When a recipe similar to this one popped in Bon Appetite’s email feed recently my gojuchang alarm bells went off.
We’ve been increasingly more adamant fans of gojuchang, the earthy, deep red, umami-bomb Korean fermented chile paste; I posted this Grilled Gochujang Skirt Steak recipe last summer (it’s damned good) and wrote a bit more about some things to watch for when shopping for gochujang.
As we move closer to astrological fall (it’s been full on summer in our neck of the woods even this week) we’re at least thinking more about slow roasted meats and fall-ish vegetables slowly making magic in the oven.
Low and slow is of course a term stolen from the real-deal barbecue and smoked proteins world, though it applies here, giving the rich gochujang slather time to deeply flavor the chicken thighs (use breasts or a whole chicken if you want, just adjust the cooking times), slowly rendering the schmaltz (the chicken fat) – which makes the most unbelievable pan sauce when combined with the gochujang and garlic here.
You can also, of course, sub in whatever root vegetables that roast well you want; we happen to love roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes around our camp, hence their inclusion here.
Give this one a spin, it’s amazingly tasty and a nifty one to slip into your fall rotation.
3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 tsp kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
6 tbsp gochujang
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp EVOO or avocado oil
2 full heads garlic
2 inch nob of ginger, trimmed, peeled, minced or grated
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets
1-2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed, cut into 1.5-inch pieces
5-6 green onions, thinly sliced on a diagonal
1 lime, halved, one half cut into quarters
Optional
2-3 tsp good honey
Preheat oven to 300. Whisk together the gojuchang, 1/4 cup oil, the grated/minced ginger, and three grated garlic cloves. Halve the remaining heads of garlic.
Place the cauliflower florets, the sweet potato pieces, and the garlic head halves into a medium bowl, then add 2 tbsp of the oil of your choice and half the gojuchang mixture. Stir to coat well, and pour into a 12-inch cast iron skillet (or a glass baking dish).
Pat chicken thighs dry with paper towels, trim if needed, then salt and pepper generously. Using the remaining gojuchang mixture, “paint” the chicken thighs on both sides using a pasty brush, and layer the chicken over the vegetables in the skillet.
Into the oven it goes for 90 minutes; you don’t have to, but I like to turn the chicken thighs every thirty minutes. At 90 minutes, check the internal temperature of the thickest thigh – you’re looking for 165 here, yours may need a few minutes longer.
When done, remove the chicken to a plate, stir the honey into the pan juices if using, along with the juice of the intact lime half. Make sure the vegetables are all coated with the pan juices; replace the chicken, and sprinkle the cut onions over. Serve with the lime wedges on the side and go to it.
Enjoy.
[…] over on the Older Bolder Life I’ve posted a recipe for this almost shockingly tasty Low and Slow Roasted Gochu…, the more being roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes, though you can certainly sub in any […]