Apple Cider Vinegar Cocktails and Soy Garlic Vinegar Chicken (with rice) Dinner

For health and for deliciousness. Today have chicken, salad, and rice in the fridge. I don’t have diabetes but I don’t want to get it, so I try to reduce my carb intake. My Korean mom thinks we will die if we don’t eat rice. So I plan to prepare some Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) cocktails before dinner.

While “there is no evidence” that ACV helps with weight loss, blood sugar and lipid levels, skin problems – there are advocates of fermentation byproducts and benefits of short chain fatty acids and a healthy microbiome.

Back when I ate potato chips, I was addicted to the Salt-n-Vinegar variety. So for me, I actually like vinegar, so if there is ALSO a low-cost health benefit – then why not!

Obviously, don’t go crazy with straight vinegar. It can be harmful to your throat if not diluted. Make sure you are not allergic. Talk to your doctor.

In terms of blood sugar, it seems different people react differently to different foods. If you are seriously curious, consider getting a Continuous Glucose Monitor and then see if ACV has an impact for you.

ACV Cocktail Recipe

We regularly buy organic ACV in gallon jugs to refill cupboard bottles. Whole Foods 365 is good. The ACV at BJs, Costco, and Sam’s Club are also good. As a matter of preference, my wife likes Bragg Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar best. The color and flavor do vary a little, so find one that you like.

The acetic acid is one of the key elements that seems to help the microbiome, blood glucose, and other health benefits. You will be paying a small premium for ACV (over white vinegar) so might as well get organic, raw, unfiltered, all natural, “with the Mother.”

Shake the ACV to get all the Mother mixed in (it will get cloudy).

In a small glass:

Pour one or two tablespoons of ACV

Squeeze of lemon

Stir in Water

Top with Ice

The main ingredients are ACV and water. But you can shake with ice to chill, or use seltzer/sparking water to spice it up. For first timers, the idea and/or taste of vinegar water might be strange, so the lemon and ice can help.

If you are trying to get sober, the tartness of lemon, kick of vinegar, served ice cold and/or carbonated can really “hit the spot”.

Vinegar Chicken Recipes

Adding acid to balance fat and salt, vinegar is essential to many marinades and recipes. Today, I’m cooking chicken for dinner, so here are four recipes I was considering:

French Poulet au Vinaigre

Hawaiian Huli Huli Chicken

Filipino Chicken Adobo

Korean Jjimdak

I seriously love each and every one of the above recipes. I strongly suggest you try them all.

But today…No time. No energy. No much ingredients.

Super Quick and Easy Soy Garlic Vinegar Chicken

So here is my own concoction of Soy Garlic Vinegar Chicken – somewhere in between and/or derived from Chicken Adobo, Thanksgiving (no marination and using fruit instead of sugar), and Korean Jjimdak.

In a dutch oven (or Instant Pot) on high heat:

• Put the chicken in the Dutch Oven. I had a half chicken that was seasoned from the supermarket. Kind of an odd item. Was considering air frying or roasting it, but a half chicken with all the different parts would be tricky to cook well. But more importantly, we wanted a juicy stew with super soft meat.
• I didn’t bother even turning it over. It was too big, and i was braising so I didn’t bother with the other side. Hopefully some caramelization will add to the favor.
• In a small bowl, I mixed together (in roughly equal amounts)
  • soy sauce
  • vinegar
  • water
• Then added two heaping spoons of minced garlic, some black pepper and red pepper flakes. Proper prep would require fresh garlic cloves (way more delicious), whole black peppercorns, and real peppers – but I didn’t have any. Quick and Easy Soy Vinegar Spice Mixture IN.
• Onion – cut into quarters: IN
• Apple – sliced roughly into wedges (no core, but skin on): IN
• Tangerine – skin removed over the soy sauce mix to get some of the aromatics: IN

Covered. Turned down the heat. Set a timer for 20 minutes.

Flipped the chicken over.

I was going to add Korean dwengjang and/or gochujang, but decided against it because I didn’t want it too salty, and it seemed salty enough. I was also planning to add a small (tiny) head of cabbage that was in the fridge, but didn’t feel like washing the cabbage so skipped that too.

Normally, you would add potatoes and other veggies, maybe some glass noodles.

I just flipped the chicken over, and reset the timer for another 20 minutes.

The real test was whether the citrus and apple would add to the dish or be weird. I always stuff my turkey at Thanksgiving with aromatics (celery, carrots, onion, garlic) and fruit (apple, orange, lemon, whatever is around) and herbs (rosemary, thyme, etc) – and the results are usually fantabulous.

I have stopped adding any sugar to my cooking. For me it don’t miss it. But I wanted to see if adding fruit to a vinegar chicken dish was good? or bad? or meh?

Verdict

Overall the favor was good. The chicken was cooked perfectly. But the fruit was meh. Apples were mushy but not completely disintegrated. I didn’t serve the fruit. Left them behind in the pot. Unlike potatoes or dates, the apple and orange fruit chunks looked weird and would probably taste and feel weird. They might have been okay if pureed into a sauce or gravy, but honestly, I could not taste any sweetness or any of the fruit flavors in the braise.

I might try it again but this recipe was all about quick and easy and delicious. Adding fruit wasn’t super hard, but i feel like the braise liquid got weird so I ended up tossing it all.

Besides if you are looking to level your blood sugar, increase insulin sensitivity, and reduce chronic inflammation, then cutting sugar when you don’t notice its gone is an easy and good choice. Skip the fruit.

Air Fryer Quick Fix

Braised chicken should come out super tender and super flavorful. The braising liquid should be delicious with rice or bread. But what if you didn’t get the spices right? Not enough ingredients or the braise simply did not come out super delicious.

Okay, a quick fix.

The chicken will still be very tender. Remove from the braising liquid, and if needed sprinkle with garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, cayenne, whatever you like. Pop the chicken in the air fryer for 10 minutes or until the skin is brown and crispy.

The result should be amazingly tender and juicy chicken that is crispy and super flavorful on the outside. This quick fix works especially well with legs, thighs, and wings.

Serve with Rice and Banchan