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BBQ Miso Chicken

"Boneless chicken marinated in a miso (soy bean paste) sauce and grilled over an open fire. The miso is also mixed with beer, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil to give it a complex flavor."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Miso and chicken work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 56 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep15 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Contains: soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Whisk the miso paste, beer, low sodium soy sauce, white sugar, sesame oil and cayenne pepper in a bowl until smooth and the sugar has dissolved.

  2. Pour half of the mixture into a separate bowl to use for basting, and refrigerate it.

  3. Place the chicken breast halves in a dish or resealable bag, pour the remaining marinade over them, turn to coat, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

  4. Heat a grill to medium-high, about 400°F (204°C).

  5. Pour the reserved basting sauce into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil for 2 minutes. Set aside.

  6. Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the used marinade. Grill the chicken 6 to 8 minutes per side.

  7. During the last few minutes of grilling, brush the chicken with the boiled basting sauce.

  8. Cook until the thickest part of the chicken reaches 165°F (74°C), then rest for 5 minutes before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Miso + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Miso + sesametop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sesame + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together939 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Miso + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together37 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beer + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together221 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the sesame

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (miso, beer, sauce, sugar, pepper, chicken):

  1. Sesamethe original
  2. Beansabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against miso, beer, sauce, sugar, pepper, chicken. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).