Mocha Chicken

I have to admit. When I first saw the title of this recipe, I was a bit turned off, but knew I had to try it anyway. Especially because I gave up my coffee addiction almost 3 months ago, so now I had a valid excuse to break out the coffee machine and brew up a cup! A small one, but a cup nonetheless. The chicken was marinated overnight in a soy/coffee combination that smells great, even though it sounds a bit off. I used chicken leg quarters and my Le Creuset dutch oven, because honestly, I just love using the damn thing! It's awesome.

The original recipe came from Dave, on Allrecipes. I didn't make any changes to the recipe, except that I used low sodium soy sauce, and it took me about an hour to get the chicken to cook (instead of 30min). I ended up covering it, and turning up the heat, and it finally cooked!

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cooking sherry
• 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 6 chicken legs
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a medium, nonreactive container, mix the soy sauce, brown sugar, sherry, coffee, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Place chicken legs in the mixture. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator 3 to 4 hours.
2. Remove chicken from the marinade mixture, and set aside. Transfer the marinade to a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil.
3. Heat remaining olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken with pepper, and brown on all sides in the skillet. Pour the hot marinade mixture into the skillet. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. Cool slightly before serving.