Roasted Chicken Thighs Archives

Miso-Honey Chicken with Asparagus Sheet Pan-tabulous!

By threejamigos | April 16, 2023 | Comments 0 Comment

Sam Sifton’s What to Cook column in the NY Times is my usual starting point for what should I make for dinner during the week. I found Yossy Arefi’s Sheet Pan Miso-Honey Chicken and Asparagus in his column a little while ago and bookmarked it. Like so many others, I have jumped on the sheet pan meal train. I love a cooking method that includes hashtags like #quick, #easy, and #delicious. This recipe was simply yummy and had me licking my plate clean at the end.

Da Sauce

The flavor from the marinade manages to hit every note-sweet from honey, and spicy from chili sauce. Eartiness and salty from the miso. The ginger and garlic create an added one-two flavor punch. It is absolutely delicious. Reserve half of it to serve at the table for those who just can’t get enough of it, like me!

Most of the ingredients for the marinade are items that you probably have in your pantry or fridge, especially if you like Asian cuisine. For those not familiar with miso-the star of this marinade, miso is a cornerstone in Japanese cooking. It is made from soybeans that is fermented and it is responsible for that salty, slightly funky flavor and umami. It comes in two basic types, white and red. White miso is milder and if I could only have one miso, this would be it. Here is a primer on miso from Spruce Eats. Look for it in Asian grocery stores and many of the larger supermarkets. There really isn’t a substitute so if your local markets don’t carry it, try online.

Improvising for the lack of asparagus, I grabbed a head of cauliflower from my crisper and I was in business. I prefer bone-in chicken so I slathered the marinade on bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and opted to roast it. Roast the chicken and cauliflower in a 425-degree oven for approximately 25-30 minutes until the chicken is crispy and browned, and the cauliflower is tender and golden. It would be tough to broil bone-in chicken and have it cook through, high-heat roasting works well.

Sheet-Pan Miso Honey Chicken with Asparagus

An easy and delicious one-pan meal. Chicken thighs are marinaded in honey, miso, and soy sauce elevated with the addition of minced garlic and ginger. Delicious!

Course Main Course, Meat

Cuisine Asian-American

Keyword Chicken thighs, gochujang, NYTcooking, sheet pan meal

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Ingredients

Marinade

3 tablespoons white miso
3 tablespoons mild honey
3 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons finely grated garlic
2 teaspoons chile-garlic sauce or other hot sauce
1 tablespoon neutral oil + 1 tablespoon water for marinade

The Stars

1 Pound large bunch asparagus trimmed
2 teaspoons neutral oil for asparagus
1½ to 2 pounds chicken thighs boneless, skinless (although I like leaving the skin on

The Garnish

Salt and pepper
2 scallions thinly sliced

Instructions

Make the marinade: In a bowl, whisk together the miso, honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, chile-garlic sauce, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon water. Refrigerate half the marinade for serving.
Place the chicken in a shallow dish or zip-top bag and pour the remaining marinade over the top. Toss the chicken until coated and let marinate in the refrigerator for up to 30 minutes.
When you are ready to cook, heat the broiler with a rack set 6 inches below it. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. * See notes for directions to roast chicken instead of broiling.
Remove the chicken from the marinade, scraping off and discarding any excess. Place the chicken in a single layer on one side of the baking sheet, with the flatter side up. Place the asparagus on the other side. Drizzle the asparagus with remaining oil, then season the asparagus; toss to coat.
Broil until the chicken is cooked through with some charred spots and the asparagus is browned, about 10 minutes.
To serve, top the chicken with a drizzle of the reserved marinade and a sprinkle of scallions.
Serve with rice, if desired.

Notes

A variety of vegetables can be substituted for asparagus such as bok chop, broccoli, or chard. I had a head of cauliflower in my crisper and thought, why not? I was in business. Too lazy to debone the chicken I slathered the marinade on bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and roasted the chicken and cauliflower in a 425-degree oven for approximately 25-30 minutes until the chicken was crispy and browned, and the cauliflower tender and golden. Just know the bone in chicken will take approximately 35 minutes to roast so cut your vegetables to a size that needs the same amount of time.

Roasted Chicken & Croutons with Fish-Sauce Butter-Sheet Pan Magic

By threejamigos | March 9, 2023 | Comments 0 Comment

I couldn’t help but tweak Eric Kim’s Roasted Chicken with Fish-Sauce Butter title. I added Croutons to the title because… lets be real, the croutons are the star of this dish. It reminds me of Roti Roti, a food truck fixture in the Bay Area. A simple winning formula of chickens roasting on a spit, dripping all that deliciousness onto a bed of potatoes below it. Well, that’s this dish but with bread and your own oven.

