Associated Press
This one-pot chicken dinner by Kentucky chef Edward Lee blends a staple of Southern cooking — fried chicken — with two deliciously savory Asian ingredients, salty miso and a half pound of shiitake mushrooms. Together they produce a chicken that is tender and wildly flavorful with a thick sauce that is good enough to eat by the spoonful.
Though the recipe calls for bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, we also tested it with boneless, skinless thighs and found it just as delicious.
MISO-SMOTHERED CHICKEN
Start to finish: 1 hour 15 minutes (30 minutes active)
Servings: 4
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/3 cup bourbon
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark miso
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded, thinly sliced
Cooked rice, to serve
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, cayenne and garlic powder. Add the chicken and toss well to coat evenly.
In a medium Dutch oven over medium, heat the oil until it shimmers. Add the chicken pieces skin side down and cook, turning once, until golden on both sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a paper-towel-lined plate. Set aside.
Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of oil from the pot. Reduce the heat to medium-low ad add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the bourbon and cook until all the liquid has evaporated, about 2 minutes.
Stir in the chicken stock, orange juice, soy sauce and miso and bring to a simmer. Return the chicken to the pot, cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and tender, about 30 minutes.
Add the mushrooms and simmer, uncovered, until the mushrooms are tender and the sauce is thickened to the consistency of a gravy, about 10 to 15 minutes longer. Serve with rice.
Nutrition information per serving: 460 calories; 200 calories from fat (43 percent of total calories); 22 g fat (5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 80 mg cholesterol; 32 g carbohydrate; 3 g fiber; 5 g sugar; 22 g protein; 1200 mg sodium.
(Recipe from Edward Lee’s “Smoke and Pickles,” Artisan, 2013)
