Back in 2004, when I first became interested in cooking but didn’t have the money to buy all of the cookbooks I wanted, I would take index cards to Borders (remember Borders?) and copy down recipes by hand that I could make later. I remember frantically scribbling down The Barefoot Contessa’s Herbal Iced Tea recipe with Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger and Lemon Zinger from her first cookbook, eyeing the security guard across the way to see if he was on to me.
Now, more than twenty years later, I can afford to buy cookbooks but I have wayyyy too many. Well that’s according to Craig. But I do get sent quite a few, and I buy quite a few more, and currently I’m staring at a giant pile of cookbooks on my kitchen counter that I have no room for on the shelf. So you can understand why yesterday, while visiting Books Are Magic, I found myself thumbing through Flavor Heroes by Gurdeep Loyal eager to buy it — it’s an incredible book full of great ideas — but instead of doing so, I snapped a picture of the recipe you see above.
I’m a horrible person! Forgive me, Gurdeep Loyal! But this recipe looked so good and I knew I really had to make it.
The concept of the book is pretty brilliant: there are certain ingredients that are “flavor heroes” that amp of the flavor of any dish in which they appear. This recipe is in the “miso” chapter and as anyone who’s cooked with miso knows, it always packs a punch. These miso peanut butter cookies, for example? They’re unforgettable. And miso-broiled salmon? One of my favorite things to make.
What makes this recipe unique is the combination of a Japanese powerhouse ingredient (the miso) with an Indian powerhouse ingredient (Garam Masasla). If you’ve never made or used Garam Masala, it’s a fragrant mixture of cumin, coriander, cardamom, and black pepper, plus cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, bay leaves, etc. This particular recipe has you mix the two together with lemon zest, ground ginger, lots of garlic, turmeric, and apple cider vinegar which you pour over skinless, bone-in chicken thighs that you marinate in lemon juice, salt, and cardamom for 30 minutes.
You massage that into the chicken — oh he has you cut slits into the chicken, so the marinade can really get it in there — and then let it marinate for two hours in the fridge (I did one hour at room temp). If the recipe were just that and that alone, it would be good. But then he has you make a bed of vegetables with the unexpected combination of fennel, red onion, and yellow pepper. This may be the first recipe I’ve made in almost twenty years that calls for yellow pepper. You also add cumin seeds.
The chicken goes on top of the veg, plus any excess marinade, and into a 400 degree oven it goes for 45 minutes.
The way this makes your house smell is so cozy and intoxicating. And when it comes out of the oven, you’ll just want to dive it and tear it apart with your hands.
Look at that color! And those little charred spots? I didn’t even have to broil it to achieve them.
To serve, I scooped some rice on to plates, added the chicken, the veg, some of the sauce at the bottom of the roasting pan plus a lemon wedge and a sprinkling of dill.
This was a dinner was worth committing a crime for. And if I go to food writer jail, at least I’ll have some leftover miso garam masala chicken to take with me. I can share it with Jen Shah and Elizabeth Holmes.
Garam Masala, Miso, and Fennel Chicken Traybake
Ingredients
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, 1½ teaspoons of salt and crushed cardamom seeds. Slash the chicken thighs two or three times through to the bone, then add them to the lemony brine, mixing well to ensure it gets in all of the slashes. Set aside to brine for 30 minutes.
- Next, make the spice paste. Whisk together the garam masala, turmeric, miso, garlic, ginger, black pepper, lemon zest and vinegar. Pour the paste over the brined chicken, mixing well with your hands to ensure it gets deep into the grooves. Put into the refrigerator to marinate for 2 hours (or leave on the counter for 1 hour).
- Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spread out the fennel, onion, and peppers in a large roasting pan. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and the crushed cumin seeds and toss all together. Place the marinated chicken on top, spooning out all the spice paste to cover it completely.
- Roast for 45-50 minutes until cooked through, charred in spots, and tender – cover with foil if browning too quickly. Drizzle with more olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and top with the chopped dill to serve.
Leave a Reply