Korean Grilled Chicken with Cold Soba Noodles & Summer Vegetables

The recipe for the Korean Grilled Chicken comes from our good friend, Mike Turina. Mike has lived in Hawaii for nearly 30 years, is an excellent cook, and an absolute terror in the kitchen. When Nic (that’s what we call him – not sure why) enters our kitchen, all within 100 yards grab a HAZMAT suit and prepare to be covered in flying soy sauce, shrimp heads, and a noodle or two. That’s just how he operates. The result is always worth the mess, however. The last time Nic made the recipe for us, it was for an OSU tailgate party. The game was dismal, our grill was incinerated, but the chicken was delicious.   

There is no requirement to make the chicken if you just want to do the Soba thing.  So let’s just start with the noodle element first, and get going on the chicken in a minute. It really can contain anything you like, so if the veg that I used doesn’t suit you, feel free to be adventurous and do your own thing.  Since our garden zucchini is scaring me, I made sure to add quite a bit to this particular concoction.  Cut them as thinly as you can by hand, or for an easier solution you can actually buy an inexpensive contraption that looks like a peeler but actually has tiny little teeth that make beautiful shreds.  Check out those carrots below to see what I mean.

Here’s a little idea about the sauce for the noodles:  triple the recipe.  It freezes beautifully, and whenever you have the urge all you will need to do is get your noodles and veg going and you are set. Sometimes Soba noodles can be hard to find, so check first in the refrigerator section of your supermarket.  If that doesn’t pan out, there is absolutely no reason you can’t use spaghetti or linguine if you’d rather.

Noodles are done!  Chuck them into the refrigerator while you attack that chicken.  You’ll probably want to start marinating it before you dive into the noodle preparation, but be careful with your marinating time.  If you use boneless/skinless chicken, the marinade permeates the meat really fast, and if you don’t drain it off after an hour or two, you will have a total salt bomb on your hands. If you use bone-in chicken with skin on, you have more leeway.  Nic says it is safe to marinate that stuff overnight, but you might want to call it quits after 3-4 hours just to be on the safe side.

I like to heap the whole business on a platter and let everybody dig into what they want, but feel free to do your own thing.  I also happen to like saving back a bunch of the noodle part and eating it out of the container while standing in front of the open refrigerator on a sweltering day.

Time to dig in!!

Hope you enjoy this one – it stays fresh and crisp in the fridge for 3-4 days if you happen to have leftovers.  And if you’d like a change of pace, just stir fry the noodles and veg all together when the rains fall.   Thanks for much for reading today!!   xoxoxoxo