Korean-Style Chicken

I have a confession to make: I make the same recipe for grilled boneless chicken thighs almost every week. It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but I’ve never found a recipe that compared to this one in its ease of preparation and the deep umami flavor that it delivers. Seasoned with garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil, these chicken thighs taste like steak. This grilled chicken is so easy to prepare you’ll find yourself making it time and again. The recipe for Korean-Style Chicken was adapted very slightly from a recipe in Canadian Living Magazine, published in April 2010.

Korean-Style Chicken

What’s your preference, dark meat or white meat? I’m a dedicated chicken thigh fan, bone-in or boneless. It’s always moist and juicy with the luxurious mouthfeel that the little bit of extra fat in the chicken thigh imparts. The key difference between chicken breasts and thighs is their fat content. However most of the fat in chicken thighs is the “good kind of fat”, that is monounsaturated fat. A 3-ounce serving of roasted chicken thigh meat without skin has 10 grams of fat, including 3 grams of saturated fat. A 3-ounce serving of roasted chicken breast meat without skin has 5 grams of fat, including 1 gram of saturated fat. Although the chicken thigh has a lot more fat, only 2 grams of the extra fat are the unhealthy saturated fat that can raise your cholesterol levels. Monounsaturated fat can help aid in weight loss, control cholesterol, and even lower your risk of heart disease and cancer. According to the American Heart Association, the majority of your daily fat intake should be of the monounsaturated kind.  So if you’re sacrificing the moist flavor of dark meat because of the extra fat, it’s time to rethink that decision.

The marinade for this chicken is extremely versatile and can be used on beef as well. It imparts a rich, savory flavor to everything you cook. Leftover chicken (I’d be really surprised if you had any) can be tucked into a fresh Kaiser roll and served with lettuce, pickles and spicy ketchup for lunch the next day or sliced up and added to your favorite salad. Triple the recipe for this marinade and keep a container of it in your fridge. You are going to use it often.

Assemble your ingredients.

After scraping the skin off the fresh ginger using a spoon, grate a one inch piece of ginger using a microplane grater. The garlic can also be grated or minced finely.

Combine the marinade ingredients and pour them over the boneless chicken thighs in a resealable plastic bag. Refrigerate the chicken and allow it to marinate anywhere from 30 minutes and up to 24  hours.

Spray the grill grates with cooking spray or oil them. Preheat the barbecue grill on high heat with the lid down.  Place the pieces of marinated chicken smooth side down on the grill. The chicken should start out at a 45 degree angle to the grate. This will create angled charred lines on the cooked piece of chicken. For a single strip of marks, use this placement on both sides. My personal preference is a crosshatch. To obtain the crosshatch effect on your chicken, get the first sear done at 45 degrees, then rotate the chicken 90 degrees (think 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock) and sear it again, flip and repeat the process. The sear marks do not effect the taste of the chicken in any significant way, but they are a treat for the eyes.

You’re done. Wasn’t that easy?

Print Recipe

Korean-style Chicken

Meat, Chicken and Fish

By Canadian Living Magazine, April 2010, modified very slightly by me – Serves: 6

Prep Time: 15 minutes + marinate time – Cooking Time: 10 minutes – Total Time: 25 minutes

Seasoned with garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil, these chicken thighs taste like steak.

Ingredients

• 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger root
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
• 2 grinds fresh pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or grated

Instructions

1

Peel a 1 inch knob of fresh ginger with a spoon and grate it using a microplane grater. Finely mince or grate 4 cloves of garlic.

2

In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, ginger, sesame seeds, freshly ground pepper and garlic.

3

Place the chicken thighs in a resealable plastic bag and add the marinade. Seal tightly and place the chicken in the fridge to marinate for 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.

4

Spray or oil the barbecue cooking grates. Preheat the barbecue on high heat.

5

Place the chicken, smooth side down on the grates at a 45 degree angle to create grill marks. After 2 minutes, turn the chicken 90 degrees (think 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock) to create a crosshatch effect. Cook for 2 more minutes. Lower the temperature of your grill to medium. Flip the chicken over and repeat.

6

Cook until the chicken juices run clear. This is not going to take very long so don't leave the barbecue unattended.

Notes

You can also make this chicken indoors on a stove top grill pan. Make sure that your oven fan is on if you're cooking this on top of your stove. It's a smoky business. If you're pressed for time, you can use frozen ginger cubes and frozen garlic cubes to make the marinade.