Miso Marinade

This 3 ingredient Miso Marinade is super easy to make. All you have to do is mix together miso, sake, and mirin. That’s it! Pour it over your favourite protein and let it work its magic.

My Obachan gave me a traditional Japanese cookbook which has a load of yummy recipes – one being a miso marinade. Feeling inspired – I tested a bunch of different recipes and settled on this one, which I love.

My favourite way to use this is with chicken thighs, marinated for 24 hours and grilled in a hot pan. It’s soo good and great for when I want something tasty but easy. 

Why This Recipe Works

There are two main reasons this recipe works so well. Firstly, the alcohol in the mirin and sake do a great job at tenderising protein and results in super juicy meat. 

Also – sake, mirin and miso all have that famous umami flavour. All these ingredients contain koji, which is a fermented/inoculated grain, usually rice. All these condiments all go through further fermentation processes, meaning they develop more of that umami flavour. 

I’m quite wary of using the word umami – I think its misused a lot as a buzz-word. However, in the instance of this recipe, it is necessary. At the risk of sounding cringe – one could say it’s an umami bomb. 

Miso Marinade Ingredients 

• Miso. Miso is a paste made from fermented soybeans, koji, salt, and grains. 
• Sake. Sake is an alcohol made from rice, koji, and water. 
• Mirin. Mirin is a condiment made from steamed glutinous rice, koji, and alcohol (commonly sochu). 

If you want to dive deeper into these ingredients, check out this post on 5 essential Japanese ingredients. 

4 Tips for Using Miso Marinade

1. Time is the magic ingredient (for the most part…)If you’re using meat, I recommend marinating it for as long as possible for maximum flavour. I tested multiple variations and the 24-hour marinated chicken thighs were unreal! 
2. Longer isn’t always better. I tested this with aubergines for 12 hours vs 30 minutes and to my surprise – the 12 hour aubergines were dry and leathery! If you want to make this, check out my recipe with more tips and tricks. 
3. Scrape off the marinade. It feels counter-intuitive but I really think it’s worth doing. The flavour of miso is very sensitive so too much direct heat will create a bitter taste. 
4. Save the marinade. If you don’t want to waste the marinade (understandably), add a bit of water to it and gently cook it off in a pan. Don’t let it bubble, or else it will turn bitter. 

Miso Marinade Ideas

I love to marinate all kinds of things and eat them with rice, as part of a salad, or as a side dish. I like to make a jar of it and keep it int he fridge for those nights when I know I need a quick but tasty dinner. 

Here are some of my favourite things to marinade:

• Salmon
• Chicken 
• Pork 
• Cod
• Tofu 
• Aubergine