Gochujang Roast Chicken

Adapted from here (https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/slow-roast-gochujang-chicken) – but they want a full chicken, and we always just use thighs, so here’s a version that works with much less chicken.

For Roasting:

• ~1 lb chicken thighs
• ~1 lb little potatoes
• 1 head garlic, sliced in half crosswise

For the Sauce:

• 1″ ginger (grated/minced)
• 3 cloves garlic (grated/minced)
• 4 tbsp gochujang
• 1/4 c olive oil

Garnish:

• scallions
• juice from 1 lime
• 1 tsp honey

Combine ingredients for sauce, and coat the chicken and potatoes. Season everything with salt and pepper. Arrange potatoes, chicken, and garlic in a roasting pan, with the garlic under the chicken and the potatoes to the sides.
Roast. (~375, ~1.5 hrs). If the chicken is done before the potatoes, remove it and let them keep going.
Remove from oven. Put chicken aside. Smash the potatoes so that they can soak up the gochujang goodness. Stir in the garnishes.

Korean black bean ragu

• 6-8 oz pork
• 8 oz greens or cabbage (e.g. kale, bok choy)
• 1 onion
• 2 t garlic
• 2 t ginger
• 1-2 T black bean paste
• 1-3 t gochujang
• 1-2 t soy sauce

1. Cook the pork and put to side.
2. Saute the ginger, onion, and garlic.
3. Add the greens and sauce.
4. Add the meat.

It’s easy to make this too salty or too spicy. You may want to start on the low end of the black bean paste, gochujang, and soy sauce and add it in until you reach the amount that you like. Serve over any grains that you like; it’s especially good with rice cakes (tteok).

The Best Recipes in the World, part i

Just last week, Mom got me a cookbook: The Best Recipes in the World, by Mark Bittman. I’ve already made a number of the dishes.

• sauteed spinach with sesame (Korea, BRW, p 33)
• fleica (Romania, BRW, p 346)
• pasta with tuna sauce (Italy, BRW, p 555)
• hummus (Eastern Mediterranean, BRW, p 19)

They were uniformly delicious! I especially liked how easy the hummus was to make; I’ll a) never buy hummus again and b) always keep a can of chickpeas in the pantry.