Chicken with chipotle apple glaze

Quick Look_______________

We had this for a welcome back dinner for a summer mission trip this summer. People seemed to like it and I gave the leftovers to some Praxis, ISM, and other people from Gracepoint Fellowship Church and they liked it as well. It's a smoky, spicy, sweet glaze that's perfect over grilled/roasted meat. You can use this sauce on pork loin, chicken breast, chicken thigh... get creative. I made this by putting random ingredients and adjusting it as it was cooking and it turned out ok. You may want to adjust to your tastes according to spice and sweetness.

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 45-60 minutes
• Difficulty: Intermediate/easy - It takes a little experience to know when the glaze is ready, namely by looking at the quality of bubbles or temperature if you have a thermometer. If in doubt, cook the sauce until it's very thick and water down at the end if necessary.
• Labor Intensity: You can make the sauce on your own. You may want help with the chicken.
• 30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

• 15-18lbs boneless chicken breast or thigh ($1.99/lb on sale)
• 3 cans frozen apple juice concentrate (about $2-$2.50)
• 2 (7 oz) cans of chipotle in adobo sauce ($2 at lucky. Also @ smart and final, I like Embasa brand)
• sugar
• soy sauce
• vegetable oil
• vinegar [apple cider vinegar optional]
• Total: about $35.00

Directions_______________

• Open frozen juice concentrate and pour into blender
• Add chipotle peppers and blend.
• Pour into a large pot. Heat on medium/high or high and stir occasionally
• Add 3/4 cup soy sauce, 2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup oil
• Boil for about 30-45 minutes until thick and bubbly. Stir occasionally.
• Add 1 cup vinegar and cook for 15 more minutes
• Split the chicken breast and spread apart open.
• Cook chicken breast over a grill or whatever method you prefer (pan fry, oven roast).
• Dip/submerge the chicken in the sauce or brush it on and serve.

Tom's Tips and Tricks_______________

The ingredients contain too much water and we need to reduce it down to a thick sauce. That's why we use apple juice concentrate rather than the juice. If you have a candy thermometer, it should cook until 108C. You can tell by the large thick, tar like bubbles. If in doubt, cook until very thick and add water if too thick at the end.

Since we want to remove water from the sauce, it would speed things up to pour the sauce into a wide pan and stir constantly. The large surface area of the pan will boil off the water rapidly. To speed thing up even more, you can use mulitple pans to utilize all burners on the stove. The end result is a thick, gooey, tar like sauce. Add vinegar to thin it out a little and serve with meat.

[Possible side dish] Serve with rice, salad, potato salad...etc