Gochujang Chicken and Seasonal Vegetable Traybake

I've been wanting to use my red tub of Gochujang Korean paste ever since we went shopping for it in Sydney at an Asian Supermarket a few weeks ago. I was so excited when I bought it. This is my first experience cooking with this fermented soybean and chili paste, and we love its unique umami flavours. This dish is basically roasted chicken pieces and simple seasonal roasted vegetables, livened up with this quite uniquely flavoured red paste. However, many other vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots or even beetroots could also be used. I'm looking forward to trying them all out in another Gochujang traybake, which is such a convenient way to cook. I am a real oven traybake fan. Add the pickle of radish and spring onions, and this dish soars to the next level. 

Cooking a traybake with a flavour bomb like gochujang, is an easy way to cook and yet achieve unique flavours. There isn't a Korean restaurant where we live, so now we can enjoy another cuisine in our own home. I'm fortunate that I now have more time to spend on cooking meals for the two of us or for friends and family when they visit. However, I still remember what it was like when I was working fulltime and how at the end of a long working day, sometimes cooking was the last thing I felt like doing. It's hard to believe now. If you fall into the category of working fulltime, or even part-time with a family to feed, or perhaps it is just you or the two of you, and at the end of the day don't feel much like cooking, however, still enjoy really healthy, nutritious and tasty meals with vegetables embedded in the dish, traybakes really are the answer. During the heat of the Summer in the Tropics, you will probably have the air-conditioning running anyway at the end of the day. This also isn't a very expensive meal; and the paste will go a long way and be very versatile. Look on it as an investment.

How easy is my recipe to prepare:

This chicken traybake might sound fancy and complicated but the gochujang paste is the secret ingredient, and with a little soy sauce, and some ginger paste, the vegetables can be prepared very quickly with minimum chopping or peeling. I've just used spuds and pumpkin because that's what I had on hand, so easy. The chicken can be prepared in a jiffy, then everything combined, and let the oven do the rest of the work. Serve with some cooked green beans, broccoli or peas on the side as well. I keep packets of them in my freezer. How simple is that? 

We recently met a delightful couple who are friends of our daughter, who both work long hours including some shift work. She's not fond of vegetables or much cooking at the end of the day, he does most of the cooking and tries to include vegetables in their meals as much as possible. They both love good food though and are happy to eat out at quality restaurants in the cities when they are travelling. J and L, this recipe is for you. I'm sure you can find some Gochujang paste at an Asian supermarket in Cairns. I'm not sure if you have a rice cooker, but they aren't expensive, and the rice can be cooking in the pot while the oven is doing its work. The attractive radish and spring onion pickle is a worthwhile condiment to make, and really is delicious. This can be done while you are sitting down, takes no time at all, and brings another very tasty vegetable into the whole equation, dressed up in a delicious rice wine vinegar. The sesame oil is optional, but I love the flavour. The pickle is also optional but so worthwhile. Dinner can be on the table in 1 hour and the oven has done most of the work.

The ingredients I have given for this recipe will serve 6 hungry people. To pare this right back to the number of serves required is easy. Try to ensure all the chicken pieces are the same size so that they cook evenly, two pieces of chicken max even ensures leftovers for the next day. Estimate how much potato and pumpkin you really need according to the number of serves and just prepare that amount. Halve the glaze, if necessary, however any extra sauce can be added to a serve of cooked rice and heated up with vegetables for leftovers as well. It is such a tasty sauce, it's a shame to waste it. I hope I have convinced you that this traybake is achievable as an after-work meal. Or make it on Sunday and enjoy the leftovers on Monday. If you are cooking for only yourself, or for two at the most, I think this dish could also be easily adapted to the air-fryer. If you own one, you know how to use it.

