Cuban Chicken With Orange Juice

 

This dish is for one of those days when you are cooking a leisurely meal for your family or hosting a special dinner for friends. It’s a slow cooker recipe; when done right, it will give you a delectable chicken dish that’s tenderized perfectly with HomeMaker OJ. It’s scrumptious wholesome and bursting with flavor, not to mention that our orange juice increases the overall nutritive value of your Cuban Chicken too.

Preparation Instructions

Start by sprinkling salt and pepper all over the chicken and rub the seasoning into the meat. Set a pan with the olive oil on the stove and warm it well. It is important to not overheat the olive oil so make sure the flame is set at medium heat.

Place the chicken pieces in the pan with their skin side down and cook until the underside browns well. It should take about six to seven minutes for the skin to brown. Flip the chicken over and let the skin brown lightly. This should take about 3 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the chicken at this stage as it might make the meat tough and bland. Set all the browned chicken pieces to one side for the time being.

The next step is to prepare the other ingredients. Remove most of the fat from the pan and leave behind around 1 tablespoon to cook the other ingredients. Make sure the stove is set at medium-high heat to ensure the ingredients don’t burn. Toss thinly-sliced yellow onions into the pan and sauté them until they are just slightly golden brown.

Add roughly chopped garlic into the pan and sauté until the onions become completely golden brown and the garlic emits a fragrant aroma.

Pour the orange and lime juice in the pan and increase the heat to full blast. Boil the ingredients and keep stirring to pick by the bits clinging to the bottom of the plan. Deglazing will add the richness and flavors of the meat to the sauce.

Once the orange juice has boiled and somewhat reduced, turn the heat down and place a slow cooker on the stove. You need to add the rest of the ingredients- the bay leaf, browned chicken, the onion and orange juice mix, and some salt to the mix. Once all of the ingredients are in, place the cover over the slow cooker and let the dish cook for around 5 hours.

Once the dish is cooked, discard the bay leaf and place all the chicken pieces in the serving dish. Add some salt and pepper to taste in the sauce still present in the pressure cooker before pouring it over all the chicken.

If you want to reduce the cooking time, use a multi-function pot and it will take just 2.5 hours. Just replace the slow cooker with the pot and cook for half the time over low heat for the perfect Cuban chicken.