Braised Kimchi Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

Braised Kimchi Chicken with Sweet Potatoes was a surprise to me. I was afraid the Kimchi would be to strong and overpower everything. It didn't. It provided a great background to this dish. The Potatoes were exceptionally good (we used the purple Japanese Sweet Potatoes). So sweet and soft. This is a good and unusual recipe.

Braised Kimchi Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
New York Times
 
A ginger- and gochugaru-infused butter underpins the multilayered seasonings in this savory braised chicken dish. Kimchi’s acid tenderizes the meat and provides intensity to the final gravy, an electric-red pool of umami. White rice tastes great with this, as do mashed potatoes or crusty bread, to sop up all the buttery juices. An age-old secret to juicy chicken is blanching, then shocking the meat with cold water, a technique that appears in dishes like Chinese white-cut chicken and Hainanese chicken rice. This initial step also results in a clean chicken flavor and a rich, pure-tasting sauce.
 
INGREDIENTS
Yield:4 servings
 
2       pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken drumsticks or leg quarters
4       tablespoons unsalted butter
1       (3-inch) piece ginger, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks
2       tablespoons gochugaru (see Tip)
1½    packed cups finely chopped kimchi, plus any juices
2       tablespoons fish sauce
1       tablespoon honey
2       fresh or dried bay leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1       large or 2 small Asian sweet potatoes (about 10 ounces), peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks (see Tip)
1       small yellow onion, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
 
 
PREPARATION
 
Fill a medium bowl with ice water. Then, fill a large Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot with cold water and bring to a boil over high. Add the chicken and poach for just 5 minutes (it’s OK if the water doesn’t come back to a boil). Shock the chicken in the ice water to stop the cooking and set aside. Drain the Dutch oven, rinsing if very dirty, and return the pot to the stove.
 
In the now-empty, fairly dry pot, melt the butter over medium. Add the ginger and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir the gochugaru into the gingery butter, just a few seconds, then immediately add the kimchi, fish sauce, honey, bay leaves and 1 cup water. Nestle in the chicken pieces so they’re partly covered by liquid. Season with salt and pepper.
 
Raise the heat to high and bring the pot to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low to continue simmering the chicken for 10 minutes to begin its braising journey.
 
After 10 minutes, place the sweet potato and onion over the chicken, coaxing them into the liquid if possible (or at least spooning over some of the liquid). Continue simmering the stew, partly covered, until the sauce is reduced, the potatoes are tender and the chicken falls off the bone, about 30 minutes. Serve the chicken and vegetables with the sauce ladled over.
 
TIPS
 
Asian sweet potatoes have tapered ends with reddish-purple skins and yellow-white interiors. They also become gloriously fudgy when braised like this (or dry-roasted whole). Their orange-bellied American counterparts, varieties such as Beauregard, jewel and garnet, would disintegrate into a soft sludge, but the Asian sweet potato — particularly the Japanese satsumaimo and the Korean goguma — remains sturdy even after a long, slow cook, their chestnut-sweet interiors only deepening with time.
 
Gochugaru, a mild, intensely savory Korean red-pepper powder, ranges from a fine dust to tiny coarse flakes. Try to buy the coarse variety for a deeper, sweeter flavor. You can find gochugaru at Korean and other Asian supermarkets and at many grocery stores, as well as online.