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 for up to 1 week in the fridge and 2 months in the freezer. If Tokyo negi onions are not available locally, you can substitute them 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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Negi Miso Chicken
Ingredients
For Negi Miso Sauce
- 1 negi (long green onion) (use green part only; should be roughly 1 cup/240 ml; You can substitute negi with leeks, green onions, or a mix of both for a similar flavor and texture.)
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted) (for cooking)
- 2 ½ Tbsp miso (I use koji miso or awase miso)
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 2 Tbsp sake
- ½ tsp soy sauce
For Negi Miso Chicken
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, rice bran, canola, etc) (for cooking)
Instructions
To Make Negi Miso
- Gather all the ingredients. Cut the green part of negi (leeks/green onion/a mix) into fine rounds.
- In a large frying pan, heat sesame oil on medium-high heat. When it's hot, add negi and stir fry until wilted.
- Lower the heat to medium-low heat and 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 most of the liquid is evaporated, turn off the heat, and let cool.
To Make Negi Miso Chicken
- In a bowl or resealable plastic bag, combine the chicken with negi miso sauce. Marinate for at least 2 hours.
- In a large frying pan, heat the oil on medium heat. When it's hot, remove the marinade off from the chicken the best you can (miso burns easily), and add to the pan. Cook the chicken until golden brown, and flip. Cook, covered, until the chicken is cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
- Add the remaining negi miso sauce to the pan. Add ¼ cup (4 Tbsp) water (or you can use sake, too) and bring it to a boil and let it simmer for a few minutes (as the raw chicken was in the sauce). Serve the chicken immediately with the negi miso sauce and enjoy!
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month.
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!
Had a package of about 900g chicken breast pieces that needed something done with them, so decided to make up a double batch of this. There were some challenges; it was pretty tightly packed so I had to take it off the heat to flip everything, and our stovetop burners are…a smidge unreliable, so despite my best efforts at even heating we still ended up with a little burn on some of the pieces (nothing dealbreaking, fortunately). Might cook it in two batches next time, and on a lower heat to protect the miso.
I was worried that the marinade itself was a tad overcooked, also; wasn’t a huge amount of taste from the green onion, and it tasted…not burnt, but a little heat-shocked, like the heat had overwhelmed some of the flavor out of it. I suspect I got distracted by the oil popping at me and left it just a little too long after the moisture had fled it; I’ve gotten more resilient to stray oil droplets over the past couple of months, but not THAT resilient.
Overall it turned out quite well though (despite my nitpicking!) and I suspect any issues were more due to equipment problems and my own shortcomings as a home cook rather than the recipe. I kept picking bits of it out of the pan to eat while serving, which has got to be a good sign, right? Just served it over rice, but we have a few leftovers that I might try something a tad more interesting with. Thank you once again for the recipe!
Hi DC,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe!
We are so happy to hear it turned out great for you! Thank you for sharing your story. 🙂