The Gochujang paste I bought is a fairly mild chili paste with heaps of flavour, however there are much spicier ones available. That's why we went to three Asian supermarkets in Sydney, to find the one most suitable for us.  I'm not going to type up a full description for you of what Gochujang paste is, that is easy to research, except that I can feel a love affair with this paste coming on. It is spicy, sweet with the flavour of fermented soybean paste as well. Apparently its quickly pronounced as gow-choo-jang. However I'm happy to be corrected on that score.

INGREDIENTS:

4-6 servings

1 1/2 kilos of chicken thighs, bone-in skin-on. All the same size. (At least one per person)

3 tablespoons Gochujang

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated (Use a ginger paste if you must to save time)

3 tablespoons oil without much taste, such as grapeseed or canola oil. I used Grapeseed.  And save some more for drizzling.

700 g Kent pumpkin, unpeeled, seeded, and cut into about 5 cm or 2-inch pieces.

500 g potatoes (I used Red Washed potatoes from Woolworths, unpeeled) These hold their shape well for baking. No advertising intended. Cut into 5 cm or 2-inch pieces. Small ones could just be halved. This sounds like a lot of potato, but for 6 people it ensures there is plenty for everyone. The vegetables cook up beautifully.

10 spring onions or scallions, trim the ends, separate the white part from the green, but don't chop.

Salt

1 bunch of radishes, about 280 grams.

1 tablespoon sesame oil (optional)

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Steamed rice to serve. (optional)

METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 200 deg C, fan forced.

Mix together in a large bowl the gochujang, soy sauce, ginger, and 3 tablespoons of the oil.

Add the vegetables including the whites of the spring onions and massage the gochujang marinade throughout the vegetables. I wore thin plastic gloves to do this, however you could tip the vegetables and marinade into a resealable bag and shake it to the coat the vegetables. Tip the vegetables into a large baking dish. I sprayed the baking dish with olive oil.

Lightly season the chicken pieces with more salt and use any leftover glaze on the chicken pieces so they are covered. Please don't waste any of that beautiful glaze. 

Nestle the chicken pieces skin side up in amongst the vegetables in the baking dish. Hey, your work is almost done.

BAKING

Roast the chicken and vegetables until the veg are tender and the chicken is cooked through. The chicken will brown up beautifully.

Allow about 40 minutes for everything to cook.

PREPARE THE PICKLE (optional but very tasty)

Thinly slice the spring onion greens. Cut the radishes into thin rounds using a sharp knife. If you have a mandolin, it could be used for this. Watch your fingers. Mix the sliced spring onions and radishes with the rice vinegar and sesame oil in a small bowl. Lightly season with a little salt and set aside to activate the pickling process.

TO SERVE

Transfer the chicken and vegetables to serving plates and top with the pickled radishes and spring onions. Serve with steamed rice or even noodles if you wish and a  cooked green vegetable.

If you make this traybake, please let me know on @happy_retirees_kitchen on Instagram with a photo or send me a comment on the Happy Retirees Kitchen blog or an email. I would love to hear from you, it makes it all worthwhile. Thankyou again to those of you who do take the time to comment on my blog, it's lovely to be part of the blogging community. Your comment can be anonymous with just your first name if I know you. A lot of people are having trouble commenting on blogs these days, and I've noticed on Google Blogger, that commenting should be straightforward, however if you  are using Microsoft Edge, you are bound to have problems with Google Blogger. I have been having lots of problems commenting on some Word press blogs, but finally I am friends with the Word press platform, and it seems to be much easier. One thing  I have learned for sure, is that in the world of technology, nothing stays the same for long. That's progress I suppose.

Also thankyou for your very kind wishes about Mr. HRK and his bout of Shingles. He is slowly recovering, but it could still be another few weeks apparently. Random bouts of pain and consistent tiredness  are typical of this virus, and lots of our friends are lining up for the injection when it becomes available next week, including me. I don't understand after seeing this one at close hand how anyone could be objecting to having it. It's much worse than our experience with Covid.

Warm wishes,

Pauline