Reinvigorate Your Roast Chicken with One Ingredient: Koji

Aspergillusoryzae spores, commonly referred to as koji mold. The powdery spores are sprinkled on warm rice and allowed to ferment for 24 to 48 hours. During this time, flavor blooms as the rice transforms into koji – the backbone of miso, soy sauce and sake.

Shio-koji, or salt koji, has become a workhorse ingredient in the kitchen at Bar Tartine in San Francisco. It is possible to purchase the slurry in Japanese markets, but Chefs Cortney Burns and Nick Balla make their own by mixing koji, salt and water and allowing it to ferment in a humidity and temperature controlled environment. They use it to marinate meats and fish and mix it 1 to 2 with cultured butter for an umami rich spread. It can also be used to correct the balance in soups and braises. Burns is most excited about a dish at the restaurant right now that features Chad Robertson’s koji sourdough bread spread with koji butter and topped with a koji-potato puree, beef tartare and a sprinkling of bottarga.

Hear Burns talk about how she and Balla use koji at Bar Tartine in her interview with Good Food’s Evan Kleiman. Keep reading for Bar Tartine’s Koji-Marinated Roast Chicken recipe below.

Koji-Marinated Roast Chicken

Reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle

Serves 4 to 6

From Bar Tartine chefs Nick Balla and Cortney Burns, this roast chicken comes out savory and juicy, with a crisp skin. All it takes is rubbing a whole chicken with koji and marinating it in the refrigerator, uncovered, for up to 48 hours before roasting. Do not use your oven’s convection setting, because the natural sugars in the koji will cause the skin to brown more than a plain roast chicken, but it will not burn if watched closely. Serve with the Sauteed Lemon-Koji Asparagus.

• 1 whole chicken, 3-4 pounds

• 1/2 cup pureed shio koji (salt koji)

Instructions: Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Tuck the wing bones back and rub the entire chicken with the salt koji paste. Lift up the skin at the top of the neck and rub the salt koji onto the chicken breast and under the skin, working as far down as you can to legs if possible. Refrigerate, uncovered, 3 to 48 hours in the refrigerator to dry out a bit.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Pull the chicken from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking to temper the meat. Place the chicken, breast side up, on a rack, tie the legs and roast until the internal temperature taken in the thigh reaches 155°, 60-90 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken (estimate 20 minutes per pound or more). Turn the chicken occasionally to encourage even cooking.

Remove from the oven and tent the chicken with foil. Let rest at least 15 minutes; the chicken will continue to cook for a bit, raising its internal temperature to 165°.

Lift the chicken to drain its juices from the cavity into the pan. Remove the chicken from the hot pan to stop the cooking process, and place on a platter. Reserve drippings to slather on bread or as a dip for the chicken meat. Carve the chicken and serve.