Asian ingredients bring umami to not-necessarily-Asian Roast Chicken with Miso Glaze

We use white miso paste, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil not to create an authentic Asian dish, but to deliver big savory flavor to roasted chicken thighs. Recipe below.

WE’RE BIG FANS OF USING INGREDIENTS IN UNINTENDED WAYS. Recently, Marion used miso paste, a traditional Japanese seasoning, to add an umami twist to banana bread. Here, a host of Asian ingredients create big flavor without nodding to any specific cuisine.

Miso is made by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji (a fungus) and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. The resulting thick paste is “used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables, fish, or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso soup, a Japanese culinary staple,” according to Wikipedia. There are thousands of kinds of miso, with regional and seasonal variations throughout Japan. The basic flavor is salty, savory and tangy, but depending on the variety, it can also be sweet, earthy, fruity and funky.

The three most common are white miso (aka miso), red miso (shiro miso) and mixed miso (awase miso). White miso is the lightest in flavor, with a little sweetness—it may also be called sweet miso. Red miso is fermented longer, giving it darker color and stronger, saltier, funky flavor. Mixed miso is a blend of the two. In the US, you can find miso in Asian markets and, increasingly, in grocery stores.

Many recipes of miso glazes and marinades for chicken include honey, maple syrup or some other sweet ingredient. For this recipe, we wanted to focus on the savory, tangy end of the spectrum. So we combined white miso with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame, ginger and garlic. To make the glaze more spreadable, we added grapeseed oil; you can also use vegetable oil.

As we said above, the resulting chicken is delicious and savory, umami-rich. But is does not taste like an Asian, or even Asian-inspired, dish. So you can serve it with anything. We had it with garlicky mashed potatoes and Marion’s homey braised red cabbage. It fit right in.

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Roast Chicken Thighs with Miso Glaze

White miso paste, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil give big savory flavor to roasted chicken thighs.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons white miso paste (you can also use red or mixed miso)
• 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or vegetable oil)
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger (see Kitchen Notes for substitute)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 4 - 5 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, about 2 pounds total
• freshly ground black pepper (optional)
• sliced scallions, the green part only, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

• Mix miso paste, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame and grapeseed oil, ginger and garlic in a measuring cup or small bowl and whisk together until completely combined.
• Trim excess fat from chicken thighs, put on a plate and brush generously with the miso glaze on both sides. Reserve leftover glaze. Season chicken on the skin side with black pepper, if using (we like the appearance as well as the flavor it adds).
• Let chicken marinate in the glaze for at least 30 minutes at room temperature, or up to overnight (transfer to a lidded container and refrigerate for longer marinating, then take it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before roasting to warm up).
• Preheat the oven to 400ºF, with a rack in the middle position. Prepare a hotel pan or shallow roasting pan—either use a silicone baking mat or coat the pan with oil to reduce sticking. Arrange chicken in a single layer, skin side up.
• Roast chicken for 30 to 40 minutes, basting the chicken with reserved glaze at 15 minutes. Check at the 30-minute mark; an instant read thermometer should read at least 160ºF when inserted in the thickest part. Transfer chicken to platter, top with scallions and serve.

Kitchen Notes

Ginger substitute? Not a substitute, really—a different form. After too many knobs of fresh ginger going bad before we can use it all, we've been really taken with fresh ginger stir-in paste. It's essentially finely minced ginger in a squeezable tube. It measures the same as minced ginger and stays fresh for weeks after opening. The brand we're currently using is Gourmet Garden.