This 2-Ingredient Glaze Recipe Is Good on Any Meat

There are so many good jams, jellies, and preserved fruit spreads in this world, it can be easy to accumulate quite a collection. (At any given time, I have three to five Bonne Maman jars in my fridge.) Though these fruity beauties are perfect on nothing more than good bread, they can also be used to make a bomb (bonne?) two-ingredient glaze for roasted meats.

Besides the jam, all you need is some mustard. What flavour of jam should you use? Any flavour of jam. What mustard should you choose? Any kind of mustard. I’m a big fan of peach with stone ground, and blackberry with classic yellow, but I actually cannot think of a bad combination. (I’m excited to try a spicy mustard next.) The mustard provides pungency and a slightly bitter tang, and helps reel in the sugary fruit. The two ingredients reduce down to a sticky-sweet glaze, coating whatever meat you happen to brush it on. A ratio of one part mustard to two parts fruit preserves is pretty perfect, but you can always add a little more of one or the other to your liking.

Exactly when you apply the glaze is up to you. My favourite thing to pour this glaze on is the humble chicken thigh, but it’s also great on darker meats, like the lamb pictured above. If you’re working with a boneless, skinless chicken breast, and aren’t too concerned about browning, it makes an excellent marinade. If you’ve got something skin-on, and don’t want to sacrifice crispiness, apply it later in the cooking process. Get the skin really crispy—hot water is your friend here—then spoon on some glaze and let it finish in the oven. You get a tangy, almost candy-like coating on a juicy piece of bone-in meat, all with barely five ingredients.

Fruity Mustard-Glazed Chicken Thighs

What you’ll need:

• 4 skin-on, bone in chicken thighs
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, schmaltz, duck fat, or lard
• 1/2 cup of your favourite fruit preserves
• 1/4 cup mustard

Directions:

1. Salt the chicken using 1-2 per cent kosher salt by weight, and place on a wire rack set inside a baking sheet in the fridge overnight.
2. Bring a kettle of water to a boil, and set the thighs on a wire rack over a bowl or tray, skin side up. Pour the water over the chicken until the skin shrinks and looks almost translucent.
3. Preheat your oven to 400℉ (200C), and heat your cooking fat in an oven-safe skillet over high heat on the stove. Once the oil is hot and shimmering, sear the chicken, skin-side down, until the skin is browned and crispy (about five minutes). Mix the preserves and mustard, flip the chicken over, and cover each thigh with a spoonful of the glaze. Pop the whole thing in the oven, and cook until the thickest part of the thickest thigh reads 165℉ (74C). Remove from the oven, let rest for five minutes, then dig in, ideally by grasping the thigh in your hands and ripping the meat from the bone, all feral-like. Then try the lamb.

Lead image credit: iStock