Air Fryer

Have you had a chance to try the Korean chili paste, gochujang? If not, I recommend you find some. I certainly haven’t explored the full range of possibilities for using it. I do know it makes an amazing component of a marinade. If you have an Asian grocery near you, I am sure you will be able to find it. As I don’t, it was available to order on Amazon.

Gochujang

According to Google…

Gochujang or red chili paste is a savory, sweet, and spicy fermented condiment popular in Korean cooking. It is made from gochu-garu (chili powder), glutinous rice, meju powder (fermented soybean powder), yeotgireum (barley malt powder), and salt. The sweetness comes from the starch of cooked glutinous rice, cultured with saccharifying enzymes during the fermentation process.

It is hot, but not overwhelmingly so. And the heat seems to dissipate when it’s cooked. It takes a starring role in this marinade recipe. I have used this marinade on both bone-on and boneless chicken breasts, and a whole roasted chicken. However, it would be equally delicious on a flank steak or baked tofu. You can marinate for an hour, or even better, overnight in the fridge.

Gochujang Marinated Korean BBQ Chicken

Korean BBQ Marinade

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons gochujang
2 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons of unsweetened rice vinegar
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
For the sauce – 2 tablespoons of honey
Garnish – chopped cilantro, chopped scallions

Method:

For the marinade, combine all the ingredients, whisking to mix well.
Set aside about 1/3 of the marinade and mix it with the honey. You will use this to drizzle over the finished dish.
Brush all over the chicken, cover, and refrigerate in the refrigerator for an hour or overnight.
When ready to cook, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Brush with any remaining marinade and roast for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. The internal temperature should be 160 degrees F. I cooked my chicken breasts (boneless but with skin on) in the air fryer for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Gochujang Marinated Chicken

The inspiration for this recipe came from a New Zealand Airlines inflight magazine.

I served it with a Thai-influenced chopped cabbage and kale salade.

Thai-influenced chopped cabbage and kale salad

I’ll post that recipe later this week. It came from the blog Pinch of Yum.

Korean BBQ chicken and Thai-influenced chopped cabbage and kale salad

It was a great combination.

A whole roast chicken is one of my signature dishes, it’s on our menu at least once a week and I still haven’t run out of new and different ways to prepare it. Chicken finds its way into all international cuisines and lends itself to all manner of different flavors. Best of all, the leftovers provide inspiration for additional meals during the next week. And, the bones can be saved and used to make a delicious stock. I collect the carcasses in the freezer until I have enough to make a big pot of stock, then freeze it in quart containers. Homemade stock is so much better than anything you can buy in the store.

I have roasted chickens in the oven, on the BBQ, in a clay pot, in the instant pot and now in the air fryer. The air fryer is really only a small convection oven (although my own can do many more things that I haven’t tried yet). If it’s a hot day and you don’t want to turn on your oven, or too much trouble to start the BBQ, the air fryer can come to your rescue.

Every brand of air fryer is a little different, please check the directions that came with your own. Mine does not require pre-heating, your own may suggest it.

I used a quick dry salt brine for my chicken. I rubbed it with a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt and placed it, uncovered and on a small rack, in the fridge for about 6 hours. I then loosened the skin over the breast and thighs by gently slipping my fingers between the skin and the breast meat. I rubbed fennel spice over the meat of the breast. You could use any favorite seasoning or skip this step.

Place it on the rack of your air fryer, breast side down. and cook at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. At the end of the 45 minutes turn it breast side up and cook for an additional 15 minutes. That’s it. No basting needed. Just look at this chicken!

Air Fryer Roast Chicken

It was delicious and easy.

Air Fryer Roast Chicken

The skin was crisp and the meat tender.

Most of my time lately has been taken up by caring for our new puppy, Shanna. Last weekend we dog-sat our friend’s corgis while they attended a wedding. Air fryer roast chicken and a salad was about all I could manage.