Recipe: Miso Chicken Bowl with Red Lentils and Sweet Potatoes
The miso in this recipe adds layer of complex and deep flavor notes and pairs nicely with the lentil and sweet potatoes.
There are many nights when I want to eat well (for me this means healthy, locally sourced and delicious) but really don’t have the time or energy to put something together that checks all the boxes. So it is always very helpful to have some ready-to-go components in the larder. Helpful, too, is having a lentil or bean dish in the fridge so that by doing a little simple roasting you can put together a great meal pretty easily.
If red lentils are not your thing, just substitute another lentil or your favorite bean. The miso in this marinade adds layers of complex and deep flavor notes that make it taste like you’ve labored over the recipes for hours, when in fact the work has already been done by the fermentation process of the soybeans. White miso is the mildest and sweetest of the miso family. You may want to experiment at some point with yellow miso, which has a deeper color and more robust flavor with a little less sweetness. The graduate level of miso-ology would go into red and black miso, but I’m not at that level myself yet (I will report back). And with any miso you get probiotics and minerals to boot. I served this dish with short-grain brown rice but really any whole grain makes a great “bed” to absorb all the yummy flavors.
Miso Chicken Bowl with Red Lentils and Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4
2 pastured boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
Miso marinade:
½ cup white miso
3 T. softened pastured butter
2 T. rice vinegar
2 T. soy sauce or tamari
1 T. maple syrup
Combine all ingredients and evenly coat the chicken chunks. Let the chicken marinate in refrigerator for up to 4 hours. Place the chicken on a wire rack over a baking sheet to allow air movement around it.
Roast at 350 or 375 for 30 minutes or until chicken is 160 degrees internal temperature, about 15 minutes.
Sweet potatoes:
1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes, rinsed and scrubbed but not peeled
1 tea. olive oil for brushing
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly brush the sweet potato with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Roast until quite tender — about 40 minutes. Cut the sweet potato into quarters or eighths.
Red lentils:
1 T. olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 T grated ginger
¼ cup minced onion
1 tea. ground cumin seed
1 tea ground coriander seed
1 tea. turmeric
1 tea minced rosemary
4-6 cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
1 cup red lentils
4 cups water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Rinse the red lentils in a sieve. Saute the garlic, ginger, onion and spices in the olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Add the rosemary, tomatoes, red lentils and water. Season lightly with salt and pepper and simmer the lentils until very tender — about 20 minutes. Taste and season more if desired.
