Most of you probably throw out unused condiments and leftover sauces — extra teriyaki sauce or salad dressing, sweet-spicy dipping sauce for spring rolls, the packet of Sriracha sauce that came with your pho, even the curry sauce left in the bottom of a pan after you’ve consumed the delicious chicken tikka masala. And what happens when you get to the dregs of a mustard bottle or the remnants of ketchup that remain stuck to the side of the jar? There’s nothing you can do with any of that, right?
You know I’m going to say “wrong,” so you can congratulate yourself on your psychic powers.
Condiments, dipping sauces and salad dressings are delicious, and that’s why we eat so much of them. The average American slurps down 71 pounds of ketchup every year, or about 8½ gallons. We don’t like mustard as much a ketchup; each of us eats only about half a pound in a year, unless you’re a mustard fanatic like me, and you put the tangy yellow stuff on everything from French fries to fish sticks. Teriyaki sauce, which originated in Hawaii, is also popular. More than 2 million Americans used up at least four bottles in 2020.
My point is, it’s good stuff. Condiments offer a jolt of concentrated flavors, often containing big hits of sweetness, saltiness and tanginess. (Ketchup combines all three elements, which may be why it’s America’s favorite condiment.) Why would you throw away that much flavor when you could use it — and whatever other random sauces and spreads and dips and dressings are lurking in your fridge — to enhance what you’re cooking?
I serve baked chicken legs or thighs once a week and I’m always looking for ways to make them different every time. I get pretty far out with my experimentation in this regard. For example, I keep the sauce from cans of baked beans because the sugars and spices make a beautifully sweet glaze for chicken. Plum jam is especially good on chicken and orange marmalade is even more scrumptious. I’ll bake a chicken with the juice left over from a can of pineapple, mixed with salt and spices. A dash or two of wine is never amiss. Tangy chutney is particularly tasty on chicken. Half a jar of salsa spread over a five or six chicken legs is delicious, served with Spanish rice and refried beans.
However, one of the easiest and best ways to add flavor to chicken (or any meat) is to reach for the condiments and get creative. I have a fridge compartment where I keep various and sundry sauces, remnants from takeout meals that we’ve enjoyed over the previous couple of weeks. I’ve usually got teriyaki sauce in there, little plastic containers of salad dressing, one or two tiny cupfuls of soy sauce, maybe a few packets of the Big Three (ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise).
Last night while trying to figure out how to spice up this week’s chicken, I found a nearly empty bottle of mustard and a nearly empty bottle of ketchup, plus some leftover sauce from takeout butter chicken (a delectable East Indian curry dish). It was like striking gold!
Here’s what I did: I took the lid off the mustard bottle and inserted a funnel, then I poured the curry sauce into the mustard bottle. Next, I put a little water into the ketchup bottle, shook it up to dislodge the ketchup bits sticking to the sides, and poured it into the mustard bottle as well. I added cumin, powdered ginger and lemon pepper. I minced two cloves of garlic and pushed them into the mustard bottle. Finally, I added a one or two tablespoons of honey. I shook everything together then poured it over four bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in a glass baking dish, swishing them around to make sure all the parts were evenly coated. I didn’t even have to salt the chicken thighs because the sauce was already salty enough. I cooked them at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half (or until the internal temperature reached 165 degrees) and voila! Curry-mustard chicken.
Do you think that sounds like a gastronomically disastrous mishmash of clashing flavors? Well, if you Google curry-mustard sauce, you’ll find many recipes containing mustard, curry, ginger, garlic and honey. Tamarind paste is also commonly found in curry-mustard sauce, but ketchup is a reasonable stand-in. You can also buy expensive bottled curry-mustard sauce, but now that you know you can make your own for free (or minimal expense) why would you?
Of course, you might want curry-mustard chicken even though you have no leftover condiments. In that case, whisk ¼ cup mustard with 2 tablespoons ketchup and 2 tablespoons honey, then add 1-2 teaspoons curry powder, depending on how much you like curry. Mix in two to three cloves minced garlic, ½ teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon ginger powder and ¼ teaspoon lemon pepper. Taste and add more salt or other seasonings if needed.
I served my curry-mustard chicken with fluffy basmati rice and a cool broccoli slaw. I poured the sauce from the pan right into the rice, mixing it in so the rice could soak up every ounce of saucy goodness. During dinner, there were a lot of “mmmm” sounds coming from the direction of my husband (the person who says he doesn’t really like curry). I’m sneaky like that, but it’s good to feel vindicated. Maybe I’ll tell him later or maybe I’ll keep my sweet, spicy secret to myself.
