As I mentioned in the #StayInCookout thread, I decided to do a play on the Slow Smoked Gochujang Chicken that Attjack posted a while back. I wanted to try another sauce just for fun and decided on hoisin. I thought it would be interesting to stretch it out with yogurt sort of like many tandoori recipes. I may not have searched properly, but a quick search didn't turn up any recipes I could find making a sauce or marinade from hoisin and yogurt. Soooo, flying totally blind, I came up with this for my sauce:
1/2 C hoisin sauce
1/2 C whole milk plain yogurt
1/4 C Chinese rice wine*
1 T sesame oil
1 t chili oil
1 T crushed red pepper flakes
1 T extra virgin olive oil
*Note on the Chinese rice wine: Pagoda brand is the iconic choice but I've had other brands that taste the same to me. Regular cooking sherry is an easy substitute. If you go searching for it, though, beware. Some outlets avoid buying a liquor license by salting the wine--that stuff is worthless. Read the label carefully.
I went with a package of four chicken thighs as that was what my shopper brought from the store. The thighs were dry brined for 4-5 hours. They were then mixed with about a half cup of the sauce in a Ziplock bag just as I went to start the fire. I cut up some carrots and small red potatoes to go in the cast iron and tossed them in the rest of the sauce. Recall that with the gochujang chicken, the chicken rests in the cast iron a couple of heads of garlic. I chose to rest each thigh on a quarter of a sweet onion.
Here's the 12 inch skillet ready to go:
It went into my trusty Kamado with several good-sized chunks of pecan at 300 and they went to an internal of 160. Even though it only took about an hour, the skin started to crisp a bit:
And here's the plate:
I was very happy with this for a first try. The larger pieces of carrot were just a bit under, so maybe a brief parboil would have helped. The potatoes were fine.
I had cut up some green onion for garnish, but got so excited by the taste when I was cutting for the plating picture, I didn't find them until I brought the empty plate back to the kitchen.
For the next try, I might bump up the ratio of hoisin to yogurt to two parts hoisin to one part yogurt. Also, the dish would be much better with a whole chicken that cooks for 2-3 hours so the skin really gets crispy.
The other thing I want to try is a version of this with lamb. I went with onion with the hoisin because one of our oldest go-to recipes is from a stir fry cookbook we bought about 35 years ago. It's incredibly simple, mainly consisting of lamb, hoisin, onion and pepper flakes. I think a rack of 4-6 chops on a couple of onions with the higher hoisin sauce ratio would be a lot of fun.
1/2 C hoisin sauce
1/2 C whole milk plain yogurt
1/4 C Chinese rice wine*
1 T sesame oil
1 t chili oil
1 T crushed red pepper flakes
1 T extra virgin olive oil
*Note on the Chinese rice wine: Pagoda brand is the iconic choice but I've had other brands that taste the same to me. Regular cooking sherry is an easy substitute. If you go searching for it, though, beware. Some outlets avoid buying a liquor license by salting the wine--that stuff is worthless. Read the label carefully.
I went with a package of four chicken thighs as that was what my shopper brought from the store. The thighs were dry brined for 4-5 hours. They were then mixed with about a half cup of the sauce in a Ziplock bag just as I went to start the fire. I cut up some carrots and small red potatoes to go in the cast iron and tossed them in the rest of the sauce. Recall that with the gochujang chicken, the chicken rests in the cast iron a couple of heads of garlic. I chose to rest each thigh on a quarter of a sweet onion.
Here's the 12 inch skillet ready to go:
It went into my trusty Kamado with several good-sized chunks of pecan at 300 and they went to an internal of 160. Even though it only took about an hour, the skin started to crisp a bit:
And here's the plate:
I was very happy with this for a first try. The larger pieces of carrot were just a bit under, so maybe a brief parboil would have helped. The potatoes were fine.
I had cut up some green onion for garnish, but got so excited by the taste when I was cutting for the plating picture, I didn't find them until I brought the empty plate back to the kitchen.
For the next try, I might bump up the ratio of hoisin to yogurt to two parts hoisin to one part yogurt. Also, the dish would be much better with a whole chicken that cooks for 2-3 hours so the skin really gets crispy.
The other thing I want to try is a version of this with lamb. I went with onion with the hoisin because one of our oldest go-to recipes is from a stir fry cookbook we bought about 35 years ago. It's incredibly simple, mainly consisting of lamb, hoisin, onion and pepper flakes. I think a rack of 4-6 chops on a couple of onions with the higher hoisin sauce ratio would be a lot of fun.
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