Miso Chicken

This easy Miso Chicken is one of my favourite high protein meals, that I cook quite often for dinner. It is quick, delicious, simple, needs very few ingredients and is light and healthy. I pan fried my Miso Chicken but you can choose to grill or even bake it in the oven.

Know your miso

An essential ingredient in Japanese cuisine, miso is basically soybean paste fermented with salt and koji, which is the fungus Aspergillus Oryzae. Sometimes it is made with soybeans and other ingredients such as wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, seaweed and many others. The taste of miso is complex; apart from the obvious salt, it is funky in a good way like many fermented foods. I’ve found miso to have gentle sweetness, umami and many subtle notes that are quite hard to describe. For the purposes of cooking this Miso Chicken, it’s enough to know that I used shiromiso or white miso. The other commonly available flavour is the red akamiso. A mixed flavour, awasemiso is also available sometimes. White miso is lighter in colour and flavour while the red one is more intense. I use shiromiso in this recipe.

The flavours, colour and texture of miso depends on the period of fermentation, the utensil used, temperature, variety of koji, grains and salt content. Entire tomes have been written on miso; for us it’s enough to know that it’s a wonderful ingredient to cook with. Miso can be used to flavour soups, stews, marinades for vegetables and meats, sauces, dressings and even desserts. Miso is easily available on Amazon.

How to prepare the chicken

I used a couple of chicken breasts in this dish, since it serves two. I sliced each chicken breast in half horizontally. This isn’t hard to do. Place the breast flat side down on the board, hold it down with the palm of your hand and run a broad, sharp knife horizontally through the breast. You will have two, perfectly flat slices. You can lightly score the surface of the breasts for the marinade to penetrate but it’s not necessary. You can marinate the chicken for  a couple of hours or even overnight in the fridge.

Chicken breasts have a negligible amount of fat and can dry-up easily if overcooked. They have to be done just right. To ensure that they were browned on the surface, fully cooked and still juicy inside, I pan – fried them on medium – high heat, covered for 4-5 minutes on each side. Keeping the lid on, allows the steam to cook the chicken, while keeping it plump and moist.Time is critical to get the chicken breasts just right. So don’t abandon your chicken, stay there, flip it after 4 minutes, cover and cook it for 4 minutes more. The caramelisation on top will make your mouth water and the juiciness of the meat will delight you. I tossed in some broccoli to complete the dish. In 8 minutes, they too are cooked beautifully – done but still crunchy (I’d rather not eat broccoli than eat overcooked broccoli).

With the summer heat soaring, spending long hours in the kitchen cooking meals can be quite exhausting. This recipe for  Miso Chicken is ideal for the season – a delicious meal that’s ready before you can say ”miso!”