"As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it."

My kids like any type of chicken that is accompanied by a dark sauce of some sort. I'm not entirely sure why, say, dark sauce is okay, but a garlic butter sauce is not, but.

So I scoped out some saucy-chickeny-recipes, and found this one on Recipezaar.com that looked promising, mainly because there was (a) no bourbon actually involved, and (b) I had almost everything on hand (or if not, something close).

So. 4 chicken thighs - cut into pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper, and browned in olive oil.

While that is browning, combine in a bowl:

• Minced garlic - 3 or 4 cloves
• 1/4 t ginger
• 3/4 t hot sauce
• 1/4 c apple juice
• 1/3 c light brown sugar
• 2 T ketchup (I know, I know, but don't freak out. I promise it works out.)
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 c water
• 1/3 c soy sauce
• 1 t onion powder

This makes a pretty dark, fairly sweet magical sauce.

After the chicken has browned, remove it from the pan, and add the sauce. Bring to a boil. Re-add the chicken, lower heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

I fed this to the kidlets with steamed rice and green beans.

The substitutions/changes that I made were:

• I didn't have apple cider vinegar, so I used balsamic.
• I didn't have chili flakes, so I used Trader Joes hot sauce.
• I like garlic, a lot, so I used more than the original recipe called for.

Things I might do differently, should I be so inclined:

• I'd prefer to make my own ketchup, or use similar ingredients rather than.. ketchup
• If my family wouldn't freak out, I'd add more hot sauce :(
• Broccoli instead of green beans (which I only got because Target had these frozen bags on clearance for $0.44!)
• Brown rice instead of white
• Maybe sub low-sodium soy sauce, and use fresh grated ginger