Gochujang-Yogurt Chicken With Garlic Butter Rice Recipe on Food52

There are few dishes that bring comfort quite like chicken and rice, no matter the country of origin. In this recipe, the gochujang-yogurt sauce does double-duty: 1. As a marinade for the boneless chicken thighs. The longer your marinate (up to a day), the tastier the chicken; but it will still taste great with even just an hour in the fridge. 2. As a base for the sauce that will accompany the final chicken and rice dish. Reserve a couple of tablespoons and mix it with a good mayonnaise to drizzle on top of the chicken, rice, lettuce, and tomatoes, or serve it alongside the final dish. <br /><br />In this recipe, I turn to boneless skinless chicken thighs for a friendly weeknight version that cooks up under the broiler in less than 15 minutes. If you marinate the chicken the day before, you benefit from both enhanced flavor and quicker preparation day-of. As for the rice, fragrant basmati gets sautéed in a bit of butter and garlic before cooking on the stovetop with flavor-boosting chicken stock as its liquid agent for 15 minutes. It then gets steamed further off the heat, untouched for another 15 minutes to create fluffy grains without clumping. I recommend rinsing the basmati beforehand if you'd like, but there's no need to pre-soak the delicate grains. <br /><br />The gochujang, or Korean red pepper paste, brings a nice depth of flavor and spice that is tamed by yogurt's cool tang. The added benefit of yogurt and the onion, in addition to flavor of course, is that they’re also gentle meat tenderizers. The amount of gochujang called for in this recipe is just enough to bring some heat (my young daughter can tolerate it), but feel free to pump it up to suit your spice tolerance. Just make sure to whisk it in well into the rest of the marinade to avoid clumps.

Akkoma

Akkoma