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A couple of months ago I was requested by a reader to make Negi Miso Sauce. This sauce consists of mainly Tokyo negi onions and miso (Tokyo negi onion resembles a giant green onion, usually over 2 feet long). It tastes a bit salty from the miso, yet sweet at the same time for preservative purposes.
For most recipes that use Tokyo negi onion, we normally use the white bottom part of it. However, for this sauce, it’s the opposite and the green top part is used instead. This sauce can be preserved up to 1 week in the fridge and 2 months in the freezer. If Tokyo negi onions are not available locally, you can substitute with both leeks (for the texture) and scallion/green onion (for the flavor) .
Negi Miso is a very handy sauce, similar to pesto sauce for western cuisine. We use this sauce as a dip for cucumbers and carrot sticks. Other ways to enjoy include spooning a little bit of this paste on top of rice or tofu to provide flavors, and sometimes this can be used as a marinade for fish and meat. I also love smothering this paste on Yaki Onigiri (Grilled Rice Ball).
I received many requests for recipes that use both miso and chicken, so I thought you might enjoy this Negi Miso Chicken recipe!
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- 1 lb chicken thighs/breasts
- 1 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc) (for cooking)
- 1 packed cup Negi (long green onion) (use green part) (See Notes)
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 2½ Tbsp miso (I use awase miso)
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 2 Tbsp sake
- ½ tsp soy sauce
-
Gather all the ingredients.
Chop green part of Tokyo negi into fine rounds.
- In a large frying pan, heat sesame oil on high and stir fry green onions until wilted.
- Add miso, sugar, mirin, sake, and soy sauce, and keep stirring. It gets burned easily because of miso so keep stirring while you cook. When the liquid is dehydrated, turn off the heat and set aside to cool down Negi Miso Sauce.
- Wash chicken and pat dry with paper towel. In a bowl or Ziploc bag, combine the chicken with Negi Miso Sauce and marinate for at least 2-3 hours.
- In a large frying pan, heat oil on high heat and brown the chicken until bottom side becomes nice golden brown. Flip the chicken and cover to cook until chicken is done. Serve immediately.
Tokyo negi: You can substitute negi with leeks, green onions, or mix up with both for the similar flavor and texture.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
I made this for dinner tonight, I didn’t have sake so I used Chinese cooking wine instead.
It turned out lovely! I could probably even just make the leek and miso to eat with rice, it’s so yummy~
Thank you Nami!
Hi M! You are very welcome! So glad to hear you liked it. Isn’t it great? I also put it on top of rice and eat it too – or Yaki Onigiri! That’s irresistible too! 🙂
Oh my goodness! I made this tonight with chicken breast tenderloins. My family loved it! The caramelized negi tastes so good, I can’t wait to try the sauce on yaki onigiri! Does the sauce freeze well, or is it best to refrigerate? I’d like to make up a batch of sauce for whenever I crave yaki onigiri.
Hi Amanda! So happy to hear your family enjoyed it! Yes, the caramelized negi is so delicious! Yes, you should be able to freeze the sauce – although I haven’t done it yet – because miso can be stored in freezer. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Nami, I made this for dinner yesterday and my husband loved it. The negi miso was so good with rice! I didn’t have time to marinate, so I cooked with thinner pieces of chicken fillet and added some pieces of tofu during stir fry. It was good!! Now I know what to do with those extra stalks of negi =) Arigatou!
Hi Natalie! I’m so happy your husband liked this recipe! Oh yes, the sauce is just perfect for the chicken and rice… I love this sauce very much too. The tofu goes very well too. Negi becomes very sweet after cooked, and this is a good way to consume all of it. 😀
I was just wondering, since you only use the green part for this recipe, what would you suggest to use the white part for? Any particular dish that you would recommend? Thanks!
Hi Linda! The white part of negi is very sweet after you cook, so we like to put it in simmered dishes, hot pot dishes, or topping for braised pork belly.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to/how-to-make-shiraga-negi/
Hope that helps! 🙂
My husband LOVES this recipe! I am making a double batch tonight so we have a hope of leftovers.
I’m so glad to hear that! Thank you for your kind feedback, Miche! xo
Boneless, skinless chicken pieces?
Hi Elaine! Yes, that’s what I used. But you can use bone in and with skin too. 🙂
Can I marinade this overnight? Or will it be too strong?
You could marinate overnight, but miso is quite salty so you could reduce the amount of marinade/sauce. 2-3 hours is pretty good. 🙂
This was very yummy ! Made it today. Thank you for your awesome recipes !
Hi Donna! So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
I just tried it out for lunch this afternoon and it was delicious. Will be making this dish again! Thanks Nami for sharing these good recipes. 🙂
Hi Emily! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for trying it out and for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hi Nami
What can you do to substitute for the sake?
Thanks
Wahyu Roberts
Hi Wahyu! You can use dry sherry or Chinese rice wine. If you’re looking for a non-alcoholic option, please use water. 🙂
Great marinade! I used boneless skinless chicken thighs and cut them lengthwise into 3 big strips each. Threaded them onto skewers and grilled over lump charcoal.
Tasted great. Now, if I could only get some cans of Takara canned chu-hi I’d think I was in a yakitori ya.
Hi Bkhuna! Hahahha! Right! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe and thank you so much for your kind feedback!
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I tried it and it was really delicious. However, when I was cooking the chicken it blackened really quickly….how do I prevent the it from burning?
Hi Sam! It’s the miso – miso burns really fast. So do your best to remove the miso when cooking the chicken (you can add the miso later) and cook on low heat and cover to cook thoroughly. Hope that helps!
Wow! This was unbelievably delicious. I was waiting for a chance to make this and then my CSA sent me a bunch of baby leeks that were mostly light green and I knew the time had come. Besides the leeks, I subbed the mirin and sugar for more sake and 3 tbsp honey. I used fuwatto koji white miso. Dinner was late so I smothered the chicken and cooked right away without marinating. Despite screwing everything up, this still came out so delicious – the balance of flavors is perfect. I’ll be making it again and again! Thanks
Hi Tom!
Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. We’re so glad to hear you enjoyed the dish!
Thank you for sharing your cooking experience/tips with us!