I happened to buy a gigantic bag of bone-in chicken thighs, but I ran into a bit of a hiccup when it came time to actually cooking some of them. I was already marinating the thighs in a mixture of soy sauce and koji, but I forgot to buy frier oil(I was originally going to do my usual fried koji chicken thighs here), and while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to make with them, I figured, why not try making a creamy but surprisingly light stew out of them? Instead of frying the thighs, I would just sear them off, then stew them. It sounds a bit gross here, but I actually took the marinade I used for the chicken(which acts like a brine for the meat so that it doesn’t dry out during the cooking process), and deglazed some onions and garlic with that, heated that up to kill the salmonella germs, then used that as the base to stew my chicken in. Just to ensure that the braising liquid was not too salty, which is the risk you run into by cooking down soy sauce(it can get very sodium-y and salty really quickly), I also added some orange juice to help with this. Orange is being used to counteract both the salt and the sodium levels, since citrus can actually combat that, resulting in a braising liquid that is not too salty. Just to add a pleasant textural contrast and some freshness, I also shaved some watermelon radishes, dressing them with some orange juice and olive oil, just so that the dish would not eat too heavy. This dish is honestly more like something you might find in a gastropub or izakaya, in that is is very straightforward and simple in terms of components, but it works in that the contrast in textures is there, and the flavors are very comforting.

For the chicken thighs:
8 chicken thighs, bone-in but skinless
2 tbsp shio koji
2 tbsp soy sauce
juice from 4 oranges
1 tbsp honey
2 onions, sliced thinly
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup soy bean milk

In a bowl, marinate the chicken thighs with shio koji, soy sauce, orange juice, and honey for 20 minutes. Pat the chicken thighs dry, reserving the marinade, then sear the chicken thighs in a nonstick pot on both sides for 2 minutes. Remove the thighs and start sweating out the onions and garlic in the pan. Deglaze the pan first with the reserved marinade, bringing that to a boil to kill off any bacteria. Then add to that the chicken stock and chicken thighs. Cook, covered, on medium heat for 20 minutes. Then finish by adding in the soy bean milk.

For garnish:
1 watermelon radish, julienned
juice from 1 orange
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt

Toss the radish in the other ingredients to dress it. Garnish the top of the chicken thighs with the radish salad to finish.