Misoyaki Roast Chicken with Shoyu Onion Sauce

By timWuNotWoo, posted 6 months ago

Photo: timWuNotWoo

Amanda & Merrill's Notes:

Yes, timWuNotWoo shoots and edits our videos. Yes, he's a friend. And yes, he makes a mean roast chicken. In fact, we've never tasted chicken quite like this. The red miso and mirin marinade permeates the bird inside and out, giving it an addictive sweet and savory laquered skin. The simple onion sauce, which consists of butter, onions and garlic, soy sauce, mirin, miso and more butter, is an extra bonus, perfect for drizzling over the tender meat; it is salty, so you may want to use a lower sodium soy sauce and miso to taste. Do make sure to scrape off as much of the marinade as possible before you roast the chicken -- it will just blacken otherwise.

Misoyaki means “miso – grill” in Japanese, and traditionally, this marinade is used on fish like salmon, cod, or mahi mahi, all equally delightful. I thought I’d try it out on roast chicken and it's actually quite nice.

Serves 4

for the chicken:

3.5 pounds chicken
1/2 cup red miso paste
1/2 cup mirin

for the onion sauce:

1/2 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1 clove of garlic, grated
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup miced onion

Mix the mirin into the miso paste to loosen it up until you get something like the consistency of a gravy or a fresh banana smoothie. Some miso pastes are thicker than others, so if it’s too thick, just add more mirin. Easy beans.
Smother the chicken with the marinade all over, be especially sure you cover the inside cavity too. This way the marinade flavors the chicken from both the inside and out, huzzah.
Put the chicken in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap or if you have a Ziploc and/or Glad bag big enough for a whole chicken, that is most preferred. Park it all in the fridge and let sit for at least three hours, overnight would be nice.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Take the chicken out of the fridge and take a spoon, fork, knife, dowel rod, comb, whatever your scraping tool of preference is, and wipe off the excess marinade, it’ll just burn~
Don’t run the chicken under water or anything though, just make sure there aren’t large clumps of marinade plopped on the bird.
Brush on some vegetable oil or melted butter over the chicken, nestle it in a roasting pan, and throw it in the oven.
Roast at 450 degrees for 25 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350, and roast for an additional 40.
IN THE MEANTIME…. Make the ONION SAUCE.
In small sauce pan, sweat the ½ cup of minced onion in a bit of vegetable oil or butter.
When they start to become translucent, add the water, mirin, soy sauce, and grated garlic.
Bring to a simmer, turn the heat down to low and let bubble while the chicken cooks.
5 minutes before the chicken’s done, sprinkle on some mirin. It gives the bird a delightful shine and sweetness. When time's up, take it out of the oven, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil, and let rest for 10 minutes.
IN THE MEANTIME, we finish the sauce.
Melt in a tablespoon of butter, and take it off the heat.
Mix in the tablespoon of miso. Miso actually loses its flavor the more it’s heated, so do this off the heat. There’s plenty of residual heat in the pan to melt down the miso paste.
ALAS, Carve the chicken, serve atop a bed of fluffy white Japanese short grain rice, ladle on the onion sauce, and have a delightful evening~

