Japanese, ginger and garlic chicken with smashed cucumber

We made this Japanese Style Chicken but 
we were underwhelmed. We won't make it again. 

Japanese, ginger and garlic chicken with smashed cucumber

A Change of Appetite

Diana Henry

SERVES 4

FOR THE CHICKEN

3-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

3       tablespoons sake or dry sherry

3       tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

½      tablespoons brown miso

2/3    cup peeled and finely grated ginger root

4       garlic cloves, finely grated

1       teaspoon togarashi seasoning, or 1/2 teaspoon chili                 powder

8       good-size skinless, bone-in chicken thighs, or other bone-in chicken pieces

FOR THE CUCUMBER

1-1/2  cucumbers

2       garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

2       teaspoons sea salt

2       tablespoons pink pickled ginger, finely shredded

small handful of shiso leaves, if available, or mint leaves, torn (optional)

This dish has a great interplay of temperatures. The chicken is hot and spicy, the cucumber like eating shards of ice (make sure you serve it direct from the refrigerator). The cucumber recipe is adapted from a recipe in a wonderful American book called Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu. You can also make the chicken with boneless thighs and grill them.

Mix everything for the chicken (except the chicken itself) to make a marinade. Pierce the chicken on the fleshy sides with a knife, put the pieces into a shallow dish, and pour the marinade over the meat. Massage it in well, turning the pieces over. Cover and put in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.

When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350°F. Take the pieces out of the marinade and put them in a shallow ovenproof dish in which they can sit snugly in a single layer. Pour over half the marinade. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes, basting every so often with the juices and leftover marinade (don't add any leftover marinade after 20 minutes; it needs to cook properly because it had raw chicken in it). Check for doneness: The juices that run out of the chicken when you pierce the flesh with a knife should be clear and not at all pink.

When the chicken is halfway through cooking, peel and halve the cucumber and scoop out the seeds. Set on a board and bang the pieces gently with a pestle or rolling pin. This should break them up a little. Now break them into chunks with your hands.

Crush the garlic with a pinch of the salt and massage it—and the rest of the salt—into the cucumber. Put in a small plastic bag, squeeze out the air, and put in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. When you're ready to eat, transfer the cucumber to a strainer so the juices can drain away. Add the shredded ginger. You can add shiso leaves if you can find them (I can't, I have no Japanese store nearby). Nothing else really tastes like it, but I sometimes add mint. Serve the chicken with brown rice or rice vermicelli (the rice vermicelli is good served cold) and the cucumber.