Grapefruit Experiement - Thai Spice

So my friend Thom recently bought a house, and it has citrus trees (orange, lemon and grapefruit).  I’ve been going over while he prepares to move in and help out where I can and to pick the fruit on the overflowing trees so they can fruit again.  I wound up with bags and bags of grapefruit.  While I do love it, I can’t eat/drink THAT much.  I did give some to friends at work, and I juiced the rest and wound up with a couple of quarts of sweet grapefruit juice.  What to do, what to do?

I decided to experiment with it and use it as a marinade and try different blends with spices.  The next few weeks, I will marinate chicken thighs in different concoctions and cook them up to report my successes…and failures.

Tonight I made my first batch.  Well, actually, I COOKED my first batch – I have had several marinating since Wednesday.  I will freeze the others to keep them until I am ready to cook them.  So tonight’s recipe is Grapefruit Marinated Chicken Thighs with Thai Spices. 

I used about 1-1/2 cups of juice, and added a Thai spice blend (I got it at Cost Plus and use it on a lot of different stuff to season), and just a little sugar to help cut the tartness.  I put this in a quart-sized freezer bag and added two chicken thighs, closed it up, then shook it up good to make sure it was all blended.  I threw it in the fridge in a pie plate (in case of leakage) and would take it out several times over the two days I had it marinate to shake it up again.

To cook it tonight, I preheated the oven to 500 degrees to get it real hot.  In a glass baking dish that I greased up with some olive oil, I placed the chicken thighs, as well as come quartered new potatoes that I tossed in oil and some more Thai spice, then poured a little of the marinade to help keep it moist while baking.

I put the pan in the oven for 15 minutes at 500, then lowered the temperature to 350 for another 40 minutes, until the potatoes were soft and the chicken well cooked.  If you’re wondering why I started out at a high heat – I wanted to get the skin nice and crispy.  If you start it out HOT, you help to sear the skin, then lower it to finish the cooking.  It turns out very moist when I do it that way.

In the meantime, I poured the remaining marinade into a pot and turned the burner on the stove up high to get it boiling, then lower and simmer for about 30 minutes to reduce the liquid and concentrate the flavors, which you can then use it as a sauce.

I have to say, my first experiment turned out….WONDERFUL.  The chicken was tender and beautifully flavored.  The grapefruit and thai spices were well infused, and the sauce complimented the chicken and the roasted potatoes beautifully.  First trial down, success! 

I will post with each new experiment and batch.  Tomorrow I will probably cook up the chicken that’s marinating in grapefruit and ginger.