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Bachan's Grilled Chicken Thighs with Sushi Rice and Chili Broccolini
15 min
35 min
50 min, plus overnight marinating
Serves: 4
Bachan's is a sugar-forward sauce, which is exactly what makes it good and exactly what makes it burn. The whole trick to this cook is that most of the marinade never touches the fire. You wipe it off, dry the skin, cook the thighs gently on the indirect side, and only bring the sauce back in the last ninety seconds as a glaze. That way you get the flavor without the carbon.
The other thing worth saying out loud: take these to 185°F. Bone-in thighs are not chicken breast. The extra fifteen degrees past the "safe" number is where the connective tissue melts and the meat goes from fine to very good.
Steps
- The night before, put the thighs in a zip-top bag with 1 cup of Bachan's. Press the air out and refrigerate overnight.
- Thirty minutes before you cook, pull the chicken out of the bag and set it on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Wipe or scrape most of the marinade off the skin and pat it dry. Wet skin steams, dry skin renders. Salt the skin lightly even though it has been marinating. Bachan's reads sweet more than salty, and unsalted skin tastes flat. Let it come to room temperature.
- Start the sushi rice. Combine the rinsed rice and water in a pot, bring to a boil, then cover and drop to the lowest heat for 15 minutes. Kill the heat and let it sit covered another 10 minutes without lifting the lid. Meanwhile warm the rice vinegar, sugar and salt together until the sugar dissolves. Fold the seasoning through the hot rice with a spatula, cutting rather than stirring so you do not crush the grains. Cover with a damp towel until serving.
- Heat the grill with all burners on high for 10 to 15 minutes, then brush the grates hard while they are still screaming hot. Turn off the burners on one side, dial the other side to medium, close the lid and let the dome settle to 400°F before the chicken goes on. Dropping cold thighs into a 550°F box straight off a burn-off renders the skin faster than the meat cooks.
- Put the thighs skin-up on the indirect side. Close the lid and leave it closed for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not peek.
- Turn the hot side up. Move the thighs skin-down over direct heat for 2 to 4 minutes with the lid open, watching them the whole time. This is the step that goes from gorgeous to carbon in about forty seconds of inattention.
- Brush the remaining Bachan's over the skin in the last 60 to 90 seconds and flip once more just to set the glaze. Do not reuse the marinade from the bag unless you boil it hard first.
- Pull the thighs at 180 to 185°F and rest them on a wire rack, not a cutting board. A board traps steam and undoes the skin you just spent half an hour on.
- While the chicken rests, get a pan hot over medium-high with the olive oil. Add the broccolini in a single layer and leave it alone until the flat sides take real color, 3 to 4 minutes. Toss, add the chili flakes, season with salt and pepper, and give it another 2 minutes. It should stay snappy.
- Serve the thighs over the sushi rice with the broccolini alongside. Spoon any glaze off the rack over the top.
Notes
- Wipe the marinade offThis is the one non-negotiable. Sugar-heavy sauces scorch in about ninety seconds over open flame, and the black is bitter rather than charred. Marinade goes on the night before for flavor, fresh sauce goes on at the end for gloss.
- WeatherSixty degrees and intermittent sprinkles is not a problem. The lid is closed for the twenty-five minute stretch that matters, so rain only affects the short open-lid sear. If it starts coming down right at sear time, leave the thighs on the indirect side another five or ten minutes and go out when it passes. You cannot overshoot bone-in thighs the way you can a steak.
- Oven versionHeat the oven to 425°F and cook the thighs on the same wire rack over a sheet pan for 30 to 35 minutes, then broil 2 to 3 minutes with the fresh Bachan's brushed on. You lose most of the smoke, which comes from fat dripping onto the flavorizer bars during the long render and not from the sear itself. The glaze and the crisp skin survive.
- TimingWork backward from when you want to eat. The rice wants 25 minutes start to finish and holds well covered, so start it when the grill goes on.
