Miso-Glazed, Sake-Drenched Chicken (and asparagus)

Well, this was a delicious Asian-inspired dinner that I pretty much made by dumping stuff in plastic baggies and then throwing everything on the grill. What else can you ask for?

Basically, I was needing a change of pace from the lentils (and more lentils) I've been surviving on of late. I am not a huge fish-eater, but there is one piece of fish I always remember as the best fish I've ever had (except for the grilled yellow-tail, straight from the ocean, with nothing but lemon pepper on it which was the summertime dinner of childhood where I grew up. anytime I think of that, I'm immediately sitting at a picnic table in my neighbor's backyard, finishing dinner before we can play hide-and-seek in the twilight). Basically, the more recent fish was cod, marinated in miso and sake. I looked all over for a recipe, and got a bunch of stuff (well, mainly I had to go get the sake, I love having miso on hand because stick a little blob in a tupperware with some cooked noodles, and you can just take it to work, add water, and microwave for a ridiculously easy and non-spillably portable lunch).

However, I really wanted it yesterday, but I didn't have any fish. So, I decided to give it a shot with chicken. Basically, I took a frozen chicken breast, still frozen. Put it in a plastic baggy. In there, I put a spoonful of miso paste, about 2 tablespoons of mirin (cooking sake), a dash of soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil. Then I let it sit. Now, I planned to eat it that same day, but I ended up with other plans, so it actually was in the fridge for a little more than 24 hours.

For the final prep, I just pulled it out and tossed it on the grill. I also found these thin asparagus spears on an awesome sale at Ralphs, so I threw those on too. Before throwing those on I tossed them in a little sesame oil with red pepper flakes. And, here it is...


Can I just say O...M...G! :-). It was amazing. The chicken was very moist and flavorful and since there was only a small splash of soy sauce the taste of the miso and mirin really came through. And, the asparagus was fantastic- the sesame oil gave it this really nice nutty flavor. All in all, it was one of those things you make where with every bite you get more and more excited, and feel like if you ordered it at a restaurant, you'd be thrilled with it. You should try it!