From the Home Kitchen: Grilled Chicken with Plum-Gochujang Glaze and Cucumber Salad

In this week’s fantastic offering in the “Tim needs to eat healthier so he can write more blog posts and create more podcasts (and, of course, being a life partner of Stephanie) so he experiments with new recipes” file, I’m offering up something a little different.

This is my Grilled Chicken with Plum-Gochujang Glaze and Cucumber Salad. I like sweet heat, but I didn’t know how this would go over. Y’all! This combines sweet, spicy, and tangy flavors beautifully. Use the cukes and plums that you have lying around begging you to eat them. The cucumber salad is pickly and tangy, which makes an odd, but completely compatible base. The plums level out the already mild heat from the gochujang. Yeah, I could talk about this and make a lot of adjectives show up. But it will make more sense as you read the recipe. Let’s do it!

I would suggest making the cucumber salad ahead of time so the pickling process has time to work.

Grilled Chicken with Plum-Gochujang Glaze and Cucumber Salad

For the Cucumber Salad:

These ingredients are really up to how much you want to make. I used two mini cukes, half of a large onion, a few sliced cherry tomatoes, and sight-added the other ingredients; it was awesome.

• Thinly slice cucumbers
• Thinly slice onions
• A splash of rice vinegar (or any vinegar you have)
• A drizzle of toasted sesame oil
• A tiny bit of honey
• A pinch of salt.

In a small bowl, mix the ingredients, cover with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge at least three hours before you cook the rest.

The cool, crisp salad balances the rich, sweet-spicy chicken perfectly.

For the Plum-Gochujang Glaze:

• 2-3 plums, pitted and diced
• 2 tablespoons gochujang
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• Salt to taste

Simmer everything together in a small pot for 10-15 minutes, until the plums break down and the mixture thickens into a glaze. Mash slightly if needed.

For the Chicken: Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Sear them in a hot pan, mine was set to medium, with olive oil until cooked through (about 6-7 minutes per side). In the last few minutes, brush the chicken generously with the plum glaze and let it caramelize.

Let it rest for about five minutes.

Slice the glazed chicken and serve it over the cucumber salad, with extra glaze drizzled on top.

To me, this was another successful dinner. The confirmation came from Stephanie’s thumbs-up.

I’d love to see pictures if you make this.

You can email me or tag me on Instagram!

Slàinte and bon appétit!