Comments (54)Add yours

thirschfeld 5 months ago: I made this last night for some friends with some ginger scallion noodles and broccolini with oyster sauce. It is really, really, really good. Great recipe and will go into the repertoire, for sure. Thanks
MrsWheelbarrow 5 months ago: Wow. Finally (FINALLY) made this tonight. Completely addictive. Great recipe, thanks so much.
Ben Jackson 5 months ago: I love this recipe!!! I've made it twice now and everyone devoured the chicken. This is my new favorite way to cook chicken. Thank you!!!
Karin Lavater-Frazier 6 months ago: Got to try it, sounds great!!! I am a caterer and read many recipes none quite as amusing as yours...
gabrielaskitchen 6 months ago: Wouldn't it be grand to have a nyc food52 potluck dinner party! You could bring your finalist chicken (which I voted for hands down!), wcfoodies their winning french onion soup, and I'll bring dessert...my airy bread pudding of course! The only question is do any of us have a big enough space, Central Park picnic later this spring maybe? I'm totally serious.
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: Amanda's place is big enough, hahahaha. That kitchen is AMAZING. A nyc food52 potluck sounds INCREDIBLE though, we have to make that happen. Thanks for the vote! Your airy bread pudding was incredible~
gabrielaskitchen 6 months ago: Let's see if we can make it happen somewhere soon! Seems the Bay Area folks had the right idea. Thanks, glad you enjoyed my bread pudding.
JimHero 5 months ago: Let's make this happen! How about a Winter-to-Spring potluck?
monkeymom 6 months ago: Tim Wu, this chicken recipe, especially that onion sauce, is amazing. I really look forward to more (I'm making that killer meatloaf of yours very soon!)
abbyarnold 6 months ago: I made this last night. It was easy and really delicious. The bird looked and tasted great! The onion gravy was a big hit, and well worth the extra effort to make it. By extra effort, I mean chopping up an onion. One reason the gravy was easy is that it does not require chicken broth. I served it with fresh kale wokked with japanese aromatics, and rice with garden peas stirred in to make it look festive. Plus I learned about miso! YUM!
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: oh nice! i've never done kale using japanese seasonings before~ good idea!
hungryhippo 6 months ago: this is pretty good i guess
lisamariahall 6 months ago: Delicious.
Oui, Chef 6 months ago: This looks like a whole new way of doing a bird that my gang will LOVE...thanks!
lastnightsdinner 6 months ago: http://www.lastnightsdinner.net/2010/03/07/tim-wu-is-a-genius/
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWESOME. you win a chicken.
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: those steak and eggs sound amazing too, i'm definitely gonna try that
Naked Beet 6 months ago: The flavors sound incredible and beautiful coloring on that bird!
SmallKitchCara 6 months ago: This looks so good!
JimHero 6 months ago: Hats off to the NYU crowd rolling in to support Tim MF Wu.
ai_kuku_eigusu 6 months ago: heck yeah!
GoodFoodie 6 months ago: Made extra chicken and used it tonight for the Oyako Donburi (recipe from this site). Terrific!
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: oh dang, that reminds me, i've got oyako and katsu-don recipes that i need to put up!
GoodFoodie 6 months ago: I am getting a LOT of mileage off that one chicken dinner. Used the DIVINE leftover onion sauce on top of grill fish. Yummmm! Boo, it's finally all finished!
GoodFoodie 6 months ago: ps waiting for those recipes!!
Scheld-eats-what-you-cook 6 months ago: Pumped to sample...soon, I hope!
MrsWheelbarrow 6 months ago: spectacular use of misoyaki! can't wait to give this recipe a try. thank you for posting it!
thirschfeld 6 months ago: Just looked at this again and this might become my Monday Farmhouse roast chicken.
drbabs 6 months ago: Dumb question: Where do you buy miso paste and mirin?
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: a lot of american supermarkets actually carry mirin and miso these days in their "ethnic foods" aisles, haha. or you can order it off places like freshdirect.com~
GoodFoodie 6 months ago: Doesn't just about everywhere have an Asian supermarket these days? Whole Foods also sells these items.
Mariachi94 6 months ago: LEGEN- wait for it....
JimHero 6 months ago: -DARY
intimaci 6 months ago: This is the best recipe ever ! I love chicken again.
DrAztec 6 months ago: YTMND. Misoyaki Roast Chicken with Shoyu Onion Sauce fo' LIFE!
JimHero 6 months ago: FINALIST WOOT WOOT
LConoscenti 6 months ago: Go T-Wu! Voted!
Kayb 6 months ago: OK. I'm doing this chicken, roasted in my tube pan. And it'll take me all week to decide how to vote. Both these are great, but miso...mirin....gonna be hard to pass that up....
GoodFoodie 6 months ago: fyi if you're really worried about sodium content, supposedly white miso is slightly lower than red.
AntoniaJames 6 months ago: Actually, I used white miso and only 1 T. of soy sauce (organic, but not low sodium, but with better flavor and less salty tasting, ironically, than the TJ's lower sodium kind) and it was still much too salty . . . . I strongly recommend (a) wiping ALL of the marinade off and (b) starting with a small amount of miso when making the sauce and adding gradually, tasting frequently.
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: yeah, the saltiness of miso varies so much from brand to brand it's always hard for me to explain how much to put in a recipe~
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: huzzah! thanks!! i did forget to write to that i used low-sodium soy sauce in the recipe. i never get anything but low sodium soy sauce so it just slipped my mind that there's regular sodium soy sauce, haha.
thirschfeld 6 months ago: I will be having this for dinner this week.
GoodFoodie 6 months ago: Wowee - this was fabulous - esp that onion sauce which could be used for so many things! Husband was raving the whole time he was eating. Just might end up on our Easter menu. ( I ended up having to cook my chicken a lot longer so plan for differences in size of birds). Tip - to 'melt' miso in sauce, do as the Japanese do: take the TB of Miso and submerge halfway into sauce. Using chopsticks or a fork, slowly wash sauce over miso stirring in a gentle circular motion. You don't want the lump to fall into the sauce. Since it's sticky, it should stay put. This is also a good method for making miso soup when you have a lot more miso and risk ending up with chunks at the bottom of the soup.
lastnightsdinner 6 months ago: Love red miso - this sounds fabulous.
gabrielaskitchen 6 months ago: Omigosh! I think I found my new default roast chicken recipe!
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: oh wow, haha, thanks!
ajs518 6 months ago: Love the use of onion in the sauce! Looks absolutely tasty!
TasteFood 6 months ago: I am a sucker for miso, and will definitely try this recipe.
WinnieAb 6 months ago: Sounds amazing!
AntoniaJames 6 months ago: Would you post how to do this with fish, as mentioned in your introduction? It's making my mouth water just reading it! Also, can you use whte miso paste? Thanks! ;o)
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: Thanks! I'll work on writing out an official recipe for fish later this week, but it's pretty much the same recipe steps, haha. Pour the marinade over the filets in a ziploc bag and marinade for a couple hours~ If it goes overnight though, you get a much much more intense miso flavor, almost like a smoked salmon level of flavor. That's best enjoyed in smaller amounts with white porridge for a nice and light Japanese breakfast! White miso will work just as well, but the flavor of red miso is usually bolder. Plus I like the rich color red miso provides. The miso used for the fish variation is usually white actually.
monkeymom 6 months ago: This looks so good. Another reason to buy miso!
timWuNotWoo 6 months ago: Oh I always have miso stocked in my fridge! Especially for soups on cold days~
JimHero 6 months ago: Tim, I expect you to make this for me every night this week, else I can't say I'll vote for it.