Mom’s Soy Sauce Chicken With Pineapple and Bok Choy
A reddish-stained, soy sauce-marinated chicken is one that’s infused with loads of salty, fermented umami—and when you roast it with the skin on, you get even more umami from the crispy skin. These flavor bombs were invented by my mom and eight zillion other people who also know that soy sauce and chicken just go together. It’s not really fair to give her full credit, but I will anyway.Here, instead of grilling, we’re throwing them on a sheet pan to crisp alongside some bok choy, which, in my mom’s kitchen, is commonly braised. In Taiwan, where my mom is from, pineapples are plentiful, and they’re used in everything from chicken soups to fermented sauces. One key ingredient here is dark soy sauce, a more intense, concentrated type of soy sauce that will stain chicken a deeper shade of maroon when marinated overnight. You can find it in Asian groceries—or heap on some more light soy sauce if you can’t.
