Chicken Breasts in Soy Sauce in the Oven

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you bake breast in the oven? For this dish, take 2 whole bone-in chicken breasts. They can be skin-on or skinless, whichever you prefer. You can replace the breasts with boneless fillet, but you'll need to use more of it.

2. Step 2:

   

   Wash the chicken breasts thoroughly and pat them dry with paper towels. Cut the breasts in half lengthwise to make 4 pieces.

3. Step 3:

   

   Pack the prepared chicken snugly into a baking dish.

4. Step 4:

   

   Now make the sauce. You can replace the rice vinegar with balsamic or apple cider vinegar. You can replace the olive oil with sesame oil. You can replace the fresh garlic with 1 heaping tsp of dried granulated garlic. If you don't have dried paprika flakes on hand, use regular dried paprika.

5. Step 5:

   

   Peel the garlic and grate it on the fine side of a grater, or press it through a garlic press.

6. Step 6:

   

   Pour the olive oil into a saucepan and add the corn starch.

7. Step 7:

   

   Set the saucepan over medium heat and whisk the oil with the starch until smooth. There should be no starch lumps.

8. Step 8:

   

   Pour in the soy sauce and rice vinegar, then add the brown sugar, minced garlic, ground ginger, ground paprika, and sesame seeds. Mix everything well and cook the sauce down, stirring now and then, until it thickens.

9. Step 9:

   

   Reduce the sauce to whatever thickness you like. I cook it down so it's syrupy but still pourable. That takes about 15 minutes.

10. Step 10:

    

    Brush the chicken breasts with the prepared sauce using a pastry brush. If you like, you can just pour all the sauce over the breasts, but I prefer to hold some back to brush the chicken with as it bakes. That way the sauce cools and thickens even more. Put the dish in an oven preheated to 350°F (180°C) and bake for about 45 minutes, basting now and then with the sauce from the bottom of the dish or brushing on sauce from the saucepan. The exact baking time depends on your oven.

11. Step 11:

    

    Take the finished breasts out of the oven. They should be generously coated with sauce. If all the sauce ran off them during baking, cool the chicken a little and brush it with the rest of the thickened sauce from the saucepan.

12. Step 12:

    

    Then transfer the breasts to a plate, sprinkle with sesame seeds and finely chopped green onion, and serve. Enjoy!