A Japanese Weeknight Dinner So Easy You Can Make It After Work — Soup, Rice & One Pan

A Japanese Weeknight Dinner So Easy You Can Make It After Work — Soup, Rice & One Pan A whole Japanese weeknight dinner on the table 55 minutes after you walk in the door — rice, miso soup, oven-fried chicken thighs in one skillet, southern-style green beans, and a cold cucumber sunomono. Twelve minutes of actual standing over the stove, about $2.35 a plate, and nothing to buy but groceries. The oven does the frying: a hot skillet of butter, a flour-and-potato-starch coating pressed on twice, and a crust that does not slide off the bone. The same bowl of seasoned flour thickens the green beans and becomes the gravy. AMOUNTS, TIMES & TEMPERATURES Rice — 2 rice-cooker cups, rinsed 3x, water to the 2 line, ~50 min + 10 min rest Skillet — 8 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp neutral oil, 400°F, 6–8 min preheat Coating — 1½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup potato starch or cornstarch, 1½ tsp salt, 1½ tsp black pepper, 1½ tsp all-purpose seasoning, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp garlic powder; reserve 2 heaping tbsp Chicken — 3 lb thighs, 400°F, 25 min, flip, 18–20 min, 165°F safe / 175°F for thighs Sunomono — 2 Persian cucumbers, 1/16-inch slices, ½ tsp salt 10 min, squeezed; 3 tbsp rice vinegar + 1 tbsp sugar + ½ tsp soy; keeps 4 days Soup — 4 cups water, 4-inch kombu 8 min, ⅓ cup bonito 3 min, ½ block tofu, 2 scallions, 3 level tbsp miso OFF the heat Green beans — 1 tbsp fat, 2 cans (14.5 oz), 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 12 min; 1 tsp garlic; 1 heaping tbsp reserved flour cooked 2 min; ¾ cup broth Gravy — 1 heaping tbsp reserved flour, 2 min; 1½ cups chicken broth, 3–4 min Leftover coating flour — freezer, labeled, 3 months CHAPTERS The order of operations (why the rice goes on first) — 2:05 Rice, rinsed and rested — 3:20 The hot skillet and the butter — 5:10 The seasoned flour + the two heaping tablespoons — 6:30 Flour, fat, flour: the coating that stays on — 8:15 Cold cucumber side — 11:00 Miso soup and the minute everyone loses — 12:20 The flip and the temperature — 15:00 Green beans with a pan gravy — 16:10 Gravy from the drippings — 18:00 What goes wrong, honestly — 19:20 The cost, out loud — 20:30 Method & exact times, written down — 21:15 TAGS japanese weeknight dinner, easy dinner after work, oven fried chicken, oven fried chicken thighs, one pan dinner, rice cooker rice, how to cook rice in a rice cooker, miso soup recipe, homemade dashi, sunomono cucumber salad, southern green beans, canned green beans recipe, chicken gravy from drippings, cast iron chicken thighs, cheap dinner ideas for family, dinner under 3 dollars a plate, no takeout, budget grocery meals, weeknight meal plan, 55 minute dinner, japanese home cooking, ichiju sansai, crispy chicken without frying, potato starch coating, katakuriko, how to make miso soup properly, saving money on groceries, cooking for two, dinner ideas for busy weeknights, mottainai kitchen