All Things Chill

Roasted Miso Chicken Thighs served with Mango Cucumber Salad and White Rice

Larger view here. I always pull some kind of protein out of the freezer in the morning to set some boundaries for that night’s dinner, otherwise, my mind will be swimming with OMG WHAT DO I COOK FOR DINNERRRRRSSS questions through out the day. Yesterday’s pull was chicken, so I took a quick mental snapshot to see what we had in terms of perishable items (Oooh mangoes and cucumbers!) and processed it with random pantry items (white rice always a staple & red onions!). See? WHEEEEE.

Miso chicken

3 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin on
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp light miso
2 tbsp mirin – Japanese cooking wine
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Combine all ingredients in a zip top bag and marinate for at least one hour. When ready to cook, pull chicken out of refrigeration and preheat oven to 350 degrees – the meat shouldn’t be really cold or it will seize up in the oven. Pat thighs dry, with a paper towel, push the meat together so they’re nice n’ perky and place on a baking sheet for about 45 minutes until internal temp is around 155 degrees and skin is crispy with a nice golden brown color. Pull aside and let rest for 5 minutes.

Mango Salsa (Salad? lol)

Cucumber, seeded and diced
Mango, seeded and diced
Red onion, diced
A handful of cilantro
A splash of rice wine vinegar

Combine gently (mangoes are easily mangled when ripe) and have a beer while you wait 10 minutes for the flavors to develop.

The crispiness from the chicken’s skin with the moist meat and clean & mellow flavors from the miso contrast nicely with the naughty (lol) combination from the sweet mangoes, crunchy cucumber and red onion. Kinda like I mixed up a regular Japanese meal and arranged ingredients around, right? – Miso soup transformed into the chicken and mango pudding from dessert into a salad. AND EVERYTHING GOES WELL WITH FRESHLY COOKED RICE RIGHT? Man, don’t even get me started. Remind me to tell you about the beef jerky incident. It’ll make me all hazukashiiiiiii (totally embarassed) all over the place. LOL.

Wheee. Non-boring chicken!

~Spec

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Cheap [and GOOD] Eats, Cooking Culture, Cuisine, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.