Bonus Recipe: Baked Miso Chicken & Coconut Rice
Miso-soy marinated chicken with fragrant Jasmine rice & coconut milk baked into a very modern casserole
Hello, and a happy last day of April to everyone!
Throughout April I’ve been sending out recipes that use miso paste as an ingredient. We’ve learned how to make miso mushroom pasta, miso butter salmon, miso butter sweet potatoes and Instant Pot barley soup with miso.
Lucky paid subscribers also get a recipe for lemon miso salad dressing and this final recipe in the series, Baked Miso Chicken & Coconut Rice. My family really loves this dinner and I hope yours does too!
This recipe puts a new spin on the traditional chicken and rice casserole. It combines miso marinated boneless chicken thighs with jasmine rice and coconut milk for a savory, fragrant and modern casserole. The casserole is finished with a generous amount of green onion, for color and flavor. If you want it to be extra-pretty, add a sprinkle of black sesame seeds.
This recipe for baked miso chicken and coconut rice is a favorite for three reasons.
It requires very little hands-on cooking. Marinate the chicken the night before. Once the chicken is marinated it will take about 15 minutes to put the dish together + 45 minutes to bake.
The flavors are mild and easy to love, but not boring. This recipe brings together a miso-soy sauce marinade, fragrant jasmine rice and coconut milk, plus garlic and green onions. The flavors blend together in a way that is satisfying but not overpowering.
You get a two for one recipe. You can use the miso-soy marinade to flavor chicken that you bake separately without rice, if you’re not in the mood for a casserole. Baked miso-soy chicken can be served with broccoli, coleslaw or salad.
Baked Miso Chicken & Coconut Rice
Servings: 6
Cooking Method: Baked
Approximate Cooking Time: Start marinating the chicken the night before. Once the chicken is marinated it will take about 15 minutes to put the dish together + 45 minutes to bake.
A printable pdf of the recipe can be found at the bottom of the page.
Questions? If you have any questions about this recipe, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments!
Ingredients
Miso-Soy Chicken Marinade
1 to 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
¼ cup white or yellow miso
2 tablespoons soy sauce (lower sodium or regular)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
Rice
2 cups jasmine rice, rinsed (see notes below)
1 cup full-fat coconut milk (from a can)
1 3/4 cups chicken stock
2 minced garlic cloves
A generous amount of sliced green onion for garnish
Black sesame seeds (optional, but very pretty!)
Salt, to taste
Instructions
Marinate the Chicken: Start marinating the chicken at least 6 hours before dinner, but ideally the night before. In a shallow dish that snuggly fits the chicken, mix together the miso, soy sauce, rice vinegar, olive oil and honey until smooth. Add the chicken and toss the pieces around until fully covered in the marinade.
Rinse the Rice: You don’t absolutely have to rinse the rice, but the texture of the casserole turns out lighter and fluffier if you do. Rinsing white rice removes starch and helps prevent the rice from being too sticky and soft and clumping together. For instructions on how to rinse rice, see the Recipe Notes section at the end.
Cooking instructions:
Heat the oven to 375F.
Transfer the marinated chicken to a 9x13 baking pan. Use a spatula to scrape all of the miso marinade into the pan with the chicken.
Scatter the rinsed rice over the chicken.
In a saucepan on the stove, heat the coconut milk, chicken stock and garlic. Bring to a boil.
Pour the coconut milk broth evenly over the rice. Gently push down the chicken and rice so it’s mostly under the coconut milk broth.
Cover very tightly with foil. Bake for 35 minutes. Take off the foil and bake 10 minutes more, until the rice is slightly browned around the edges.
The casserole won’t look super appetizing when it comes out of the oven, but don’t worry! Make sure to follow these final steps before serving:
Pull the chicken thighs out of the rice and shred/slice the meat on a cutting board. Scoop the rice into a large serving dish, mix well, and season with salt, to taste. The amount of salt you’ll need to punch up the flavor varies, depending on how salty the chicken stock was. Add the chicken to the rice. Sprinkle a generous amount of chopped green onion over the top. Black sesame seeds are optional, but look pretty.
How to Bake Miso Chicken Without the Rice
If you don’t want to make a casserole, you can marinate and bake the chicken on its own.
Marinate the chicken at least 6 hours, or the night before you bake it.
Put the marinated chicken thighs on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet.
Bake for 25 minutes at 425F.
Take the chicken out of the oven and turn on the broiler. Put the chicken on a fresh sheet of foil (the juices that it released on the first sheet of foil will burn under the broiler).
Broil the chicken for about 3 minutes, turning the pan as needed to evenly brown the top. The chicken can be just a little bit burnt and crispy around the edges, but keep a close eye on it because a miso marinade can easily turn black under a broiler.
Slice and serve. This chicken also tastes really good cold the next day.
Note: The marinade is fairly salty and has a strong miso flavor, which is perfect for the casserole. However, if you want a slightly milder flavor when baking the chicken separately, you can add just 2 Tablespoons of miso instead of 1/4 cup. You can also add an extra tablespoon of honey to make it sweeter.
Recipe Notes
To rinse rice, you cover the rice with water, swish it around and then keep draining and refilling the water until it runs almost clear.
Put the rice in a medium bowl and cover with water by about ½-inch. Swish the rice around with your finger for about 20 seconds, then tilt the bowl to pour out most of the water. Refill with water and swirl the rice again, then drain. The first 3 times the water will be milky and white. The fourth time it will start to look a little clearer when you pour it out. The fifth time the water should be mostly clear with just a little bit of cloudiness. Make sure to drain the water off really well after the 5th time, either by holding the rice back with your hand or dumping it into a fine mesh strainer. Leaving excess water in the rice will add too much moisture to the recipe.
The baked casserole keeps well for several days and leftovers reheat well in the microwave.
You can substitute apple cider vinegar for the rice vinegar if absolutely necessary.
Before opening the can of coconut milk, shake the can vigorously so that the creamy part that collects at the top of the can is blended into the milk.
I use up the leftover coconut milk by adding it to yogurt with fruit and smoothies.
Did you know that the Kitchen Skip newsletter has a homepage where you can view and search all past newsletters? To view all past newsletters (free and paid) check out the newsletter archives page. You can find the entire collection of bonus recipes like this one on the recipe index page.