First, roast chicken thighs on a sheet pan (the operative words for an easy meal) in a 450-degree oven. This gives you crispy skin chicken and a pool of deliciousness aka SCHMALTZ on the pan. Then toss flakes (yes flakes, more on that later) of bread onto the pan and smoosh it around so it soaks up the chicken fat. Shove it back into the oven, and fifteen minutes later those bread flakes have morphed into golden, crunchy, umami bombs.

It’s Soooo Good

I divide the dish evenly between me and the hubsters, he gets the chicken, I get the croutons, yep, 50-50 all the way.

Let’s talk flakes. You can use any bread you like, sourdough, milk bread, or my favorite, ciabatta. The key is to tear the bread so you get shards or flakes. Cubes don’t cut it for this dish, not enough surface area. Try to tear or split the bread to form flakes for ultimate crispness.

The rest is easy-peasy. Place chicken on a sheet pan, and season with salt and pepper. Go easy with the salt as the fish sauce has salt. Drizzle olive oil on the chicken and flip each piece around to coat each piece. Roast for approximately 25 minutes. I prefer bigger pieces of chicken so the skin crisps without drying out the chicken. Pull the chicken out, there should be a nice puddle of schmaltz in the pan. Add the croutons to the pan and toss the bread in the chicken fat. Slide the pan back into the oven to crisp the croutons and finish the chicken. If the chicken is cooked through before the croutons, pull them out and continue to bake the croutons.

Meanwhile…

While the chicken and croutons are roasting, make the Fish-Sauce Butter. The sauce is genius, easy to make, and delish with just four ingredients, fish sauce (I use 3 Crab Vietnamese Fish Sauce), lemon juice, brown sugar, and BUTTER. Reduce the first 3 ingredients to a syrupy consistency. When the surface of the sauce is covered with bubbles, turn the heat off and add the chunk of COLD butter to the pan and swirl to create an emulsion.

Leave the chicken and croutons in the pan, drizzle some of the sauce on the chicken and croutons, garnish with cilantro and green onions, and bring the pan to the table. So easy. Serve the remaining sauce on the side. If you want to be fancy, transfer chicken and croutons to a serving platter.

Accompaniments? Rice, double carb, is always yummy, or I like serving it with mashed cauliflower. Another winner from Eric Kim. Sheet pan magic happening here.

Roasted Chicken and Croutons with Fish-Sauce Butter

From Eric Kim via NYTCooking, roasted chicken thighs, toasty croutons, and a scrumptious, quick sauce made with Vietnamese Fish Sauce, brown sugar, lemon, and butter. The perfect weekday meal.

Course dinner, Main Course

Cuisine Asian-American

Keyword brown butter, Chicken thighs, croutons, fish sauce, oven-baked

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 35

Servings 2 servings

Ingredients

4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)
Kosher salt such as Diamond Crystal and black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
¾ pound bread crusts removed, bread torn into bite-size pieces about 4 cups;
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons COLD unsalted butter kept in one piece
Cilantro leaves with tender stems for serving
scallions or chives, chopped garnish for serving

Instructions

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season lightly with salt and pepper. (The fish-sauce butter is plenty salty, so don’t overdo the salt here.)
Arrange the chicken skin-side up on a sheet pan and drizzle the oil over the chicken skin, coating it evenly.
Roast until the chicken is light gold and the sheet pan is a pool of hot, rendered chicken fat, SCHMALTZ, about 20-25 minutes.
Take the sheet pan out of the oven, scatter the bread around the chicken. Using tongs toss gently to coat in the chicken fat.
Place the pan back in the oven and roast until the chicken is golden, crispy and sizzling (you’ll hear it), about 15 minutes.
While the chicken roasts, combine the brown sugar, fish sauce and lemon juice in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, occasionally swirling the pan or stirring the sauce with a wooden spoon, until it bubbling vigorously and the mixture has reduced by about half, 2 to 3 minutes.
Turn off the heat and add the butter, constantly swirling the pan or stirring with a wooden spoon, until all of the butter has melted and incorporated into the fish sauce mixture. It should be a heavy syrup consistency.
To serve, scatter the cilantro and scallions or chives over the chicken and croutons. Spoon some of the fish-sauce butter over each chicken thigh, reserving some to add to each plate for dipping the chicken and croutons while eating, so yummy.

Notes

Roasting chicken thighs in a hot oven is a hands-off way to achieve two of life’s greatest pleasures: crispy skin and golden schmaltz. And you want that chicken fat because it will crisp hand-torn bread into croutons. A bold but balanced fish-sauce butter that you whip up on the stovetop while the rest of the meal takes care of itself in the oven, takes this over the top. Be sure to start with cold butter; the gradual melting of the fat helps thicken the sauce without breaking it.
After making this dish...go get his cookbook, Korean American, another winner.