I don’t think it is possible to have too many roast chicken recipes on the blog and this Miso and Sesame Roast Chicken is from Nigella’s latest book At My Table.

It also seem that I can not have too many miso recipes on the blog but I think this is the first miso and chicken combination and here it combines in a super easy and delicious spatchcock recipe. It is not complicated to spatchcock a chicken, essentially you split the chicken and then flatten it. It cooks quicker and there is a whole lot more skin that crisps up when roasting which I am sure is a good thing in anyone’s book.

To spatchcock the chicken, place the chicken breast side down and cut along one side of backbone with kitchen scissors. Turn the chicken around and cut along the other side. You would have removed the backbone now. Don’t discard it and rather use it for a homemade stock. Flip the chicken over, open it like a book and then press on breastbone to flatten the chicken.

Use the best chicken you can afford – organic and from a farmer’s market is possible, you really want the best flavour for such a simple dish. The miso flavour is very subtle so I think if you are using white miso it could do with another teaspoon or so. If you don’t have white miso and just yellow or red miso, the flavour will be far more intense so you’d need to use a bit less than the what the recipe states, but it all comes down to personal taste. The chicken is soft and juicy due to the marinade and has a deep savoury flavour. I think you could also add a bit of heat to the marinade, some chili flakes or some Sriracha will work.

I served the Miso and Sesame Roast Chicken with the Bashed Cucumber Salad, also from At My Table. I found the acidity worked really well with the chicken.

I used about 700g snacking cucumbers, peeled them with a vegetable peeler so you have strips of peeled and unpeeled cucumber. Cut into chunks and use a meat mallet to bash them around a bit. Mix 45ml rice wine vinegar, 5ml sea salt, 10ml caster sugar, a minced clove of garlic, and 5ml grated ginger. Add the cucumber and some roughly chopped radishes to the dressing and let it stand for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with the chicken. Enjoy!

Miso and Sesame Roast Chicken with Bashed Cucumber Salad

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
4 tsp sweet white miso more to taste
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp freshly grated fresh ginger
1 fat clove garlic crushed
1 free range chicken – about 1.75kg spatchcock
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients excluding the chicken and sesame seeds
Place the chicken in a large freezer bag and add the marinade
Seal the bag properly and rub the marinade all over the chicken
Place in the fridge overnight to marinate (turn the chicken over every time you open the fridge)
Remove the chicken from the fridge about an hour to come to room temperature before roasting
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C
Place the chicken on a roasting tray, cover with foil and roast for 45 minutes
Take the chicken from the oven and remove the foil
Baste with pan juices and sprinkle with the sesame seeds
Roast for another 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and skin crispy
Adapted from Nigella Lawson