miso marinated crispy chicken bao buns

Air fried chicken totally counts as fried chicken, right?

And this air fried chicken turns regular fried chicken on its head. Marinated in a white miso sauce, it’s dipped in pork panko, air fried to juicy perfection, then topped with a creamy sesame dressing, cabbage slaw, and quick pickled onions.

Everything is bundled into a bao bun with sliced avocados and topped with sesame seeds.

Drooling yet?

I know I am. Off to add all ingredients to my shopping list.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white miso paste

1/2 cup dry sake

1/4 cup coconut aminos

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp trader joes onion salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

3 lbs chicken cutlets

1 onion, halved and thinly sliced

1/2 cup water

3/4 cups rice vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 head cabbage, shredded

1/2 bunch green onions

1/2 bunch cilantro, stems discarded

2 radishes, sliced in matchsticks

1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, halved, and sliced

1/2 cup kewpie mayo

1/4 cup mirin

1/8 cup soy sauce

1/8 cup sesame oil

juice of 1 lime

2 cups pork panko

avocado oil

sliced avocado

sesame seeds

bao buns

Directions:

Mix together miso, sake, aminos, honey, fish sauce, ground ginger, garlic salt and white pepper.

Pour over chicken breasts and let marinade for several hours before cooking.

Place sliced onions in jar or bowl.

In a small saucepan, combine water, rice vinegar, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar. bring to a boil.

Once boiling, pour over onions and let cool. Once room temp, cover and keep in fridge until serving.

In a large bowl, combine cabbage, green onions, cilantro, radishes, and cucumbers.

In a mason, or similarly lidded jar, combine kewpie, mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil and juice of 1 lime. Shake to combine.

Add, a little at a time, to the slaw mixture. You don’t want the cabbage saturated.

Place pork panko in a bowl. Remove chicken breasts from marinade, coating all over with panko.

Preheat air fryer to 360. Spray with avocado oil.

Cook breasts, working in batches, for 13 minutes or until internal temp reaches 160 degrees, flipping, and respraying with avocado oil throughout the cook time. Once breasts are cooked, place them on a wire rack set over an oven safe pan. You can place them in an oven on 200 to keep them warm, while working through all of them.

Once chicken is cooked, slice on a bias. Layer several pieces of chicken in each bao bun, top with a handful of slaw, some pickled onions, sliced avocado, and top with a drizzle of dressing and toasted sesame seeds.

Note: Depending on the number of buns you are making, you may have leftovers. This is not a bad think. You can either make more buns, or toss everything together for one big kitchen sink salad