Chicken tomato miso bake

Buckle up, tonight was a weird one. I really wanted this: BA’s kimchi braised chicken with bacon

It’s so good. Like SO GOOD. Spicy, fatty, funky, tomato-y. It’s delicious. You should make it. Sadly, I didn’t make it tonight. I didn’t have bacon, or kimchi, or skin-on chicken, or cherry tomatoes, or much of anything I needed, really. So when I told PK I ‘riffed’ off the recipe he stared at me like I had two heads. Instead I made a chicken tomato miso bake. Considering I COMPLETELY made it up on the spot, it didn’t turn out half bad.

Tonight’s cookin’ song:

Tonight’s takes:

Husband: “Good. Tastes like garlicky tomato sauce more than anything. There isn’t much fermented taste.”

Helen: “There isn’t much to it. There could be something else: chicken, potatoes, green beans; chicken, potatoes, broccoli. Something like that. The garlic really takes over the sauce and I like that. I like garlic and I don’t like chicken.”

Hector: “Why didn’t you like the beef? This is 0 out of 10.”

Helen: “0 out of 10 means it’s garbage.”

Hector: “0 out of 10. 0 out of 11!”

Helen: “I’d say it’s a 5 out of 10.”

Hector: “0 out of 10.”

Helen: “0 is eating garbage out of the trash.”

Hector: “1 out of 10.”

What I used:

• 9 red potatoes

• 6 chicken breasts (was planning to have leftovers)

• 1 large can of whole tomatoes

• 1 tbsp Doenjang - Korean soybean paste

• 7 garlic cloves

• 2-3 tbsp red wine vinegar

• vegetable oil

• olive oil

• butter

• salt

What I did:

Turned oven to 375°F. Prepped potatoes. Washed and poked holes in them. Put them in a baking dish and in the oven.

Started on the chicken. Put breasts in baking dish.

Made my sauce.

In my mini food processor - added half of the can of tomatoes (whole can wouldn’t fit), 1 tbsp soybean paste, 7 garlic cloves and big pinch of salt.

Blended. Topped up with the rest of the tomatoes and added the red wine vinegar.

Added the sauce to the chicken.

Put a few glugs of vegetable oil on the chicken. Put chicken in the oven.

Checked potatoes. They’d been in the oven for 25 minutes. They weren’t even close to being done.

Did what any self respecting parent does when cooking on a weeknight. Put the potatoes in a bowl and in the microwave to finish cooking.

After 8 minutes, they were done. There is no other way to make a baked potato than in the microwave. Put potatoes back in the baking dish and smashed them.

Added lots of olive oil, butter and salt. Put them back in the oven.

After the chicken had been cooking for 25 minutes, checked it. It needed more time.

Cooked the chicken for a total of 40 minutes, and the potatoes (for the second round in the oven) for 25 minutes. Done!

Next time:

I was going to add Sambal Oelek to this and totally forgot. That spicy garlicky sauce would have definitely kicked it up a notch. And there was too much liquid still in the chicken pan. Next time I’d only use the tomatoes from the can and not all the juice. I’d also add more soybean paste (or miso paste) so I’d get a bit more funk.

Overall though, it was a tasty chicken bake. The chicken was juicy and the garlic flavour was nice. It wasn’t sophisticated, but it was better than just chicken breast with herbs (which PK always seems to try to feed me).

The potatoes were ok. Should have microwaved them from the start and then should have added way more fat and salt than I did. I always forget how much more you need to add to potatoes than other veg.

Lastly, Helen was right. This was a bit one-dimensional. It could have used some green. But hey, you win some you lose some. Not my best dinner, but definitely not my worst. I wouldn’t not make this again.

😋😋

-Ellisa