Savory Plum Chicken – Sweet and Savory
A Savory Plum Dish - with Some Pucker
Alas, plum season has arrived. The sweet, fragrant, and tart stone fruits offer delectable ideas for desserts, but what about the savory?
This Savory Plum Chicken is a sweet and savory dish with a slight tart kick to it. It’s a simple, sweet and savory way to cook chicken on the stove, and make something yummy with those plums that’s not too sweet.
Why not use fruits to sweeten up a savory dish?
Sugar makes things sweet. But plums … now that takes the flavors to a whole new level!
I created this recipe out of … practicality. You see, we’ve got this beautiful plum tree in our backyard, and while I love snacking on these amazingly fragrant and sweet, yet puckering stone fruits, there’s only so many my family and I, neighbors, and friends, etc…. can eat in one season.
So what do you do with so many plums? Make chicken. Marinate with meat.
When plums are at their peak ripeness, they are at their sweetest and most fragrant — all of which lends the most aromatic flavors to your dish.
The plums add texture to the sauce and a whole load of sweetness — without all that granulated sugar. It’s all the good stuff from nature to make your meat as tasty as possible.
Just make sure to peel off the skin if you’re not in for some pucker. Plum skins are SOUR! So if you’re not in for that, just peel the skin right off.
This recipe was made using ingredients grown from our very own regenerative garden!
Recipe Notes
TOTAL TIME:
- 15 min. for prep. and marinate
- 30 – 35 min cook time
- TOTAL: 45 – 50 min.
SERVES: 4
EQUIPMENT: A good stainless steel pan (no PFAS, thank you)
Ingredients
Plums are the star of this recipe, complemented with a few other ingredients:
- Plums – 5 – 6 tiny plums (or 2-3 big plums). Keep the skin on if you want some tartness (the skins are sour), or peel them off if you prefer to keep it sweet.
- Chicken – 4 chicken thighs, skin-on, bone-in
- Cilantro – 1/4 of a bunch, chopped
- Onion – 1/4 of an onion (white or brown), sliced
- Sugar – 1/2 tsp
- Soy Sauce – 4 tbsp (dark, preferred)
- Rice Wine – 2 tbsp
- Green onions – 1-2 stalks
- Garlic – 2-3 cloves, diced
Instructions
It takes just a few quick steps to make this Savory Plum Chicken.
For the marinade:
- Get a big mixing bowl ready – Do not add the chicken yet. (I always make the marinade first so that I can taste and add ingredients as needed).
- Slice the plums off of the seed. (Include the skin if you like tartness, or discard if you want to keep it sweet). Remove the pits.
- Toss plum pieces into the mixing bowl and give them a good smash with a fork until you’ve got a saucy paste going on.
- Then toss in the cilantro, green onion, and garlic.
- Splash in the soy sauce.
- Mix all together. Give it a taste. Modify, add a few ingredients here or there, to taste.
- When all’s to liking, add in the chicken thighs. Coat thighs with the marinade. Get them coated and soaked.
- Set aside and let marinate while you focus on the chicken.
The rest of the recipe (i.e., cooking time!)
- Coat pan with a little oil, enough to evenly spread across the surface of the pan on medium heat
- Add sliced onions. Cook until translucent
- Add the marinated chicken thighs skin-side down
- Let cook for 15-20 minutes
- Flip thighs over
- Add rice wine to deglaze the bottom of the pan, as the chicken thighs continue to cook. Baste sauce over chicken once deglazed and alcohol has had some time to evaporate. (5 min tops)
- Place lid over chicken for another 15-20 minutes, until cooked.
- Plate.
Kitchen Notes
- Plums are sweet in their fleshy, but they sure cause a good puckering with their skin. So if you prefer a sweeter dish, peel the plum skins. If you don’t mind a good puckeriness, leave the skins on.
- The sweetest plums are those that are super plump, that almost feel like they’re about to bruise at the touch. That’s when it’s also the easiest to peel the skins off of the plums.
- How to cut the plums – make sure to slice the plums “off of of the seed”. So cut around the seed. I start from the top of the plum where the stem once was, estimate about where the seed would be, and cut from the top down. This is important, as the plums are usually so sweet and soft that it’ll be impossible to get the flesh off of the seeds.
- We used Satsuma Plums, which is what we’ve got growing in our garden. They come smaller in size so we used a few more. If you’ve got bigger plums, then no need to use as many.
Goes Great With...
This is a finger-licking yummy dish that’s got sweet and savory, and even puckering notes of sour – with the plum skins left on.
Steam some rice, boil some pasta, or bake or mash a few potatoes, and toss up a salad to make this an even more complete and balanced dinner.
Here are some dishes to add some veggies to the meal, since you’ve got your protein and fruits covered.
- Add some veggies! Check out the Roasted Root Vegetables for both veggies and starch in one simple baking sheet. For a vibrant dish with a citrusy zing, try our Roasted Sweet Potato Brussel Sprouts with a Lemon Honey Vinaigrette — this isn’t your ordinary roasted veggies!
- In the mood for soup? Try our Miso Pumpkin for a clean and healthy soup starter, or go bold with the Tom Kha (Lemongrass Coconut), or mix it up with a classic Hot & Sour Soup.
- Want more chicken? If you like chicken and herbs, try our Thyme Lemon Garlic Chicken and Meyer Lemon Rosemary Chicken — both require just 6 simple ingredients!
- Or try this Yogurt-Marinated Chicken for both protein AND vegetables in one.
Imperfectly Wabi Sabi Style
Cooking up & Passing down recipes the way our grandparents and their parents did
Measuring cups? Measuring spoons? Nah. We didn’t grow up with those.
Imperfectly Wabi Sabi Recipes continue the tradition of creating flavors and dishes the way our parents and their parents did – by tasting and sensing as we go.
You’ll pick up our love language in no time.
Let us know what you think!
Did you try this recipe? Leave us a comment below or share with someone who might get a kick out of this simple, tasty dish.
To Share
Cooking feeds the soul, not just the stomach.
Imperfectly Wabi Sabi recipes are focused on creating simple, cozy comfort foods by blending family tradition, creative ways to “use what we got” – food scraps, left-overs, and all – and by using what’s in season from our very own regenerative Garden.
There’s no wasting around here. Only garden-to-table and family tradition wrapped tastefully together. Happy Wabi Sabi eats.
3 Comments
Lex
This was SO GOOD! YUM!
Jess
Love the balance of sweet & savory flavors!
Amber Woods-
Wow! This recipe looks amazing. You have two plum trees so I’m always looking for plum recipes this time of year.