Pomegranate Chicken

Although it might seem like an odd concoction, I promise it totally works. If you love pomegranate and love chicken there’s no way you won’t love this combo. No fancy ingredients and it’s incredibly simple to make. Follow me…

Chicken Thigh

I love using chicken thigh for this recipe, but in reality chicken breast would work too. Thigh just tends to be a little more tender/juicy. In both cases you’ll want them boneless and skinless, just so you can easily dice into chunks.

Coating in Flour

One of the key steps in prepping the chicken is coating it in seasoned flour. This not only helps build up a crunchy crust to the chicken, but it also helps the sauce wrap around the chicken. Have you ever made a gorgeous sauce for chicken and it just slides right off? Yep, we’ve all been there. You want the sauce to wrap around the chicken, and the flour will help with this by sucking in and clinging on to the sauce. Process shots: add flour and seasoning to a bowl (photo 1), stir to combine (photo 2), add chicken (photo 3), mix to combine (photo 4), add to pan with butter and oil (photo 5), fry until golden all over (photo 6).

Pomegranate Sauce for Chicken

When it comes to the sauce, like I mentioned earlier, you don’t need any fancy ingredients. In fact you don’t even need pomegranate molasses, which a lot of similar recipes use. Mainly because I can never find it at my local supermarket, but IMO you really don’t need it anyway. The bulk of the sauce comes from Pomegranate Juice.

What kind of Pomegranate Juice to use?

You want to use a 100% Pomegranate juice. Don’t use a reduced sugar version, it’ll completely alter the flavour of the sauce. Do try and get a quality brand too. I personally use Pom Wonderful 100 pomegranate juice which works nicely. Alongside the pomegranate juice the next most prominent ingredient is honey. This is necessary to balance out the tart, sour tones of the pomegranate. It also helps the sauce go silky too!

Tomato Paste

I know this might sound like a peculiar addition, but it’s a really important one. The tomato paste helps deepen the flavour of the sauce. The sauce is a little one tone with just pomegranate juice, honey and a few other additions. The tomato paste helps add a savoury note to the sauce, without being too overpowering.

Thickening the sauce

You want the sauce nice and glossy. Slightly thick, just enough to drizzle over the chicken. The honey and even the tomato paste will help thicken the sauce, but you really need to add a cornstarch slurry to help along the way. This is simply a combination of cornstarch/cornflour and cold water, which when whisked into the hot sauce will help thicken it. Process shots: remove chicken and melt in butter (photo 1), fry shallot, garlic & ginger (photo 2), fry tomato paste (photo 3), pour in balsamic vinegar, pomegranate juice, honey and cornstarch slurry (photo 4), add in chicken (photo 5), mix in pomegranate seeds (photo 6).

Serving Pomegranate Chicken

You’ll mix pomegranate seeds (aka pomegranate arils) into the sauce, but it’s also nice to sprinkle a few over the top too. I also love sprinkling over fresh parsley. Not only for a pop of colour, but it really brings the flavour of the dish together. I actually tend to serve this with couscous, but rice would work just as well. For more similar recipes check out these beauties:

Honey Sriracha Chicken Sweet and Sour Chicken Wings Japanese Fried Chicken Honey Garlic Chicken Apricot Chicken

Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this pomegranate chicken shall we?