, with fresh peaches.

Enjoy!