Honey Miso Chicken + Sesame Cabbage Salad

Think of this honey miso chicken as General Tso’s less intense younger cousin. With this honey miso chicken, we have that same crispy breaded chicken exterior and instead of tossing in a sweet, rich hoisin based sauce, we instead are tossing in an umami, toasty, salty and slightly sweet Toasty Honey Miso Sauce. That’s what I like to call it and yes, I capitalized it because the sauce deserves that kind of attention. Feel free to make this sauce for anything (I’ve deeply pondered what would happen if I put it on classic roasted potatoes.)

I recognize that white miso isn’t the most widely available ingredient, however, make sure to check the “ethnic” section of the grocery store and ask if your store has it. If not, do not worry, here is a link to get some on Amazon. The great thing about white miso paste is that I’ve had the same tub in my fridge for months and you really only need a little when you use it in cooking. Translation: white miso paste has a great value. I use the Hikari Miso linked below, but there are lots of other white miso options online. You can use red miso for this, but the sauce will come out much more full bodied/intense and less of a light, airy and buttery umami, the flavor profile which this sauce gives us.

I know I’ve been going on and on about this chicken but let’s get to the salad because salads should also be appreciated, especially this one! While it’s kind of the side piece to my chicken, this cabbage salad (or call it slaw if you want to) is such an easy glow up for your cabbage of any color. For this particular recipe, I used red and green. However, just one type of cabbage is fine (preferably red since it’s so pretty and has a more floral flavor to it than green.) I tossed this salad in a classic sesame vinaigrette: soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. If you don’t have sesame oil, you can even use another type of oil here such as olive oil or coconut. Or, go for an egg yolk to emulsify the dressing and make it super creamy. I tossed this cabbage with some sesame seeds, scallions and shredded carrots and that’s it. That’s the dish and I promise it’s not too good or easy to be true. It’s true, real and ready to be made in your k