We hadn't had carrots in a while so I planned on eating this dish with a chunky carrot puree, one whose sweetness I thought would beautifully offset the miso and sesame notes of the chicken. However, when verbally given the above sentence in response to "what are we eating tonight?", L. rose up in horror and nixed the carrots, hence the cold soba noodles with ponzu sauce that you see in the image above. (Which worked really well also).
The inspiration recipe is from the great Nigel Slater but, with all due respect, I saw no reason to add 3 tablespoons of oil to the marinade, and that sweet miso and sweet maple syrup needed a little soy sauce to tone them down.
The chicken was delicious and my imperious teenager has demanded that it be made again but this time with chicken wings rather than thighs. "Sir. Yes sir."
8 boneless chicken thighs
4 Tbsps white miso
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp mirin (or white wine and an additional splash of maple syrup if you don't have mirin to hand)
2 tsps sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp boiling water
Place the miso and the boiling water in a large bowl and whisk well to dissolve the miso and form a smooth paste. Add all other ingredients except the chicken and whisk to combine.
Place the chicken in the marinade and toss to coat well. I cut my thighs into strips as I knew we would be eating our meal with chopsticks but you can leave them whole. Let marinate from 20 minutes to an hour.
Turn on your broiler, Roughly remove excess marinade from the chicken pieces and place on a foil lined baking tray. Broil under the broiler for 10 minutes, stirring after 5, until the outsides are crisp and charred. Turn off the broiler and cook the chicken at 350 to ensure it is cooked through, 5 minutes for strips and around 15 for whole thighs.
Serve with whatever side you deem appropriate. I topped mine with micro wasabi for a little color and because I have some in the fridge that I am trying to use up but I also think a sprinkling of sesame seeds would be nice.
Inspiration recipe, here.