Grilled miso chicken thighs with cucumber arjard and sesame seeds
Serves 4 For the grilled miso chicken thighs, you will need:
● 50ml extra-virgin olive oil
● 25ml sesame oil
● 50ml soy sauce
● Juice of 1 lime
● 3 generous tablespoons honey
● 2 generous tablespoons red miso paste
● 3 large cloves of garlic, crushed or finely grated
● 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
● A pinch of cayenne pepper
● 8 chicken thighs (skin and bone still attached)
For the cucumber arjard, you will need:
● 50g caster or granulated sugar
● 50ml rice vinegar or white wine vinegar (see Rachel Recommends)
● 4 tablespoons water
● ½ teaspoon salt
● 1 cucumber
● 2 shallots, peeled and sliced thinly
● 1 red chilli and 1 green chilli
To serve, you will need:
● Handful of coriander leaves and mint leaves
● 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
● 8 lime wedges
1 First, make the marinade for the chicken thighs. Put the extravirgin olive oil, the sesame oil, the soy sauce and the lime juice in a bowl. Add the honey, the red miso paste, the crushed or finely grated garlic, whichever you are using, the finely grated ginger and the cayenne pepper. Stir really well to mix. Taste for seasoning — you want a really good balance of sweet, sour and salty. Add in a little more lime juice if necessary.
2 Put the chicken thighs in a bowl, then cover them with the marinade. Put in the fridge for 3 hours, or overnight if you wish.
3 Next, make the cucumber arjard. Put the caster sugar or the granulated sugar, whichever you’re using, in a small saucepan and add the rice vinegar or the white wine vinegar, whichever you are using, the water and the salt. Bring up to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then boil for 2 minutes. Take off the heat and allow the syrup to cool.
4 While the syrup is cooling, prepare the vegetables. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise, then cut each half lengthwise again, so that you have 4 long strips of cucumber. Scoop out and discard the seeds, then cut the cucumber, at an angle, into 5mm-thick slices. Put the cucumber slices in a bowl with the thinly sliced shallots. Cut the tops off the chillies at the stalk end, then shake them upside down to remove the seeds. Slice the chillies into thin rings. Add the chilli slices into the bowl with the cucumber and shallots. Pour the cool syrup over the cucumber and allow it to sit for at least 15 minutes before serving, though this will be happy to sit overnight also, if you wish.
5 Preheat a grill pan or frying pan over a high heat until it is very hot. If it’s not hot enough, the chicken thighs won’t brown properly.
6 Once the pan is really hot, place the marinated chicken, skin-side down, on the pan and let cook until it is a deep golden underneath, then turn it over and cook on the other side. If you wish, you could place the pan in a hot oven to finish cooking the chicken, or just let it cook on the hob. The chicken thighs can take about 15 minutes to cook.
7 When the chicken is completely cooked, take the thighs off the pan and place them in a serving dish. Scatter the coriander leaves and the mint leaves over the top, along with the sesame seeds, and place the lime wedges on the side. Serve with the cucumber arjard.