2-ingredient Duck Sauce Chicken is the ultimate easy and quick main dish for dinner!
While duck sauce is one of the delicious adaptations created by Chinese immigrants to America, chicken with duck sauce has become a popular dish in Jewish Chinese-American food culture.
Chicken smothered in a sweet and tangy duck sauce glaze is a dairy-free and pareve dish that’s terrific whether you are looking for a main dish for Shabbat, for a holiday meal, or a dinner for sudden guests.
Simply pour the sauce over the chicken and bake. Voila!
Duck sauce chicken is one of the best chicken dishes out there. It’s not only delicious, but it takes no time at all.
Just place the chicken in the pan, smother in duck sauce, and pop in the oven. That’s it!
And you can use the drippings as gravy for your sides!
The sauce can be poured over rice, mashed potatoes, veggies, or anything you like.
And you don’t even have to use it for the same meal. Save and use it whenever you want! It refrigerates well and freezes well.
Make ahead and defrost for dinner. Or take to work for lunch with some sides and save your $$.
My son works out regularly and so makes sure to have plenty of protein. Duck sauce chicken is a meal that works well for him because not only does chicken have health benefits, but this dish is just so quick to make.
Can’t find duck sauce? You can make Easy Homemade Duck Sauce.
Can I freeze duck sauce chicken?
Absolutely. Make sure the chicken has cooled completely and then place in a freezer bag and push out excess air or use an air-tight container. Under normal circumstance, you should be able to keep it frozen for at least 3-4 months without any problem.
However, if air gets to the chicken, it can get freezer burn and not taste fresh.
When I know that I’m only going to freeze for a couple of days (like when I prepare ahead for my son to take back to the dorms), I just use normal ziplock bags.
A little about Chinese-American Food
Chinese-American cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine that was developed in by Chinese immigrants in order to survive in their new home.
Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in large numbers in the mid-19th century in order to escape the economic difficulties in China, hoping to find work during the California Gold Rush and on the Central Pacific Railroad.
At the time, there were anti-Chinese laws in America that prevented these immigrants from owning land, so they opened businesses, such as laundry services and restaurants.
Initially, these family-owned businesses catered to miners and railroad workers. Restaurants were set up in places where Chinese food was unknown, and the food was based on the requests of the customers and new recipes were created to suit their tastes.
Delicious duck sauce is one of the recipes that were developed by the Chinese in America because Americans weren’t used to complaex flavors like plum sauce and hoisin sauce. So, duck sauce was created.
Kosher Chinese-American Food
It is well known that Jews (especially those in New York) love Chinese food.
Jews as a group were probably first introduced to Chinese food in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where immigrants of various cultures settled in their own neighborhoods in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
By the early 1900s, Jews from Eastern Europe lived in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with Cantonese Chinese, most of who had moved there from California.
The majority of Jewish immigrants at that time were observant in their religion and ate only kosher food when they arrived in New York. However, over time many assimilated.
Some Jews continued keeping kosher at home while allowing themselves to stray while out and seemed to feel that if they couldn’t tell it was non-kosher, it wasn’t that bad.
Not only that, but Chinese food didn’t use milk, and while excuses may be made for eating non-kosher meat outside of the home, there was still the forbidden mixing of meat and milk to consider.
Chinese food was not ony reasonably priced, but their restaurants were open on Sundays.
Jews who continued to keep both in and out of their home were only introduced to “kosher Chinese” decades later, when Sol Bernstein created recipes one by substituting kosher veal, beef, and chicken livers for pork.
Other homemade Chinese-American dishes
For a lot of people, making homemade Chinese-American dishes may seem like a waste of time, espeically when takeout is so simple and inexpensive.
However, if you eat kosher, or don’t eat pork, kosher restaurants and takeout places may not be nearby and, even if they are, they are often fairly expensive.
So, the solution to that is to make them at home!
Try some of these amazingly easy recipes for kosher Chinese-American food (or put Chinese in the search bar for more!).
- Kosher Beef and Broccoli
- Kosher Chicken and Broccoli
- Kosher Pepper Steak
- Kosher Corned Beef & Cabbage Egg Rolls
- Kosher Chicken Lo Mein
- Kosher Beef Lo Mein
- Vegetarian Fried Rice
In order to be able to make Chinese-American dishes whenever I want to, I always keep related staples in my kitchen.
These include duck sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, and corn starch.
In fact, I have a whole list of pantry items (including utensils) that I make sure to keep in my kitchen so I can make a variety of last-minute dishes whenever I want to without having to make a sudden run to the grocery store or borrow from a neighbor!
Some FAQs for cooking:
The following information may not particularly pertain to this recipe but rather answers general useful questions related to cooking.
What does it mean when recipes say “to taste” about an ingredient?
When recipes say “to taste,” it means that you can put in as little or as much as you like to your own taste. Some recipes have many ingredients that a cook can adjust to their own taste when cooking (not so much when baking though).
The best way to calculate what your taste is with a recipe that you are not yet familiar with is to first taste the dish and then add the “to taste” ingredient GRADUALLY, a little at a time—a splash of this or a pinch of that—until the dish is just the way you like it. Make sure to stir the ingredient after each time you add it so that the flavor will distribute evenly and become part of the dish. Then taste again. Repeat until you reach your personal preference.
Note: If you plan on using the recipe again, it is highly recommended to make a note of what and how much you added so that you can refer to it next time.
What does it mean when a recipe says that an ingredient is “optional”?
If an ingredient is “optional,” it means that you can add it in or not based on your own preference. An optional ingredient can be flavor related (i.e., salty, sweet, spicy, etc.), appearance related (garnish), or even something like nuts or chocolate chips in baking.
What does “savory” mean?
“Savory” refers to foods that are not sweet, such as foods that taste salty, spicy, or herbal.
Easy 2-ingredient Duck Sauce Chicken
Delicious Jewish chicken dish using Chinese-American duck sauce. Just chicken smothered in duck sauce, bake, and that's it!
Ingredients
- 8 pieces of chicken
- 1 - 1 1/4 cups duck sauce (any type)*
Instructions
- Place chicken pieces in a suitable size baking pan.
- Generously pour the duck sauce over the chicken pieces and spread evenly.
- Place in oven that has been pre-heated to 375°F and bake uncovered for approximately 45 minutes or until the skin turns darker (approximately an hour if you want crispy skin). Based occasionally to keep the sauce even, if desired.
Notes
*If you can't find kosher duck sauce in a store near you, Homemade Duck Sauce is very easy to make.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 576Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 160mgSodium: 496mgCarbohydrates: 50gFiber: 1gSugar: 25gProtein: 41g