Asian Barbecue Chicken

Thursday 7 June
Somehow the sight of the hoisin sauce sitting in the fridge set off a desire for something in the Chinese mode. Then Epicurious gave us the recipe for this Asian Barbecue Sauce, which can be used on anything from spareribs to salmon (I wouldn't put it on any subtler-flavored fish, though - the power of the sauce would wipe it out). It's fun to cook up the caramel for the sauce—the phase transitions from white crystals to dark liquid to darker solid back to melted sauce reminding us of the more dangerous experiments in Chem.—and the addition of five-spice powder makes it a bit more complex.
We decided to use it on broiled chicken. The trick here is to get the chicken very close to done, then lacquer on a coat or two of sauce for the last ten minutes or so. Otherwise the sauce just burns while the chicken is still raw.
We served this with bok choy, stir-fried with ginger and garlic, then covered and steamed for a bit with a cube of frozen veal stock and a bit of the barbecue sauce. Very Asian, very American - after all, the bok choy came from the IGA.